Shezad K. is 16. He fled Afghanistan two years ago. Back home, he witnessed his family perish before his eyes, and after many years of struggling on his own in the unsafe streets of his hometown, had to flee to seek international protection. On arrival to Serbia, with the help of lawyers from the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, a partner of the UN Refugee Agency, in September 2018 Shehzad applied for refugee status with the Government of Serbia which provided him safe accommodations, access to education, health services, and a new start.
For a week this winter, thanks to Belgrade’s “Sports for All” association, Shezad was able to experience childhood again in Serbia’s mountain resort Kopaonik. Here, along with seven other refugee and displaced children separated from their families, he formed a team they called the “Legends of Pirates” and participated in 21st International Winter Games Festival. They joined children from the region between 10 and 15 years of age and competed with them in Nordic skiing, sled races and treasure hunts.
Shezad doesn’t talk much about his traumatic past, but finds comfort in art:
“I started drawing when I came to Serbia. What I like the most about it is the tranquillity and peace it gives me. One day, I would like to have a home in the mountains, like here, in Kopaonik. Then I would be able to focus on my drawing,” says Shezad while sketching a family sitting not far from him. Shezad attends an atelier supported by a personal donation from a Serbian artist. His work will soon be displayed at his first public exhibition in May at the Children’s Cultural Centre in Belgrade.
Like fellow teenagers in Serbia, Shezad enjoys going to school, where he is learning a much needed skill at a technical school in Belgrade. “I like the fact that I am learning to become a carpenter, because I will have a trade one day,” said Shezad, gazing over the mountain peaks.
Igor Milikić, the boys’ legal guardian under the UNHCR project with Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, who accompanied the eight teenagers to the Festival said: “They all fit in with the other kids perfectly! They made a lot of new friends from Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro. There were even some tears while saying goodbye!”
The UN Refugee Agency is able to support refugees like Shezad thanks to generous support from donors like the United States of America, with whose help Shezad and many other refugee children enjoy safe, productive and dignified childhood – and a future.
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