Teens In A Refugee Camp Have Launched Their Own Creative Magazine About What Life There Is Really Like

While you guys may have been revising for your big summer exams, young people living in Ritsona refugee camp in Greece were working on their own project.

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They’d had a vision: to launch their own magazine filled with the creative expression of young people living in the camp. And with the help of Lighthouse Relief Hellas’ Youth Engagement Space they were able to do it, and it was published in time for International Youth Day.

If you’re going to read one (more) thing today, make it the Ritsona Kingdom Journal.

Filled with art work, cooking recipes, poems, photographs and more, the Ritsona Kingdom Journal contains the hopes, fears, and musings of young people hoping to shed light on what life is really like in a refugee camp. And they didn’t just think up the mag - they oversaw each stage in its creation, from its design and layout to its distribution.

Saman Hassani from Iran created this piece of art in Issue 1:

And this fashion section showcases the jewellery young people have been making in the camp:

In 2016 the refugee crisis was a huge focus of global news features and humanitarian campaigns, but recently it’s been side-lined with all the Brexit/ Donald Trump/ terrorism news. It’s easy to forget that victims of war are still struggling to live meaningful lives while stranded in camps, having often witnessed terrible things and been separated from their families.

We LOVE Ritsona Kingdom Journal and everything it represents. It serves as a HUGE reminder about how dehumanising the word “refugees” can become and how refugee camps are filled with such a diverse group of individuals - many of whom are incredibly passionate and creative. It shows us that young people there, just like others around the world, are filled with the desire to learn and create, and the ambition to make something of themselves.

Youth Ritsona are apparently aiming to publish one issue every two months so keep an eye out… but in the meantime, read Issue 1 or Issue 2 here!