Those young ones in need

African flower, Chocolate saint of hope, Smile of freedom, Our black mother – all these are the names given to St. Josephine Bakhita, Sudanese slave and religious woman, who lived in 1869-1947 and despite her difficult destiny as a victim of slavery and torture she was able to witness about God in the spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness. “A brave testimony of this Canossian sister offers consolation not only to Christians in Sudan so hardly touched by war and poverty. Thanks to her faithfulness and service she gives hope to the whole Church and particularly to our charitable mission”, says Radovan Gumulák, general secretary of Caritas Slovakia. This organization has chosen her as a patron of a project aimed to help migrants in Slovakia, especially children and young people under 18 years of age who come to this central European country to seek help on their way to freedom.Alone in unknown world. “Young refugees come to us from many countries, beginning by the region of the eastern Europe, through the Middle East, Asian countries, concluding by African states like Somalia or Eritrea. Most of them had no idea about existence of Slovakia before, we usually represent only a transit country to the western parts of Europe with more developed asylum system”, explains Andrea Boboková, coordinator of the project Bakhita, adding that – although this situation happens quite rarely – “sometimes a little refugee decides to stay in Slovakia and live here if he or she doesn’t succeed in contacting the relatives”. A child usually comes to the country through the border with Ukraine as a member of a bigger group of refugees and it often happens that his parents are already in one of the states of the western Europe. The group is spotted by the police and underaged children are placed in one of two foster care institutions in Horné Orechové or Trencín. An average time of their stay in Slovakia is 3-4 months, although some of them escape and continue their complicated journey after their first night in the institution. Yearly, Caritas Slovakia helps dozens of underaged migrants.Fragile destinies. “Sometimes they are really very little. Currently, we have a three-years old boy from Somalia and he is so fragile. It’s horrible that a baby who should have a nice careless life playing with his friends must undertake such a difficult, almost unbearable situation”, says Andrea Boboková, pointing to the fact that sometimes even a team of perfectly trained experts in psychology, social work and Slovak language is not able to help him overcome the traumas. “To be a refugee means to live in a constant stress and for very young human beings this bad feeling is twice as hard to bear as for adults”, explains psychologist Mária Hajduchová. “Desire for better life, often naive expectations from Europe, constant conflict with reality associated with loss of family, insecurity and fear of future”, numbers the expert in interpersonal relations, emphasizing that the values demonstrated in a behaviour of little refugees, along with absence of necessary skills and habits, can be a source of surprising problems. “Some of them have to face heavy traumatic memories of violence. Many boys come here bearing memories of some member of their family being brutally killed”, continues Hajduchová, adding that the first stage of mutual contacts with new reality is the most dificult: “When we overcome it – and the child is still in our care – we start with easier part of treatment: an effort to create opportunities for implementation of his or her talents and abilities”. Experts try to prepare these children for any option in their future life, considering the sad statistics that they are one of the most endangered groups targeted by human trafficking. “It’s one of our priorities – to provide them with warning and all the necessary information to help them avoid the risk of becoming the victims of this tragic business”, affirms coordinator of the project.A matter of heart. “There are often situation when we remain helpless face to face with suffering and brutal experiences of our boys and girls”, confesses Andrea Boboková, saying that when something like this happens, prayer is the only thing that makes sense and works. “We are very much inspired by the social teaching of pope Francis whose example of altruistic service towards the most needy just keeps us going even when we are out of breath. He invites us not to live in some kind of bubble of soap, not to cover our eyes to avoid contact with reality and he does it very courageously. I believe this is the very core of our service to little migrants, as the greatest part of this work is done in our hearts”, concludes general secretary of Caritas Slovakia. The project Bakhita runs on annual bases and its current edition in Slovakia will last until the end of February 2014.