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KUJENGA - TO BUILD

Writer's picture: Art RefugeArt Refuge

Brussels, August 8th 2024


Following an invitation from @medecinsdumondebelgique - members of whose team we had met in Dunkirk in May - we spent last Thursday day in Brussels visiting the Humanitarian Hub. This is a vast day centre run by several non-governmental organizations including the Red Cross, Doctors of the World, Doctors Without Borders, The Citizen Platform and SOS Jeune.


‘Through its consortium structure, its multidisciplinary approach, & the complementarity of services, the Hub is thought to represent a unique model for the reception, care, and orientation of people in a migrant situation’, most being without access to statutory services. We were told that since 2022 the government has stopped providing accommodation to those claiming asylum in Belgium, putting immense pressure on already overstretched resources. Despite this, we were struck by the sense of order, cooperation and consideration given to the various spaces and those using them.


Psychosocial group work is an area that the MdM mental health team wants to develop in this setting, so our offer of a taster session of The Community Table was welcomed in the afternoon. A number of people, mostly men, joined to see what was happening. Jenga, miniature bricks & typewriters proved particularly popular. We saw a different perspective to Dunkirk & Calais as here, in this European capital, people are trying to make a life for themselves. One man used the bricks to build the dream house he wants in Brussels, while an older man from Eritrea sat for a long time immersed at the typewriter, copying English to French text from his notebook learnt from language classes given at the hub. He later said the typewriter had taken him back to a happy time in his childhood, and this felt good.

Someone asked what ‘Jenga’ means to which a young man from Kenya responded that it is from a Swahili word - kujenga - meaning ‘to build’. This felt a poignant & apt word for all those around the table to connect to, everyone in their own way trying to build their lives, individually, & also collectively.


Words by Miriam Usiskin & Bobby Lloyd.




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