Many thanks to Mandy Patinkin for his visit to METAdrasi’s accommodation facility for unaccompanied minors in Lesvos, for his benevolence and his kind words.
Below, you may find Mandy Patinkin’s post text:
Later in the afternoon on day one, we had another emotionally moving visit, this time with a group of children traveling alone, young boys between 9 and 18, primarily from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. We met them at METAdrasi, an International Rescue Committee partner in Greece. Seeing my sons in the faces of these young boys, I was overcome with emotion and couldn’t speak. Why should these beautiful young men be caught in limbo? They opened up in the most memorable ways, telling me details of their life-threatening journey, reflecting on the irony of me being an actor who pretends to be in dangerous situations when they have lived that life. I have to mention Elias, a Greek doctor of political sociology from Thessaloniki who runs the program. A beam of light, a master of listening, a gift to them at this moment in their fragile lives. Three of the boys invited us to their art class. Today’s project was Picasso. Their teacher Dimitris kept pushing them, like Picasso, to think outside the box. The protocol for a child traveling alone without their parents is to protect their privacy. It was hard to say goodbye.
