The White Ravens Database

Presented by   Internationale Jugendbibliothek / International Youth Library

German / Germany

Manchmal male ich ein Haus für uns. Europas vergessene Kinder

(Sometimes I draw a house for us. Europe’s forgotten children)

Horst, Alea (text/photos)
Zaeri-Esfahani, Mehrdad (illus.)
Leipzig: Klett Kinderbuch, [2022]. – [72] p.
ISBN 978-3-95470-263-3

Lesbos  | Refugee camp  | Refugee  | Migration  | Photo book

Reading age: 6+

White Ravens issue: 2022

OPAC

»Here we are in the second camp on Lesbos. Very close to the sea. In the background, you can see the tents where the people live. Currently there are about 7,000 people here, almost 3,000 of them children. I am one of these children.« This is what Jawad, one of many children in Kara Tepe camp, says. Alea Horst met some of them, asked them about their lives and dreams, and now she gives them a face and a voice. The conditions under which the children are growing up are »adverse« – and that’s a euphemism because they are cold, sitting on muddy ground, cannot go to school, and are stuck in the camp. Their life on the Greek island is determined by arbitrariness, ignorance, indifference, and a lack of perspective. It is shocking and shameful, not least because the children still try to get by somehow. Well, what choice do they have! Photographer Alea Horst has often been to Lesbos as a volunteer emergency worker and founded the charity Alea e.V. in 2021 to help. [IG]