Waves to Home

by Manal Rashid

Zoya Miari is a Ukrainian-Palestinian refugee who grew up in Lebanon. In the midst of the war in 2021, her family emigrated to Ukraine. In 2022, the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, and her family once again emigrated to Switzerland. Her story is living proof that despite the challenges one faces, being a refugee twice, she emerges as one of the inspiring young women around the world.

For Zoya, she has firsthand experience of the double standard refugees face. Introducing herself as a Ukrainian, she finds it easy for others to be empathetic to her. While dehumanizing the Palestinian side and their struggles, the Western media has humanized the Ukrainian side. For Zoya, storytelling is the way for her to negate the stereotypes of refugees and transform the narrative to a motivating, human-to-human conversation about herself.

Inspired by her mission of story telling, she participated in One Young World, A summit for leaders to connect and share with other young leaders. Ahead of this, she started Waves To Home, a movement connecting refugees and migrants to share their pain and life with the world, and to escape the invisible pain that lingers with them. In this movement, she helps other refugees open up about their trauma and find friendship despite the painful past. Via helping refugees connect with others through a natural, interpersonal exchange, her work continues to help others to deal with their anguish.

The pain of refugees can be transformed into a stronger, greater voice to dictate to the world that being a refugee is not limiting, but rather it is a sign for a warrior and a fighter to emerge victorious despite all the odds.

Zoya’s inspiring work is creating wonders for others. She works closely with Sudanese storytellers as well as members of other diasporas to uplift those who have been through war and ordeal. What all refugees share, that is, struggle and pain, have the power to speak against injustice.

Source:https://www.icip.cat/perlapau/en/article/interview-with-zoya-miari-palestinian-ukrainian-refugee/