Minute one refugees in Greece shuffle horses to heal

Athens, Greece – Shrieks of dread mixed with squeals of unbridled excitement pierce the composed afternoon in a shrimp vineyard within the back of a horse stable in Ilion, a suburb of Athens, Greece.

The noisemakers, two 17-year-outdated Afghan refugee girls, are riding horses for the first time of their lives.

Once a week since early October, young Syrian, Afghan and African refugees from camps and shelters across Athens were introduced to the United Pony Caravan to shuffle and admire horses as segment of an equine remedy programme for refugee young other folks stranded in Athens.

The United Pony Caravan, a privately funded organisation, became once founded by Joffrey Debut and a shrimp community of horse riders and trainers from France, aiming to aid refugee young other folks heal.

In October 2017, Debut and several trainers drove from France to Greece with half a dozen horses and ponies in a trailer hitched to the back of their truck. Within the following months, Debut has been giving horse-riding classes – and existence classes – to a entire bunch of refugee young other folks.

‘Of route you are going to have the skill to fetch something from horses, but ahead of all of that, it’s some distance a tool to fabricate a relationship with these young other folks’ [Fahrinisa Oswald/Al Jazeera]

« I strive and spend them [horses] as a link – a link for education, a link for respect, a link for values, » Debut educated Al Jazeera. « They are a tool. Of route you are going to have the skill to fetch something from horses, but ahead of all of that, it’s some distance a tool to fabricate a relationship with these young other folks. »

Jason Podimatas, operations manager at the Home Mission, a privately funded organisation giving shelter to unaccompanied minors in Athens, famed: « These horses give indulge in with nothing in return, and this is precisely what these kids fabricate now not bear and what we are attempting to present them … All styles of animals bear therapeutic advantages for kids. »

Excessive stakes

Since 2015, better than 1000000 refugees from the Heart East and North Africa bear landed on Europe’s doorstep, most coming into by device of Greece and Italy. Fleeing war, persecution and financial devastation, many procedure to proceed on to central and northerly Europe within days or weeks of their arrival. 

However after final year’s ratification of a treaty between the European Union and Turkey – which said that all refugees and migrants arriving in Greece can be returned to Turkey in change for elevated resettlement of Syrians within the EU from Turkey – and the closure of the Macedonian border in northern Greece, an estimated 50,000 refugees and migrants from the MENA pronounce were left stranded, in accordance to the United Countries Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Earlier this year, Human Rights Peek launched a notify documenting the « deteriorating psychological well being of asylum seekers and migrants – together with incidents of self-harm, suicide attempts, aggression, dread, and depression ». For young other folks, the stakes are even better.

Finding out to withhold watch over a horse helps young other folks to withhold watch over their very own scenarios, consultants thunder [Fahrinisa Oswald/Al Jazeera]

Primarily based totally on knowledge from the National Heart for Social Team spirit, around 9,600 unaccompanied refugee minors bear registered in Greece for the explanation that starting of 2016. Greater than 2,000 composed lack sufficient shelter.

Amid this backdrop, numerous individuals and organisations bear reach together to brainstorm different remedy programmes, equivalent to the United Pony Caravan. The Home Mission on a fashioned basis brings young other folks to spend segment in equine remedy right here.

At a recent session, Zehra and Maryam, who requested that their final names now not be printed, lead their horses out of the stable and birth the system of cleaning them. They direct anytime the horses fabricate gape contact with them, but at final their curiosity will get the simpler of them.

« I reach right here because I in actuality delight in horses and I in actuality delight in riding, » Maryam educated Al Jazeera. « In Afghanistan I presumed of it plenty, but I never went … No girls in Afghanistan stoop for riding; it’s now not total, but now that I in actuality bear the probability, I will spend this opportunity. »

Contributors discover methods to admire the horses, together with brushing their manes and tails [Fahrinisa Oswald/Al Jazeera]

With the horses tied to the fence, Debut displays the girls how to well brush them, comb their tails and connect the saddles. Once mounted, the girls are led by device of a maze of dirt paths crisscrossing by device of vineyards and gardens till they reach the enviornment where Debut runs them by device of the basics of steering and stopping. By the head of the 2-hour lesson, each and each girls are at a plump hurry, their preliminary scare gone. 

« Whilst you would possibly maybe well well now not arrange your self, you would possibly maybe well well now not keep up a correspondence with a horse, so the very very first thing that you just learn with a horse is to withhold watch over your self, » Natasa Skoufi, a horse coach and social worker for Doctors With out Borders, educated Al Jazeera. « They in actuality feel their vitality and they also indulge in to keep it. Whilst you occur to search your individual vitality, and that you just’re going to have the skill to arrange with an animal delight in this, you reach your self-self perception. »

Sofia Kouvelaki, government director of the Home Mission, said the procedure is also to aid young other folks overcome psychological-well being components, with many tormented by post-tense stress disorder.

« All of them bear either witnessed violence or bear skilled violence themselves, so there’s plenty of trauma, » she said.

« We bear had victims of rape, victims of trafficking, sexual exploitation, physical abuse and depression that has been introduced about by the in actuality tainted stipulations that these kids bear skilled … There would possibly maybe be plenty of trauma that needs to be healed. Thru the equine remedy, we bear viewed the adaptation, even from the first session. »

‘Thru the equine remedy, we bear viewed the adaptation, even from the first session’ [Fahrinisa Oswald/Al Jazeera]