Mohamed Nouisser (28 years old), Mohamed Abadi (22), Mohamed El Filali (23) and Ayoubm Faical (23) appreciate the hospitality and they are now striving to learn Spanish and to find work.
YOUTH IN THE OUTDOORS
The four migrants arrived in Pamplona in November and were living in the old Abandoned convent of the Agustinas de San Pedro (Txantrea) Y under a bridge over the river Argauntil those responsible for Information Point for Migrants (PIM) of the Pamplona City Council They were put in contact with the recently created ‘Red Mambré’, in which the San Ignacio College (Jesuits) is integrated. “Young men have it the hardest. Because the women who arrive with children are welcomed by the institutions”, says the person in charge of the Loyola Center and of this hospitality initiative, Ignacio Aranzadi. And so they launched the initiative. The director of the school, the Jesuit Carlos Morazajoins the conversation and explains how they enabled this attic area (where the free time youth community used to meet ‘arrupe’) in a house. “The entire educational community has been involved, providing support as volunteers or in another way (financial aid or collecting food in the last Christmas campaign)”, adds the director. Every night, there are two people (of a group of 54 men and women between the ages of 18 and 60) who sleep with them and accompany them in whatever they need.
The daily life of these Moroccans, registered at the Segundo Ensanche school, begins at 7:30 am, when they get up, wash up and have breakfast. By 8:30 a.m., they must be outside, since they attend Spanish classes given by the Spanish Commission for Aid to Refugees (CEAR). Every day at noon, they have lunch at the Paris 365 soup kitchen, in the Casco Viejo, and they spend the afternoon in that environment or walking around Pamplona. Around 7:30 p.m. / 8:00 p.m., they return to the flat at the school and already share their time with the volunteers. “We have played poker and now I am going to teach you how to play mus. We also talk or watch football matches. They have really enjoyed the World Cup”, sums up José Manuel Martínez Ilundáin, a 49-year-old from Pamplona, a network volunteer and a Mathematics teacher at the school.
CARPENTER AND HAIRDRESSER
The four Moroccans agree that they wanted to escape from their country because it was “impossible to survive.” They all made a poor living from their trades: salesperson in a carpet store (Ayoubm Faical), Barber (Mohamed Nouisser), who are cousins to each other; heating and air conditioning technician (Mohamed Nouisser) and carpenter (Mohamed el Filali). “We were very scared in the boat. But God wanted us to survive to get here and be able to work. I am happy in Pamplona and I want to live here until I die”, affirms Mohamed Abadi, 22 years old emphatically. “Our families? Yes, they were very afraid that we would not survive the trip. Now they are very calm”, adds his countryman Mohamed Nouisser, who is taking courses to be able to work as a refrigeration technician.
And why Spain? “There is work here and we have some relatives in Oviedo and Vitoria,” the cousins say. After Christmas, they still do not know if they will continue with the Spanish classes at the José María Iribarren adult training center (Hermitage) or in the Lantxotegu associationi (centre Iwer de la Rochapea, old Matesa). But, for now, they are having a sweet Christmas (even if they don’t celebrate it) eating nougat, marzipan and shortbread on the floor, which they call ‘Dar Salam’, which in Arabic means ‘home and safe space’. As the objective pursued by the ‘Red Mambre‘: accompany and welcome the excluded.
Four young Moroccans, welcomed in the attic of a school in Pamplona