Syracuse, Sicily, Sept 20-22, 2024
In late 2023, two members of @soshumanity_de care team joined an Art Refuge introductory online training in arts-based psychosocial tools. Since then we have consulted to the care team and developed a mutually valuable dialogue, culminating this weekend in our delivery of a training workshop for the crew on board the ship docked in Syracuse port while it prepares for its next rescue rotation.
SOS Humanity is a search & rescue organisation working in the Mediterranean Sea. The crew provides those they rescue with clothing, food, vital medical & psychological care while on board, which can be for several days. Alongside the ship’s rhythms, the deck has been thoughtfully humanised so as to respond to survivors’ needs - table with compass pointing to Mecca for prayer, small library of books, maps, benches, tea kiosk. While the majority are men who sleep and eat on the large deck, women & young children have a vitally important designated safe space and there is a zone for teenagers.
For our workshop, more than 20 people gathered on the deck, including the ship’s captain, care coordinators, psychiatrist, engineers, logisticians, researchers, nurses & partner org @ciao.maristi.siracusa.
We shared our learning from the English Channel context & showed images of our historic maps with routes marked on them by people on the move who had crossed the Mediterranean Sea, the World’s deadliest route. We recall the numerous stories from people who managed to cross this vast water in small boats; from those who were rescued; from those who witnessed other boats sinking.
Yesterday we had to recalibrate ourselves - moving from a table on land to the ship’s deck floor. Together we thought about simple but carefully considered arts-based tools for the ship context so as to help ground those on board, particularly to support a sense of place and first point of Welcome for those rescued as they enter Europe, alongside interpersonal connection in the here & now, enabling small moments of respite, for hoping & coping.
Words by Miriam Usiskin & Bobby Lloyd.
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