The Long Walk
By Agata Szydelko, Development Intern
Have you ever had one of those days, when you felt like it can not get any worse…?
Of course you have, we all do! I had one of those days just recently.
Simply everything was going wrong! Or at least that’s how I felt, until I came across one of the books I have read over the summer; “The Long Walk” by Slavomir Rawicz. An instant sweat broke down my back, when I tried to imagine Rawicz’es escape from labor camp in Siberia during WW II, his struggle to live, his determination to be free.
During every day life, sometimes it may be hard to relate to Rawicz and his situation,
it happened so long ago…the situation was completely different….it will never happen again….not even close to be as bad, right? One would hope so…
Countries torn apart by war, domestic conflict, unemployment, hunger, disease…this is not an ancient history, this is happening now!
According to the UN Refugee Agency, over 31 million of people is considered as “the total population of concern” including refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons.
Wait, did I get this right, 31 million…really? I hope I will never complain about my bad day again.
As a new intern at International Institute and a foreigner myself, I highly appreciate the importance of agencies helping refugees assimilate to a new environment, making the transition to a new home as smooth as possible.