3 refugee women in India who invited me to question myself

Today is World Refugee Day , which seeks to raise awareness about the ongoing crisis surrounding migration and refugee governance and to honor the resilience and courage of the thousands of people who leave their homes to survive.

There are more than 26 million people in the world—and it's said that with the recent war in Ukraine, the number has risen to 100 million—who each year have to leave everything they have and start over in a new country. Most of them are fleeing situations of violence due to conflict, persecution based on ideology, religion, politics, or human rights violations.

Some people are quickly relocated to their host countries, while others spend months, even years, in refugee camps. The first time I went to one was with Fair Trade Forum India, as part of a UNHCR-funded project in New Delhi. My role there was to immerse them in the community and their stories, and then create the brand for a microfinance bank that would allow them to take out small loans to start businesses (I explain a little more about that here) .

There were several people from Myanmar in the camp who were supported by Muslim families living in India. There were about 300 people, many of them minors, who were forced to leave everything they had because they were victims of a violent conflict rooted in religious differences. They lost absolutely everything and were forced to start over with uncertainty as their only certainty. I learned a lot during my immersion in the camp, but above all, there were three women who left their mark on me and made me reflect. I would like to share what I learned from them, what questions they raised in me, and do my part to bring visibility to the stories behind the alarming refugee numbers that grow daily on different continents.

1. A smile from a veil?

Roger Waters started playing in my head, asking, "Do you think you can tell a smile from a veil?" And my answer was: yes, of course I can. Eyes smile, glances have the ability to communicate with such unique purity that no words could replace. I was carrying my camera, and she asked me to take pictures of her. We only spoke with gestures from a distance, but we understood each other. She posed and smiled. When I showed her the photo, she looked at herself in the viewfinder and laughed shyly, with the innocence of someone who had just discovered something new.

For the community, this was a big day. A training program was inaugurated, along with the opening of a microfinance bank that would allow them to have a group bank account and begin creating microenterprises. They were to form small groups that would receive the loans and be responsible for repaying them over time.

It was the first time a woman would be a co-owner of a bank account, and it was a great reason to celebrate. As a Muslim woman, her scope and possibilities were tied to the decisions her husband made. But this time something had changed. There had been dialogue with the community, she had raised her voice, and the men allowed her to be part of the group. She would be the first; she was paving the way, setting a precedent, and perhaps she hadn't even realized it.

The other women applauded her, proud of what she had achieved. Her precedent was breaking with the established norm, what "had always been done this way," to demonstrate that things could be done differently. She was courageous, and in the face of adversity, she took a step forward and established her participation with her signature.

Sometimes we have to make difficult decisions even if fear paralyzes us, but if we don't, nothing changes. Her story made me think a lot about how important it is to turn fear into an incentive, not an obstacle. How many situations do we avoid out of fear, even of achieving what we set out to do? How many times do we tolerate injustice because we don't want to be disruptive? And how many opportunities do we let slip right under our noses for fear of seizing them. The first question that prompted reflection was:

2. Perfection is the enemy of goodness

Thus said Voltaire. India is one of the most entrepreneurial nations in the world. There are entrepreneurs literally everywhere. The motivation to start a business is sometimes for subsistence, other times by choice, but even if you're 3,500 meters up in the mountains, in India you'll find someone selling Masala chai (a typical Indian tea), usually with deep commitment and dedication.

She was also part of the refugee community, and when we asked her how she got started and what her venture entailed, she proudly recounted the steps she'd taken. She had a small restaurant in her town, and now she was starting to rebuild, having been able to take with her little more than her recipes and her cooking skills. She boasted about making the best samosas in the camp (a type of empanada, which I can attest were spectacular), and she laughed when she said so. Samosas are a typical dish in both Myanmar and India, ideal with afternoon tea, and her business was one of the community's gathering places.

How many times do we fail to start a business, project, or initiative because we believe that what we have or who we are "isn't enough"? "I don't know where to start," "I don't think my idea is very good," "I need to learn about x"—every week we receive these kinds of messages from entrepreneurs on the Marcas que Marcan networks. There are countless stories of people who are "almost-entrepreneurs" because they're always missing something to get started.

An excess of information sometimes creates a paralysis effect, preventing people from taking action for fear of navigating the unknown and failing. Something we can learn and admire from those who sometimes lose everything and have to start from scratch is their ability, or survival instinct, to face uncertainty, look at what tools they have, and start. However, with whatever, but start. "The first step doesn't get you where you want to go, but it gets you out of where you are."

Her example led me to reflect on everything I've put off because I believed I couldn't, didn't know how, wasn't "good" enough, and to overcome my fear of things not turning out the way I expected. The second question it provoked was:

3. "It is what it is"

Sometimes we say it in a derogatory way, with the weight of conformity that justifies dissatisfaction. What if we just changed our tone? We don't need to change the situation, but rather the perspective from which we view it. Sometimes we believe we can't do more with what we have, that we can't expect more from ourselves—and how wrong we are!

The third woman I loved meeting in the community was one of the seamstresses. She had only been able to bring a few clothes and her sewing machine. The machine was the only belonging she prioritized when packing her bag for exile. A visionary decision, as it would allow her to quickly start working, making alterations and creating new garments to sell. Just as she had imagined, she soon became the community's seamstress, and not only did she work for her fellow community members, but she also received garments to be repaired from nearby towns.

She, along with other women who knew the sewing trade, trained more women to learn it. Two years after that visit, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were already producing cloth bags, recycling potato sacks and scraps of fabric from the textile industry, turning them into products sold in one of Delhi's Fair Trade stores.

I was struck by the fact that there were plants on the roof of his house, and when I asked him why, he told me they grew squash on roofs, because of the height and the sun. He made the most of every square meter of his house. He had few material resources, but he made the most of each one.

We have a TON of tools, resources, contacts, skills, and possibilities, and sometimes we don't appreciate them. We generally focus on what we lack rather than what we have. Therefore, the third question that led me to reflect was:

If, knowing these stories, you're wondering what I can do to contribute #torefugees , I'll share some ideas with you:

👉🏻 Identify the refugee communities in your country. For example, there are currently many refugees from Venezuela in Argentina, from Senegal in Spain, and from Ukraine in Germany. Get involved with them. Learn more at UNHCR.org.

👉🏻 Buy from refugee-owned businesses or social enterprises that work with them, such as @abrazo.cultural @mesabierta @refugeefriendly @made51_unhcr @topmanta_bcn

👉🏻 Engage with people, learn about their stories and needs, hire them to work, and raise awareness about the issue.

👉🏻 Avoid discrimination, stop and point out so-called racial "jokes," and adopt a compassionate view toward others.

Can you think of any other ways to contribute? Share them in the comments.

You can follow me at https://www.instagram.com/jessioyarbide/ and I invite you to learn about the project we are carrying out from Marcas que Marcan together with Seba Cener , with the support of IOM, UNHCR, the European Union and the Secretariat of Human Rights, where we collect stories of migrants and refugees and take them to the streets through murals: ENCONTRAR .

#withrefugees #unhcr #acnur #refugees #refugeecamp #worldrefugeeday #womanpower #sisterhood #woman