Guest post by Paola Mileo
How many different meanings for HOME can you think of? The word home resonates with meanings and connotations. Home is a feeling. It is where you are safe, where you belong, where you are recognised, respected, loved, cared for. It is the place where you rest, where you dream and relax. When you make a place home, you put your heart at peace: it becomes a shelter of love and care.
Home is a territory; it is the country you belong to, it is your people, it incarnates your culture, customs, and food.
Home is where you are free to be. It is where you share, listen, understand others and are understood. At home, your needs are met. Here you speak the same language, and surely you develop a jargon that belongs to this unique space only. Home is the ultimate sense of belonging.
When speaking about migration and refugees, the word home is torn apart: my home, your home, go home!
We believe that everyone deserves a place to call home and to feel home, and surely many of you share the same. One of the best ways we, as everyday people, can serve refugees is by creating awareness around their plight and dispelling the myths that surround them in host countries. It is on all of us to support those fleeing their homes to get to that place where they can feel at home.
Our project, Feeling Home, was developed as part of International Refugee Week 2021. Our goal is to create refugee awareness with an interactive social media campaign and our companion website: FeelingHomeIRW2021.com. We hope that you will accept our invitation to reflect for a moment on what feeling home means to you and write or draw it on a sticky note as your wish for every refugee seeking a place to call home.
How can you take part in feelinghomeirw2021?
- On a sticky note, write or draw what feeling home is for you.
- Take a picture of your note
- Post it/share a story on Instagram, tagging @feelinghomeirw2021 and add the #feelinghomeirw2021 hashtag.
To know more, please visit: Feelinghomeirw2021
Thank you all, HOMIS!