Zeinab's story: 'I don't want my baby to be born in a camp'

FacebookTwitterE-mailPrint

Zeinab's story: 'I don't want my baby to be born in a camp'

Author: Holly Young | infomigrants.net | 17 December 2019

One of Zeinab's paintings she drew after we met her the first time on Lesbos | Photo: Private

Zeinab and her husband fled Afghanistan two years ago and arrived at the overcrowded Moria refugee camp in October. Eight months into her pregnancy, Zeinab sleeps in a tent on rough terrain, surrounded by what international NGOs and the EU have slammed as appalling conditions. Zeineb is scared about the future but tries hard not to be discouraged. InfoMigrants' reporter Holly Young spoke to Zeinab on Lesbos.

I meet Zeinab Nourzehi on an unusually warm November morning, in a former ouzo factory on Lesbos.

The building is now converted into a community center, set up by local charity The Hope Project. Inside there is a make-up salon, a hairdresser, a kitchen with free meals, a place to pick up donated clothes as well as tailor to have them altered to fit. But it’s in the art studio that 26-year-old Zeinab can usually be found.

Zeinab laughs easily and speaks softly in lilting English. She loves drawing faces, but the tutors have encouraged her to experiment. Her first finished canvas is a kitten on a pastel green background, its white and ginger fur painted in delicate brush strokes.

Read more>>>