Krsitina Nesheva about TC “Volunteers 4 All”, Humans 4 More

56 684 in Bulgaria. 1.4 million in Italy. 2.6 million in Spain. Around a million in Austria. A lot, lot more in Europe as a whole. Yeah, I’m talking about numbers. Numbers of refugees, if I have to be precise. Have you noticed something? Something odd? Or peculiar, perhaps?

See, that’s the thing about numbers – they are pretty abstract even though they are supposed to be absolutely punctual. Especially, when they are that big.

What is it for you? Let’s say, 56 684. Does it mean something? Maybe it contains some of your favorite numbers? Most probably it represents something. Is it easy to remember? Is there something else that comes to your mind while looking at it? You can definitely say that 56 684 is a lot less than all of the Bulgarian villages’ population gathered in one. Or, you might say that these numbers are not correct at all. Is there really 56 684 refugees in Bulgaria? Aren’t they less? Or are they more?

The truth is, it doesn’t matter if there’s one, a hundred, a thousand or millions of “refugess” and “migrants” marked people in a country (and, yes, the two words in quotation marks have different meaning). What really matters is their story. The single story. The one we heard with our own ears, the one we searched for in the human eye. The one we are sure we can share, not because we simply have the desire to speak, but because we believe it can actually make a change.

That’s why, during the Training Course, named “Volunteers 4 All”, that took place in the picturesque Bulgarian city, called Bansko, we didn’t talk about numbers. Or at least, not only. Hosted by Sdruzhenie Alternativi International the Training Course gave us, the participants, to opportunity to search for new stories, to remember the ones we had already known, even had been a part of, and to share our knowledge with people who joined to learn. Because… let’s face it – who is giving us the numbers? Official statistics on national, European, global level? Media channels? Random websites or perhaps, social media? Well, I can tell you this: Every information that we hear or read about has the potential to be manipulated. By authorities. By journalists. By me. By you. Even by mistake.

So we checked. And we double-checked. Then, we opened our personal experience boxes and found out that what’s there is anything but meaningless. So, we shared it. The pictures we had. The videos we filmed. The stories we remembered. All of them about the so-called “foreigners”. And you know what? Step by step, story by story they stopped being just foreigners, just migrants, only refugees. Piece by piece we started to see their faces, to recognize their feelings, to hear their voices.

Why did we managed to do so? Because we were eager to know more. We were curious, but also well-intentioned. Careful, but also caring. Loud, but not speechless. And then, we returned home. We evaluated. We took the time to think about what we have experienced during this sunny August week in Bansko. And we started doing something. Anything at all. Some of us wrote. Some started to develop different events, considering the problems that migrants face in their country. Others simply spread the stories. But one thing we did as a whole. We volunteered. Not necessarily official, not only supported by photos shared on Facebook. But in everyday life. We do it every now and then. We help. We care. We listen. We work. Not only for ourselves. But for us, all of us humans, as one gigantic connected community. We will continue to do so. And, hopefully, we will make it a habit. In Bulgaria. In Spain. In Austria. Italy. Romania. Even in the United States, Canada, South America, Australia, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In every part of the world we can do that. Spread the humanity. And do some good.

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