Nermine and Warda are volunteer teachers at the METAdrasi Education Center. They have been friends for many years, even before beginning to work for the organization; they credit their friendship and collaborative efforts as the major keys to their success as educators.
Initially, Nermine began working at METAdrasi in the interpretation department. She then began volunteering with METAdrasi Education Center through an internship in partnership with her university where she was studying International and European Economic Studies. There she took over some courses in the summer while continuing to volunteer at the center beyond her internship. Warda also had a background in interpretation and began working as an interpreter at METAdrasi around the same time. Upon finding out Nermine’s role in the education center, Warda also became interested in joining her and began volunteering alongside Nermine, together teaching Greek language courses.
They have become some of the most cherished teachers at the education center for many of the students; however, their relationship with their pupils is much more expansive than the conventional classroom setting. Nermine and Warda are not only role models for the children and teenagers at the education center, but they have also become much like older sisters to many of them, not only instructing the classes but also being their point of contact for any issues that may arise for them in their personal lives.
“The children like us; they have a special likeness for us just because they are minors and they are mostly alone, we are compatriots, they see us as big sisters … It is not as simple as the teacher and the student, no. It is a closer relationship“The children like us; they have a special likeness for us just because they are minors and they are mostly alone, we are compatriots, they see us as big sisters … It is not as simple as the teacher and the student, no. It is a closer relationship, ” as Warda puts it herself.
Both Warda and Nermine were born and raised in Greece; however, they are the first generation in their Egyptian families to have the experience of growing up in Greece.
Volunteering came at a very young age to them, and as something completely natural. “We have been doing interpreting since we were very young with our own families. We will help a cousin; we will help a compatriot who doesn’t know the Greek language. This is also interpreting, and if this helps them, it can be considered volunteering as well” says Warda.
To Nermine and Warda, teaching comes easy; as they put it, they are able to connect with their students spontaneously and have a great working balance in the classroom. Volunteering at the education center is not just about teaching the pupils about school subjects; Nermine and Warda guide many of the children through the daily challenges they face, using the influence they have to bring a positive light to the children’s lives.
For Nermine, it wasn’t a difficult choice to pick up classes at the education center, as she feels it’s her responsibility and her natural ability to fulfill the role of an educator, as well as a mentor. In her words: “In general, anyone who can and has the ability and free time to help, it would be good to help. I believe so. Because we all have potential in one way or another. Why not help each other? We have to help. Because these are children who don’t have their parents now, and an unaccompanied child doesn’t know anyone. They’re starting from scratch. And whoever can, it would be good to help in any way they can. That’s what I believe.”
Warda shares the same perspective, as she puts it: “Volunteering is a lifestyle; it is not something that’s just a profession for us, it is our life. It has always been like this!”
Something that stands out about Nermine and Warda is the respect and admiration that they earned from their students. They have taken on this role because of their own personal experiences growing up in Greece, but because many of their students are unaccompanied minors, who do not have any family or relatives to look after them, Nermine and Warda are there for them. They feel that they are able to connect and support their students in the way they do due to the age of the students and also because they are themselves closer in age to their pupils, having grown up in much more similar circumstances and the recency of them: “Because the children are mostly between 15 and 18 years old, and because I am 23 and Warda is 24, we are close in age. So what we say as advice, they take it straight away. Now we talk casually, and even when we say that ‘you did this thing wrong and you shouldn’t have’, they don’t take it with sadness. They understand it, and we discuss it. They are always eager to talk and hear our perspectives,” says Nermine.
Nermine and Warda’s impact is not something that can be measured, as they both have taken on multiple roles at the organization, more importantly in the lives of the many children they educate. Together they provide for their developmental needs as students as well as young individuals and help them find their place in the world, with the challenges they have encountered in their youth. Educators like Nermine and Warda leave a bigger footprint on their students, which goes beyond the classroom and influences the type of person and character that each young person grows into, allocating not only a physical safe space in the classroom, but also the greater emotional and mental well-being of each child.