Katherine Roux in Tunisia
Sitting quietly under the shade of a tree, two volunteers from the Tunisian Red Crescent play games with a family recently arrived from the Libyan town of Zawiya.
Of the thousands of people fleeing the violence and arriving in Tunisia, this family is particularly special because they have three children: Hannah, age eight, Houyim, age seven, and three-year-old Abderahman.
With the escalating violence in Libya, their father, Ali, was afraid he would be forced to fight. In order to protect his wife and children, he fled with the family to Tunisia. They have now arrived safely in the camp run by the local authorities, the IFRC, the Tunisian Red Crescent and UNHCR.
While his wife, Mariam, sits solemnly on a chair nearby, her children enjoy the attention of two Red Crescent volunteers, who show them how to do some puzzles. They tickle Abderaham, and talk about Houyim’s love of books about princesses, or amira as it is known in Arabic.
Almost every person fleeing Libya – Mariam and Ali included – has the same story to tell: they leave because of the violence and at the checkpoint, before crossing the border into Tunisia, all their money, mobile phones, and sometimes even the clothes and shoes they are wearing, are taken off them. The adversity that these people have had to overcome can be read in their faces.
Yet despite the trauma this family has endured on the journey into Tunisia, the psychosocial support provided by the Tunisian Red Crescent creates a semblance of peace. The volunteers help the children maintain a sense of normality and remember that they are children, which is crucial in moments of uncertainty and stress.
“It makes them feel better here, just to see someone smile,” explains Mohamed Driss Chalouah, a volunteer with the Tunisian Red Crescent, as he points to his heart.