Organizing short activities in Rohingya Refugee Camp in Lhoksemauwe North Aceh was 3R Volunteers’ awesome moments last week, especially on 22-23 July. The volunteers had Peace School for Rohingya Children and Women.
For two days, we played with the children with some fun activities such as Sarung League, Physical Puzzle and others. We also sang and made Puppet paper. Those were so amazing to see children gathered and smiled with us. For women’s activities, we made brooch and hair pin. We were so amazed to see the women’s skills in sewing. Some of them could sew the brooch more than one. We also had sharing by listening to some women’s stories. There were many touching and sad moments that we heard such as a women who really misses her fiance in Malaysia, the condition when they were on the sea for several months, those who died on the sea and others. The sewing session made us grateful as we felt to be closer to them.
All of 3R volunteers felt language barriers as we knew a few words and sentences. However, the barrier did not become big obstacle in playing with the Rohingya children and gathering with women. We used our gesture. We had our best in asking them to play with us. For instance, by saying “morfoati ayyo” (means : follow me) as one of instruction to make them understand of our story.
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Sometimes, it’s hard to imagine how what we did in the Peace School transfers to the “real world”, But, in reality, there are endless stories that should strengthen our self-worth. We will think about how it applies to what we want to do : our commitment, loyalty, determination, empathy, initiative and courage. Therefore, during the evaluation session, Romi as the 3R Founder reminded us not to think that we have helped or gave something to Rohingya people, but to think that our empathy feeling is used in daily life.
written by Rahmiana Rahman