Edmond a refugee from Congo spoke to the boys on the occasion of the Refugees Day held at our school on June the 4th. Edmond started by giving a brief background of the turbulent situation that sparked off the refugee problem in Congo. His father was shot and the school where his mother worked was bombed out. Women and children were not spared of the massacre that reigns when man loses all semblance of humanity. Edmond like so many others from the area had no choice but to leave their country. He narrated his arduous journey to Kenya through Sudan living off charity he got from Christian churches. Eventually he managed to get on a ship that took them to Turkey and after a 3 month ordeal he found himself in Malta, an island which he had never heard of.
Malta, he claimed is an indirect victim of the African political situation. The dream of asylum seekers is to reach the safety of Europe where they can work and raise their families in peace.
The absence of peace is very often the result of intolerance. As Edmond said racism is everywhere. He mentioned how tribes hate each other, blacks hate whites, whites hate blacks when all along ‘inside we are all the same’.
Edmond’s speech was continuously punctuated by his appeal for love, love and love. It is not what you see but what is there to be seen. That each person is a special human being carrying with him all his suffering, all his joy and all his hopes. In the eyes of God we are flowers in his garden.
