Meet Aref

Meet Aref.

Happy to help anyone in any way he can, Aref has opted to spend all of his days as a volunteer: Monday to Friday at OHF, and his weekends at Movement on The Ground. Although he is a skilled tailor, Aref is happy to put his hand and mind to anything, in or out of his volunteer work: whether that means cleaning, translating, or finding information on the help available for a pregnant woman in the camp.

Although Aref is an Afghan, he has never seen his home country, having been born a refugee in Iran. He believes that ‘knowledge is the best tool to fight ignorance, injustice and lack of culture’ and hopes that one day all the people of his country will be literate so that they can educate themselves and make a better future. Aref loves to read and his favourite book, which he highly recommends is The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy.

On a personal level, Aref’s biggest dream is to be a successful business man and he has already begun to formulate a plan to achieve this goal. He remembers falling in love with Manchester United watching David Beckham in the 90’s. Like many men born in the 80’s, he would love to visit Old Trafford one day, and one of his more fun dreams is off talking to Alex Ferguson.

He is living in dire conditions in the new camp with his elderly mother who has diabetes, but knows that he must make the most of this time as he is hopeful that soon she will be moved to somewhere more suitable. Even just running water and a floor would be an improvement from their current ‘home’: a tent in the new camp. He will be very happy for her, if she is lucky enough to be chosen to move, however, he knows that he will also be very sad to be alone for the first time, as the rest of his family have already been moved, whilst he remains bound to the island by inhumane, inexplicable and inexcusable European politics.

We are very honoured to have Aref in our team. Thank you so much!

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