Inside Geneva
A podcast from SWI swissinfo.ch, a multilingual international public service media company from Switzerland, where Imogen Foulkes puts big questions facing the world to the experts working to tackle them in Switzerland’s international city.
Inside Geneva
Summer profiles: using sport to unite refugees and host communities
In the fourth episode of our summer profile series on Inside Geneva, we talk to a Geneva career woman and a Geneva asylum-seeker about a project to unite communities through sport. Surely the world’s humanitarian capital is good at welcoming refugees and immigrants?
“We have all these international organisations working on various global challenges. But when you talk to people from Geneva, they don’t really know what’s happening in this bubble,” says Lena Menge, from the Geneva Graduate Institute and co-founder of Flag 21.
For asylum-seekers, arriving in a new country, even a safe one, can be hard.
“I was very lonely. It wasn’t easy. You feel lost and don’t really know what’s happening or where you are. It takes time to realise where you are and what you are supposed to do,” says Mahdie Alinejad, an asylum-seeker from Iran and a coach with Flag 21.
Flag 21 is a project that brings locals and asylum-seekers together – to run, swim, do yoga, and much more.
“Sport was actually a meaningful tool to include people in need, people that needed a community around them as well,” continues Menge.
The project benefits everyone.
“It’s not easy to have this confidence and grow in society as an immigrant. So this is a very good thing that they’re doing, giving opportunities to people who really need it, to find themselves, their space, their place and their confidence,” says Alinejad.
“They have such resilience and so much strength to share that you come away thinking ‘my God, my little problems are really nothing’,” concludes Menge.
Join host Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva to listen to the full interview.
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Host: Imogen Foulkes
Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain
Distribution: Sara Pasino
Marketing: Xin Zhang
This is Inside Geneva. I'm your host, imogen Fowkes, and this is a production from Swissinfo, the international public media company of Switzerland.
Speaker 3:In today's programme, Sport was actually a meaningful tool to include people in need, people that needed some community around them as well.
Speaker 4:It's not easy to have this confidence and grow in the society as an immigrant, so this is a very good thing that they're doing, to giving opportunities to people who really need it to find their self, their space, their place and their confidence.
Speaker 3:We have all these international organizations working on various global challenges, but when you talk to people from Geneva, they don't really know what's happening in this bubble.
Speaker 4:I'm still not feeling welcomed in this country because I'm not accepted. So don't't expect me to really feel that I love Switzerland. I'm still not in that point. I'm trying to have this love in my heart.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome back to Inside Geneva. I'm Imogen Fowkes, and regular listeners will know that this summer we've been bringing you a series of profiles about people who live and work in international Geneva. Chris Lockyer from MSF Doctors Without Borders told us about his work from Somalia to Gaza. We heard from Olav Valverde of Drugs for Neglected Diseases, about the success finding a treatment for sleeping sickness, and Legal Action Worldwide's Antonia Mulvey gave us an inspiring interview about her work defending women who have been victims of trafficking or sexual violence. Today we've got something a little bit different. Not one profile, but two.
Speaker 3:My name is Lena Menge. I'm the manager of strategic partnerships and public relations at the Geneva Graded Institute, which is a higher education institution based in Geneva.
Speaker 4:I'm Mahdia. I'm 29 years old, I'm from Iran and it's been five years that I'm almost living in Geneva. I'm an asylum seeker in Geneva, switzerland.
Speaker 2:Lena and Mahdiya live right here in Geneva. Lena is a high-flying professional at Geneva's Graduate Institute. Mahdi is an asylum seeker from Iran. She has been waiting for the Swiss authorities to decide her case for five years. So what do they have in common? Sport is the answer in a project called Flag 21, which came out of Lena's interest in social inclusion.
Speaker 3:I'm the president and co-founder of Flag 21, which is an association based in Geneva which aims to facilitate the social inclusion of refugees through sport.
Speaker 2:What inspired you to do that.
Speaker 3:It was actually a good exercise to prepare for this interview, because it allows you to take a step back and think okay, why did I actually choose to take the path I did? And actually I think I grew up in a German-speaking family here in Geneva and I experienced firsthand how you can be seen as different because you don't talk the same language as the others on the school background, and so I actually was always very interested to see how you can use these differences to bring them as a strength and not as exclusion. So I think it started from there somewhere. Um, and then I mean the different experiences I did in my past. I did an internship at unhr in brussels where I had the chance or the chance I don't know if it's a chance, but I had the opportunity to visit also some detention centres next to the airport where everyone could just see the airplane and wondering if you're in the next one on this one or not.
Speaker 3:Being sent back yeah, being sent back. So it actually showed me really this harsh reality of what these individuals were facing. I think we can indeed do more locally as well. I always imagined myself being I don't know, I aim to be a Human Rights Watch researcher on the ground, travelling the world. I actually worked at Human Rights Watch for a while as well, but I realised that this lifestyle wasn't for me, and I realised that you could still have a meaningful impact with local community initiatives. Well, tell me about.
Speaker 2:Flag 21. What is that like?
Speaker 3:Flag 21 actually started when I participated in a hackathon organized by Hospice Général, who is the main institution for social action in Geneva, and it's actually I don't know if you already participated in a hackathon, but it is really just a pool of so many people from different backgrounds that are coming up to brainstorm and develop innovative ideas, and I was actually part of a group who thought that sport was actually a meaningful tool to include people in need, people that needed some community around them as well, and this is how it started.
Speaker 3:And we actually chose the running because we thought it's actually a sport where you need a pair of running shoes and just a bit of motivation to walk up and do it. So it started like this and we have put in place training sessions on Saturday mornings in the Parc des Evives, next to the lake. We are offering trainings from beginners to advanced runners. It's open and free for everyone. We have great coaches, such as Madi, who are dedicated and who are great runners themselves, all with a refugee or asylum background, and it's actually a moment where for locals, for expats, for refugees, migrants I mean it's really it's a mix of population that come to one spot just to enjoy some sport and for an hour or two, you just forget your troubles, your, your challenges and, and I think, for many that are participating in our activities, it's just a moment where you have the impression to fit in somewhere which is not the, I guess, in their day-to-day life.
Speaker 2:Marty spent her first 10 months in Switzerland, not knowing anyone, not knowing what to do, and then she found Flag 21.
Speaker 4:It's very hard to wait for something that's all your life basically depending on that. But, as me personally, as I'm a person who saw that if I want to wait for this decision, especially a positive decision, I would have just wasted my time, so I decided to just move on and go on and don't think about this and don't wait for it. And I think it was almost 10 months that I've been arriving in Geneva that I found an association who are doing sports activities on Saturday morning. One of my friends presented to me and then I was interested because it's hard as immigrants to to engage with the society and do sports with with the group. So I found them. I went to the training on Saturday and I was really interested and I just kept going what kind of sports do you do?
Speaker 4:yeah, my, my first sport is swimming. Like now I'm coming from the pool, I'm all wet, but and then, besides that, I do fitness and running and I love swimming.
Speaker 2:Tell me, why you enjoy it, how does it make you feel?
Speaker 4:to be involved in that sport, like that it took me also a bit of time to really find this connection with doing sports, to not feeling that it's a burden, because, as I see many people, they found it very complicated. Some people, when we do sports together, they told me sometimes I prefer to just sit here and smoke. That broke my heart and I'm like why? Why are you not enjoying it? She's like, yeah, because it's so hard. They don't find this connection. I used to be like that, but then I tried to find this joy because, yes, it's good for the health and many things, but it's also good to find this connection because you need to enjoy it. And I think it's also kind of therapy for me, because, no matter how I feel before I start doing sports or meeting someone in a group to do sports, after I feel great, I totally forget what I was worried about before that. I totally don't remember the reason.
Speaker 1:We're going to stretch one knee, then the other, push one heel.
Speaker 2:But lest you think this is just another do-gooder project, with the worthy citizens of Geneva getting a feeling of virtuousness every weekend by running with refugees, you would be wrong, says Lena.
Speaker 3:FLAC 21,. What it is doing? It's just facilitating cultural exchanges to promote mutual understanding, respect, tolerance, which is breaking the stereotypes that each of us have in a way, and it's really strengthening this social cohesion. As someone that is born in Geneva, I didn't have many opportunities to be interacting with refugees or migrants, and I think this is also something we want to provide for Geneva-based people that they have to learn other cultures, understand them and maybe, of course, when you hear all the right-wing rhetoric that we have nowadays everywhere in the world, I mean it also shows you what people are and what they can bring to our host societies, and I think this is what FLAC21 wants to aim as well is really to have this two-sense integration, because we need to open up and I believe that you need to understand each other to have more inclusive, more sustainable societies.
Speaker 2:It's interesting though I mean Geneva is the humanitarian capital, that even here you feel like there's a lack of awareness. I mean the UN Refugee Agency is headquartered here.
Speaker 3:I think this brings a much broader issue that Geneva has. I mean, we have all these international organizations working on various global challenges, but when you talk to people from Geneva, they don't really know what's happening in this bubble and I think this is a more global issue. For those organizations to actually really do some awareness raising and indeed communication is one thing, but I think also in Geneva you might think okay, everything is fine in our country. All the issues that are talked about in international Geneva are not really our concern and they would be wrong. They would. Indeed, I'd say there is something moving in Geneva about these issues, but of course we should be doing much more to welcome refugees and migrants much better in our host societies.
Speaker 2:Flag 21 has been a huge success. It brings different communities together. They can learn from each other. The fear or mistrust of something or someone different soon disappears when you're all running together. Still, mahdi has her worries about her family back in Iran and about her uncertain status here.
Speaker 4:I used to be very worried, but now I'm just frustrated to have no like stable life. Worried, fortunately, I would say. My parents they okay living in Iran, but the situation is not good. So it's a kind of like a sadness really when you think about it and you like what will happen for people and my family and friends there. But that's why that's a motivation for us to keep fighting.
Speaker 2:And at Flag 21,. Have you met other asylum seekers, refugees?
Speaker 4:Actually, the base of this association is to give opportunities to the refugees, immigrants and all the coaches, their backgrounds are refugees and immigrants and all the coaches, their backgrounds are refugees and immigrants and they're from Iran, afghanistan, turkey, syria, ethiopia and I saw them. They're growing, they're just growing up, they're confident now. I saw them, they found jobs and they're really happy and I think, without doing small things before, it's not easy to have this confidence and grow in the society as an immigrant. So this is a very good thing that they're doing to giving opportunities to people who really need it to find their self, their space, their place and their confidence space, their place and their confidence.
Speaker 2:And Lena adds the strength the refugees and asylum seekers find from Flag 21.
Speaker 3:Sports activities goes both ways I learned a lot and I think, just going to the training sessions, you come back of these trainings. You talk to so many different people and you come back with such an energy I mean they have such a resilience, they have so much strength to share with you that you come back and you think, my god, my little problems are really nothing. So I think that's something. Just that I, since I launched the association, this is something for me that I always carried with me.
Speaker 3:What I I think is also interesting is, given that at the Geneva Graduate Institute, I'm really involved in this more big-picture lens on various policy issues, having this other hat with Black 21 is really giving me this more grounded local perspective that is much needed as well and that I think in international Geneva, sometimes the ground it seems quite far away from the discussions we have here. So I think that's also something that has brought me a lot. And to finish on this note, a positive note, I think, is that in the midst of crisis that we face globally today, I mean when you look at the news, it's just really depressing but I find FLAC21 to be, of course, on a more small and local scale, but a good testament to what the positive impact humanity can achieve when it takes time to understand the other, and I think our efforts at FLAG21 gives me hope and it shows that fostering empathy and connection can lead to really meaningful action and more inclusive societies.
Speaker 1:In front, in, front, in front In front, and when you jump, you exchange your feet. Look, you jump, you exchange your feet. There you go, you exchange and there you go.
Speaker 2:But we shouldn't underestimate the systemic problems that asylum seekers face. Mahdi has friends through Flag 21 and a regular structure to her week through training and coaching, but she is still waiting for a decision. Will she be granted refugee status or turned away? The isolation of her first few months in Switzerland has eased, but until she knows what her future will be, her life is, in a way in limbo.
Speaker 4:I was very lonely. I mean, I knew someone because at the beginning I was a roommate with someone and we just kept our friendship kind of. But it was lonely because I went to gym and I just kept going. But it wasn't easy to feel like lost. You really don't know what's happening. Where are you exactly? Take your time to realizing, okay, where am I exactly and what am I supposed to do. And when I found them, it was really good because you feel that, okay, now I found some people that I can connect with. How?
Speaker 2:do you see your future realistically and also optimistically? Maybe they're different.
Speaker 4:I mean, despite all the difficulties and like, sometimes I tell my partner that I'm still not feeling welcomed in this country because I'm not accepted, so don't expect me to to really feel that I love Switzerland, I'm still not in that point. I'm trying to to have this love in my heart but I cannot find any reason. So I will see myself that I, even now I settled and I really create my life, my, my friends, everything here, but and with my partner, that is very, very good, and be trying to build our life, our new life, together. So I will see a good future.
Speaker 4:But I would say it took many, many hard works and many years for me to arrive at this point because basically, the system didn't help me. People helped me a lot in Geneva, but the system didn't help me. The system just tried to stop me to surviving, to stop me to surviving, to living, to integrate, and it was all with me and the people were with me and helped me and if you're in Geneva and you'd like to get involved in Flag 21, you can find them at flag21.ch.
Speaker 2:Everyone's welcome. There are lots of different activities, and a good time and a warm welcome are guaranteed. My thanks to Lena and Mahdi for those inspiring interviews. It just goes to show that, despite the big problems our world faces and the often unsuccessful or unhelpful policy approaches from our governments, ordinary citizens working together on something that might sound small can actually make a big and very positive difference. Next time, on Inside Geneva, we'll be continuing our series of summer profiles with human rights defender Fereshta Abasi. Originally from Afghanistan, she's now a regular in Geneva and her focus is defending Afghan women's rights.
Speaker 5:I was scared and I could see it coming. Yes, I mean, I think for women of Afghanistan we need that. Taliban taking over Afghanistan means that it will be a dark future for women.
Speaker 2:It's three years since the Taliban took over, and the restrictions on women are becoming by the day more brutal. So what can Fereshteh, her colleagues and we do to help?
Speaker 5:I think it's very important to stand with them, to listen with them and to amplify their voices. It's very difficult to think of a better Afghanistan, a brighter future for women under the Taliban rule. I want to believe and hold my strength together that this madness cannot last.
Speaker 2:Join us next time on Inside Geneva. Join us next time. Get your podcasts. Check out our previous episodes how the International Red Cross unites prisoners of war with their families, or why survivors of human rights violations turn to the UN in Geneva for justice. I'm Imogen Folks. Thanks again for listening.
