Smiles of refugees are the most important motivation and award for us

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”, said Nelson Mandela once upon a time. This words were inspiration for our colleagues, who are providing help for refugees within Program “Solidarity”, to learn Farsi language in order to get closer with our beneficiaries.
Maja, Ivana and Dušan at first learned some basic words and phrases for basic communication and then decided to learn more and to get advanced knowledge of this language.
„Reception center for refugees is a place where you can learn more about different cultures. It is wonderful when you have chance to help someone who is in hard position and to learn more about his language, culture and tradition at the same time“, said Ivana, SOS Children’s Villages Serbia Team Leader in Reception center Principovac.

New knowledge that our colleagues have helps them a lot in a daily work, because language can be barrier when you work in reception center. Large number of refugees don’t speak or don’t understand English, so fact that our colleagues can talk with them on their native language is a great advantage.
„I work with children up to 7 years. Many of them don’t now English or Serbian, so understanding of Farsi helps me in my work. I can provide better support for development, learning and needs of children who I’m working with“, said Dušan, librarian in Toy Library that is provided in Reception center Principovac, by SOS Children’s Villages Serbia and Unicef Serbia.
Dušan, Ivana and Maja started to learn Farsi on their own initiative, on the Internet, by help of online courses and different applications. At the other side, our beneficiaries – children, youngsters and adult are also very happy when they have opportunity to provide help for our colleagues in learning or speaking Farsi.

„When I started to work for SOS Children’s Villages, I organized English workshops for women and girls. Then I met five beautiful sisters from Kabul. I used to call them „five princesses from Afghanistan“. I taught them English and they taught me Farsi language. I even had notebook in which I wrote and take notes. After few months I started to understand what people around me were talking about. And I decided to continue with my learning. I’ve been learning and improving my knowledge of Farsi by today. And my plan is to continue with that. Few days ago, we didn’t have any translator in camp and doctor called me to help them with translation“, said Maja, SOS Children’s Villages Serbia Educator in Reception center Adaševci.

„The most interesting thing for me is that now everyone talk with me on Farsi. Even refugees who know and understand English talk with me on Farsi“, Ivana added.

All our colleagues have plan to continue with their learning and improving their knowledge of Farsi language. For all of them smiles, happiness and gratitude of refugees are the most important and the biggest award.