Najm has a secret. He doesn’t sleep at night, he leaves his plastic house in the refugee camp and he walks sleepily in the desert sand. Najm is six years old and they say he can’t concentrate at school and he is aggressive with classmates. The mother tells us that he loves colors but his drawings go off on paper, his hand is like a prisoner. For whole days he does not speak and in the night he shouts. He often refuses to eat. Someone says he’s crazy. Najm fled with his mother from Sudan when they set fire to his house in their village in Darfur; his father was killed by armed militias and he suffered severe body burns. The escape brought Najm and his mother to #Libia. Six months abduction in the hands of a criminal gang. The mother has suffered all kinds of abuse and violence before his eyes. Then the only possible escape to Niger. Najm is now safe in the refugee camp in Agadez but he is afraid even if he doesn’t tell you, staring at you with a look that leaves no way out. His story is not an exception, Najm are many children and young people who live in the refugee camp. Their vulnerability is very high as they have experienced the most extreme traumas during the most delicate period of the body and mind development. “We will take care of you, Najm,” we would like to be able to tell you, knowing that you will come back to draw.
The Medu team provides medical-psychological support to hundreds of women, men and children fleeing Libya in the refugee camp set up by UNHCR in Agadez in Niger, a central hub for contemporary migration routes.