Acting it out helps kids deal with traumatic experiences
refugee camp in Diyarbakir, Turkey. These Kurds follow the Yazidi religion linked to Zoroastrianism and ancient Mesopotamian religions. At this camp, young people are encouraged to tell of their experiences through therapeutic theatre.
Drama teacher Baran Demir says: “We are doing improvisation work to build up theatre skills and produce a play. The play will be about what the people from Sengal experienced,” said Demir. “It will address their trauma but also touch on their life at home. I chose comedy to lighten up their situation a bit.”
Demir said while theatre was a form of therapy it could not “take away any trauma that you experienced”.
“But comedy encourages that. Theatre helps us know who we are and remember.”
Porsea Hasan, 17, is close to tears when she recalls what happened to her in Sengal.
“There was fighting and we had to leave. We left our village before they (Isis) reached our village. They first took the other villages. Then they invaded the city,” she said.
“Our relatives called us and told us ‘Quick, they are killing women and children’. The Iraqi Kurdish fighters also gave us a warning. That’s when we ran away.”
Her mother, Bere Khadr, said: “When we heard that, we took all the women and children in cars and left. The men stayed behind to fight.”
Porsea added: “Every time we talk about it… I cry.”
She said theatre class was not a “way to treat it (the pain)”. “We see it as a way to forget… and have some fun.”
Dilshaad Matro, 15, also finds it difficult to speak about what happened to them.
“When we saw Kurdish fighters we fled. We heard that they kill everyone who comes in their way,” said Matro. “We left with nothing. We were 33 people in one car. When one person returned to see what happened, everything was destroyed. They took everything. Our cars, everything in our houses.”
Matro said his family of eight people had been living in the refugee camp tent for the past six months.
“It is hard to live here. I don’t think it’s normal for a 15year-old to live like this. And it is not normal for a baby’s head to be cut off,” he said. “We just want to live in a place freely and have a better future.”
The camp has only one doctor, Mustafa Ubay.
Further afield from Diyarbakir, in Suruc, which is closer to Kobane, thousands of refu- gees also remain in camps. They are finding ways to make their situation more bearable. Nowrooz Omer, for example, runs sewing classes for young women. “Life in camp is not easy. We are not happy about what happened. But this (sewing) makes us happy.”
Ajda Arda, who manages one of the refugee camps in Suruc, said they needed “doctors, food and water”.
“People are in this camp all this time and they still have fears. We need psychologists to help them deal with their situation,” said Arda.
Diyarbakir’s co-mayor, Firat Anli, said there were “thousands of refugees who want to go home”. He said his city had “around 3 700 Sengalis and 20 000 from Kobane” in camps.
“We have tried to give them aid from our hearts. We have done this without international help or the national government (in Turkey),” he said.
“Although Diyarbakir is poor, 95 percent of our population has contributed, a feeling of solidarity and giving money and food to refugees.”
Anli said his local government had pledged $15 million (R189.5m) to help refugees.
“We have spent this on three meals a day for refugees, tents, a school, toilets, clothing and health facilities. This includes spending towards reconstructing Kobane,” said Anli.
In Suruc, Mustafa Dogal, who works with the local government’s diplomacy unit, said it “has been really hard for everyone”.
“We’ve had help from Kurdish people from around the world. We need to help the people from Kobane,” Dogal said.