Now You Hear Us
Early in 2020, amidst a global pandemic, Daphne began to connect with some of the Youth UnMuted network of young people who have moved on from Greece and now have asylum elsewhere in Europe.
During one of the many conversations with the youth about the challenges they've faced, and issues they care deeply about, the idea of a podcast was born - a medium through which the youth could directly share their unfiltered views with a global audience. Since then, the podcast, aptly named "Now Your Hear US" has slowly and organically come to fruition. The podcast is aimed at elevating the voices of youth who have experienced displacement, delving into topics such as art, friendship, identity, migration, and much more. it is created by and with youth who have experienced displacement.
Episode 1: An Introduction
In our first ever “Now You Hear Us” podcast, we introduce the members of our Youth Advisory Board. Our host Pavie starts out by describing how the podcast uses creative storytelling to elevate the voices of youth who have experienced displacement. She explains that due to some of the youth living in refugee camps, much of the audio is recorded on personal phones, adding to the authenticity and further speaking to the difficulty of those who have been displaced to have their stories heard. Motivated by art and beauty, Pavie discusses the difficulty of learning a new language and explains that her aim in participating in the podcast is to bring together the “lost” pieces of her own existence, bringing clarity and recognition to an experience that is often overlooked or judged. As the podcast continues, we meet Hadaya, Chia, and Asifa, all with their own journeys, difficulties, dreams and motivations. The women now live throughout Germany, and the conversation focuses on the journeys they and their families have undertaken to get there. While all of these women have experienced immense pain and suffering, their ability to describe and reflect on their own experiences leaves the listener in awe of their strength and empowerment, and eager to learn more as the podcast progresses.
Episode 2: Dreams for the Future
In our second podcast, we discuss the hopes and dreams of our young participants. To discuss this, we asked displaced youth living in Europe and the United States to write letters to their future selves, and share them. While the bulk of the podcast is dedicated to these letters, our host Pavie discusses the importance of remembering that not all displaced peoples are being represented. There are many individuals and families who are stuck in camps or shelters, with no way to get their story out there and have them be told. Keeping this in mind, we delve into the letters as told by those who wrote them. Pavie discusses the difficulty of dreaming for those who have experienced the trauma of being displaced from their homes, as the trauma of the journey often lingers in a way that she has great difficulty overcoming, even though she is aware of it. She also acknowledges the difficulty in how she, and other displaced peoples, are often perceived in the countries they worked so hard to get to, and how European or American people’s general lack of empathy is very painful on top of everything.
Throughout the podcast, we further hear about the hopes and dreams of these young people, and the listener is struck by their optimism in the face of immense trauma and suffering. From writing autobiographies, to helping other refugees, to hopes of returning home, to simply enjoying time spent with family and loved ones, the letters paint a powerful picture of resiliency, humanity, and optimism for the future.
Episode 3: Empathy for Others
What does empathy mean? Our third podcast discusses caring for others, and focuses on the responsibilities we face as human beings living in an interconnected world. Together, the Youth Advisory Board ponders the question “if not me, if you you, then who.” Throughout the episode, members speak about their experiences interacting with others in their host countries, and how these experiences have shaped their ability to make a new home for themselves and for their families. Asifa begins by contemplating what our responsibilities are as humans living in a world with so much violence and chaos, and comes to the conclusion that our responsibility as human beings is to help others through action, even when the action seems hard or even impossible. Continuing, Darush, from Iran and living in Lesbos, retells a story about a time when he was told in passing that “most refugees were thieves”. He believes that attitudes like this make it much harder for displaced peoples to integrate into their host countries. In his experience, he has been helped by many Greeks, and this support has allowed him to make more of a home out of the camp where he lives. Acceptance and compassion, Darush expresses, would make all the difference in the lives of refugees, and he believes that the populations of host countries should “at least try”.
Adding on, another speaker Hadaya spells out the world’s responsibilities towards refugees: to protect. Understanding and compassion are paramount in the process of not only helping others, but in making society a more equal place for all. Within her family as well, Hadaya attaches strong importance to caring for her siblings, respecting her parents, and even respecting and helping her neighbors. She points out that if nobody helped anyone else, there wouldn’t be development in society because we all need each other to progress. We end with the spoken word of a woman reflecting on the boat in which she arrived to Greece, and how she still feels like she is “drowning”. She mediates on how disconnected we are from one another, from widespread human suffering, and how normalized horrific conflict is. “Will the day come when we see true justice?”, she asks herself. She “hopes so”. We as listeners are left with an impression that the interconnectedness of humans in a society is a necessity for both the progression of society and the individual.
Episode 4: Fighting the Patriarchy
Our fourth podcast focuses on sexism and the patriarchy, and how it has followed these women from their countries of origin to their host countries through familial ties and cultural traditions. This podcast is a little different than our previous episodes. Rather than separate interviews, it is a recording of a meeting between the four women on the Youth Advisory Board, from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Although they are all in Europe now they admit they feel “torn” between tradition and their hopes, dreams, and own ways of thinking and seeing the world. The discussion centers around the various ways women are controlled by men, the normalization of this control, and the ways in which it impacts the individual and society. They discuss their experiences of being subjected to control by men and their families, regardless of their own wants, needs, and opinions. The topic of marriage, specifically child marriage, is introduced, and the women talk about how normal it is in their home countries for girls under eighteen to get married, even as young as nine, with little understanding of what they are getting themselves into.
The women agree that fighting the patriarchy is not about not respecting men, or family, it is about respecting yourself above all else. The conversation then develops into a discussion on ways these women can actively shift people’s minds and affect change. They come to the conclusion that knowledge is power, and the patriarchy can be fought by continuously lifting up and supporting the women around you. Although it is a tough fight, it is a worthy one. The conversation ends on a positive, uplifting note, as the women unceasingly praise and validate each other for their strength and ability to not only carry on in the face of immense suffering, but to grow, progress, learn, and take actionable steps to affect change for those who suffer as well. The fight continues and as one board member says “to get into trouble is just the beginning”.
Episode 5: The Right to Education
In our fifth episode, two of our members Hadaya and Pavie discuss education, the importance of education, and how the right to education is stripped away from displaced youth. Hadaya begins by charting her experiences from Syria to Greece to Germany, and how she has advocated tirelessly for her own education. From teaching herself Greek, to starting over again at multiple schools in multiple countries, she has persisted has dreams of one day becoming a surgeon. Hadaya herself is a miracle, not only in the way that she has advocated for her own education, but also in the way she uplifts others to do the same. She ends her piece by telling her listeners and those still in the camps not to give up hope, declaring with confidence that “life has a lot of miracles”.
In Pavie’s piece, she focuses on the importance of the right to education, and how widespread global inequality impedes this right. Although education should be viewed as a human right, it is more often than not a privileged opportunity, one that has been ripped away from generations of children who have been displaced due to war and horrific conflict. She asks her listener to imagine their own children being unable to get an education, and states that no “religion or culture or country” should be able to take that right away. She ends by declaring that “Education is the right of every human being. All of us, not just some of us”.
Episode 6: The Importance of Storytelling
Our sixth podcast focuses on storytelling, and includes a discussion between two Youth Advisory Members: Pavie and Asifa. They begin by admitting that the process of retelling painful memories is powerful, but painful. There are some memories that are important, but also very difficult for those remembering and retelling them. While retelling their own stories, the women are also reminded that there are still people who are experiencing the same circumstances in their countries of origin. However, they agree that openness and vulnerability in the face of such hardship is powerful. They talk about memories that they haven’t been able to “go around”, which they have been able to process more by talking out loud and retelling their stories in this form. While not everyday is easy, they agree that by talking and sharing their stories, they are taking a tangible action to help others. Feeling sadness on its own, one member argues, is not a bad thing, and can actually be healing.
Language is also a topic of discussion, specifically the anxiety surrounding being able to describe things “in the right way” in a language that is not your mother tongue. They ultimately find strength in being able to push themselves, and they focus on the way that them sharing their stories can help those around them. Pavie and Asifa end the podcast by describing themselves as “unstoppable” by facing their painful memories with courage, and by continuing to push themselves to be better, and to make the world around them better as well.
Episode 7: Poetry Month in April
For poetry month in April, we decided to dedicate our seventh podcast to the poetry of displacement. We share three poems, all written and spoken aloud by members of our YAB. In the first, the author calls for change and speaks about the humanity of those who have been displaced, and calls for understanding and change. She calls for compassion for those who have experienced immense suffering, expressing that everyone deserves to live in this world safely. Even further, she states that everyone deserves a home, an education, and the chance to progress as a human being in the society they are apart of. The second calls for change as well, and focuses on the freedom that the future will bring. It is written and spoken in both English and German, highlighting the author Hadaya’s immense language capacity. The final poem was originally written in Persian poetry form, and translated to English with the special help of Arwin, an expert Persian poetry translator. Pavie, the author and our host, explains that some things simply cannot be expressed in any other language. This beautiful poem muses on the strength of her generation, and its fight for truth, equality, and freedom. A fight, she believes, we will continue to fight.
The Youth Advisory Board (YAB)
The heart of “Now You Hear Us” is the Youth Advisory Board (YAB). Currently, four extraordinary young women from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq sit on the board, which is is charged with overseeing the themes and topics of the podcast, as well as lending their own voices and assisting with communicating with other youth who have experienced displacement. Daphne has held a series of creative virtual workshops with the YAB, using creative writing, interactive storytelling exercises, and also mindfulness techniques to create a virtual safe space for the YAB to begin this podcast journey. The result? Our first ever episode of Now You hear Us!
Thank You
Now You Hear Us is made with the support of Amplifying Sanctuary Voices (ASV), a community based oral-history project centering the stories of Bay Area residents who have come to the U.S. seeking sanctuary. We would like to thank Hoaian Dang for lending his animation expertise to the video, and our host, Pavie, for the photograph she provided. Editing and production of this episode was done by Youth UnMuted co-founder Daphne Morgen.
