It’s November 2019. A chubby 5-month old baby, Ziba, rests on her mother’s hip as she collects and washes plates, weaving between the small crowds of women at the We Are One Center who are sitting, chatting and drinking chai. All Negar’s work is done with one hand whilst she cradles her baby at her side. Ziba doesn’t cry as her small body, wearing a homemade crocheted hat and jumper, is bounced around. She is happy to be at the center. They are happy to be at the center. 

Eleven months later and Negar, Ziba, and the rest of their family are still on Samos. Ziba is now walking and has developed a fascination with marker pens which she regularly uses to cover her face and arms. There has recently been an outbreak of COVID-19 in Samos refugee camp with around 100 people testing positive for the virus. COVID has been on the island for three months. Negar and her family have been here for 17 months. 

“When I arrived on the island I was eight-months pregnant and in a very bad state. I had fallen over in the boat crossing from Turkey. I had pain all over my body, I couldn’t breathe, and I was having some problems with my heart. The camp doctor sent me to the hospital and I stayed there for three days. They told me I had a heart problem and that the camp wouldn’t be good for me. At the same time my husband had some complications with the police as he was the person driving the boat from Turkey to Samos. He was in jail for the same three days. My eldest son (15) was in the camp looking after my other two children (13 & 6). It was very difficult for me.” 

One month after Negar arrived on Samos she gave birth to Ziba at the local hospital via cesarean section. The birth wasn’t a good experience for her as her husband couldn’t be with her. She also didn’t receive any painkillers after the operation or food. 

“They could see I was hungry but they didn’t give me anything to eat. They could see I was in pain but they didn’t give me any painkillers. The caesarean was too painful, I couldn’t even hold Ziba properly because I was in so much pain. I was scared but it was the only way. I have bad memories from Samos hospital.” 

Negar recalls that there were no medical check-ups before or after she gave birth, she remembers there being no help. When she left the hospital she also had no clothes, cot or pram for Ziba. 

“It was easier for me to give birth in Afghanistan and Iran than Greece. The hospital told me that if I had problems I could go back there, but thank God I didn’t have any more problems.”

Negar already knew of the We Are One Center from a friend. She had visited several times when she was pregnant. After giving birth, she headed to the center to get help.

“The We Are One Center gave me clothes for Ziba, and also a rocker and carrier for her. They were very good. And when Ziba got bigger I made sure to bring the clothes back to the center so that more babies could use them. The We Are One Center keeps us busy, at the center we don’t have so much time to think about our problems. The center is a safe place for me. When I’m here, I can speak to other women and forget about my problems.  Whatever I feel that day, I can tell the other women. If the centre wasn’t here I think we would be in a very bad situation as we don’t have any family here.”

Negar tells me that the center has been very good for Ziba and has helped her early child development. Ziba’s life started in the center, she has been breastfed here, played here, crawled here, and recently celebrated her first birthday here. 

“Ziba likes being around people and loves all the volunteers. She is learning English, and she knows the meaning of please. I think the centre is a very good place for babies, there are many women here from different cultures and so they can pick up a lot of different languages”. 

Although the We Are One Center provides Negar with a variety of distractions, the overall stress of raising a family whilst awaiting the result of their asylum case gives Negar a great deal of anxiety. 

“I’m worried a lot of the time here. My youngest son didn’t learn the Farsi alphabet. He can speak English and Greek but he is completely disconnected from Persian culture. I worry for my children as to what language I should teach them, we spent one year in Turkey and an even longer time still in Samos. It is hard to wait here, all I do is worry for my children’s future, their food, everything. The unpredictability of everything gives me a lot of stress. I want to cry, but I can’t cry because it makes me too tired.”

At the time of writing Negar, Ziba and her three sons have been transferred to mainland Greece. Her husband remains on Samos. 

*The names in this blog have been changed.

This blog was published as part of the Glocal Roots ‘2020: A Year of Emergencies’ fundraiser and the internationally recognised ’16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.’ If you would like to donate to keep our female-only safe spaces running please consider doing so at the following link: https://chuffed.org/project/2020-a-year-of-emergencies. Thank you.