I have never met so many traumatized people in my whole life. Every single person. Those who agreed to talk and tell their stories, and those who choked up just at the thought of recounting the horrors they have been through.  

They stay here at Baobab because they have nowhere else to go. Some have been in government shelters until their time there has run out. They have no money. Maybe they don’t have legal status. They come to this place, this informal site run by volunteers, and they stay here under the shelter of a tent, at mercy to the elements.  

They need so much assistance, assistance we, in Europe, if we had the heart, would be able to give.  

So many so traumatized. Shocked by the capacity of man to do such horrific things to man.  

My dreams have been disrupted by what I have heard here. And I have only heard it. Not experienced it. Not lived it. Libya. The country where all horror lives.  

Surely we can do better to help these young men whose only wish was to live and dream big.  

April 2018