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Interculturality Interculturality
Cultural Impact in the Life of Refugees
Agnes, 30 years old. Eritrea.
by Martha Paola Luna García
6th semester Psychology
English 6th level
Teacher: LAN María Andrade Patiño
� is is my story. My name is Agnes…
I left Eritrea four years ago with my husband. He served in the
army and could not keep us. Sadly, when we left him, he was
imprisoned. Many people went to jail for no reason in Eritrea.
We headed to Sudan. We spent three years from one place to
another, looking for work and trying to earn enough money to
come to Europe. We fi nally saved a little, but it wasn’t enough
for everyone, so I got out of there with my daughter. My husband
could not come with us.
It was very diffi cult to cross the desert between Sudan and Libya. We did it in seven days,
without stopping, crammed in a car, with many people. After crossing the border, we moved
from one city to another until we reached Tripoli. We traveled in containers, like animals or
things. It was very dark and very hot inside. Many people fainted and, for this reason, some
died. Libya is a very dangerous place. � ere are many armed people. Some belonging to the
Islamic State. � ey killed a lot of people in seconds.
When we arrived in Tripoli, we locked ourselves in a house with about 600 or 700 people.
We had no water to wash, food was scarce, and we were forced to sleep on each other. It was
very hard for my daughter, she got sick several times. � ere was a lot of violence. � ey hit
me with their hands, with sticks, with guns. If you moved, they hit you. If you spoke, they
hit you. We spent two months like that, being beaten every day. � ey asked us to pay to go
to Europe, so we paid $ 1,700 for myself and my daughter.
We were lucky because they placed the women and children on the deck of the ship. � e
rest of the people stayed down in the dark, and there was a lot of heat. I could hear some of
them saying they could not breathe. I knew the trip would be very dangerous and diffi cult,
especially for my daughter. But there was no choice, we could not have survived in Eritrea
or Sudan. Our government does not allow people to leave. With our documents in Eritrea, we
had no choice but to reach Europe.
Getting away from the place where you grew up and leaving behind all your loved ones can be
extremely awful. Common symptoms that migrants suff er are sadness, crying, stress, feelings
of insecurity and rejection by the native population. � is becomes especially traumatic when
fl eeing the country of origin, whether for political reasons or for natural disasters, involves
a life or death situation.
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Cultural Impact in the Life of Refugees
Alek Wek
by Paola López Ibarra
2nd Psychology
English 6th level
LAN María Andrade Patiño
She was born in 1977. She is a model, clothing designer and activist in support
of refugees. � is last occupation is because she was a refugee. She escaped
from her country South Sudan. She had to face that terrible situation because
the civil war occurred there when she was only nine years old. Alek and her
family got out of there, hiding in the woods, where they had been surviving
looking for food and living in abandoned cabins. Fortunately for her and her
family, they were allowed to get in the United Kingdom. � anks to that, she
was able to blow up the fashion world and become what she is today. She is
now a great example for women.
Her entire life changed, from being a refugee to become the world´s fi rst
black model, she has broken the canons of beauty for becoming a worldwide
icon in the fashion industry and that is why she has been one of the most
recognized models.
At present, she has been promoting the refugees’ rights and she hasn’t stopped fi ghting to make
her land a better place. She was appointed the ACNUR Goodwill Ambassador in 2013, after
years of dedication and commitment. She has been an example of tenacity and determination
and this is why her career has grown quite a lot in the fashion world.
With her organization, she has visited refugees, she has also contributed to giving voice to her
cause through various projects. As in 2016, she joined the World Refugee Day by recording,
together with other high-profi le collaborators, refugees and ACNUR staff , a video message
of solidarity with forcibly displaced people around the world. She also intervened in the
delivery of the #With� eRefugees petition to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
She has become the face of the H&M Christmas campaign, which raised 3 million for ACNUR
and helped pay for the education of refugee children.
Alex has honored the organization due to the gala of the American Arab Institute in 2016,
where she off ered the Khalil Gibran Prize to the Deputy High Commissioner, Kelly Clements,
who collected it on behalf of ACNUR, and at the German Sustainability Awards in 2015, in
which she gave an honorary recognition to the then High Commissioner Antonio Guterres.
She also helped launch the Sustainable Development Goals at the 2015 Social Good Summit
in New York.
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