Integrating Lives: Refugee Portraits from Cyprus
Integrating Lives is a creative initiative that captures portraits of refugees living in Cyprus, through the camera lens, and one-to-one interviews. Each portrait tells the story of a life, of a person forced to flee, and of their path towards integration in Cyprus. You can find all stories and future ones on Facebook - Integrating Lives
"Many people can have maybe bad feelings because they don’t know you. But you can’t just sit in your corner…if you go out and speak, communicate, it helps them to understand you.”
Bache was in her native DRC with her three young children, when her husband travelled to Cyprus for a journalists’ training. When the conflict back home escalated, he couldn’t return and he sought asylum in Cyprus. With recognized refugee status, a year later Bache and the children were able to join him. Their fourth child was born in Cyprus.
At the beginning, the new culture and language were challenging. But Bache feels she has been lucky. From early on, she had Cypriot friends coming to her house for coffee, and going out for walks together. Her children have made friends at school, and their parents have also become friends of the family.
After losing her job during the 2013 economic crisis, Bache decided to focus on caring full-time for her children. “They are the best at school, I’m proud of them.” With the family together, she says, it was a little easier to manage. Her eldest is now studying law at UCY.
Some 15 years later, Bache is now a Cypriot citizen. She heads a community centre for refugees in Nicosia, together with her husband. “Because of our experience, we know that to be foreign, to be refugees, or to emigrate is not easy…that's why we created this place so we can meet, talk, see how to be integrated – to find ways to be accepted here. To give people at least some hope.”
Bache speaks four languages. Her wish is to create a school where refugee children will have opportunities to learn about their own culture and heritage.
For more stories like Bache's, visit the Integrating Lives Facebook page
