I had a very exciting email out of the blue from an organisation called FAKTI. They are a refugee centre for women and children in the centre of Copenhagen. A safe and welcoming place where women can come to learn Danish and English; to converse in their own languages with other refugees and to have access to legal and medical aid while they prepare their applications for asylum in Denmark.
These people have suffered great hardships in their journey to Copenhagen which leave physical and emotional scars long after their applications have been processed. Many continue to attend the Fakti Centre to help new arrivals once they have established new lives in the city.
I was invited to come and stay with a Danish woman and her family for a long weekend and build a bread oven in a 'Garden of Tranquility' which is being built by the women on land adjoining the centre. Mette met me at the airport in a nissan micra full of kids clothes, car seats, bags of clay and a wheelbarrow.
We gathered materials from the farm she lives on and volunteer help from the centre, among Mette's friends and family, and a Catalan father and daughter who were 'Wwoof'ing for the summer holidays. The women at the centre recognised the process of making cob for the oven from their own experience in Syria and Afghanistan and taught the skinny Danish men how to put their backs into it. 9 nationalities were represented and language was no barrier.
The act of making over the scrub land is in itself a balm to many. For those without the strength to help dig over beds, the garden will become a place to meet, have meals, for children to play and for scars to begin to fade. One of the key elements of the garden is an earthen bread oven.
For me, the Danish attitude to asylum seekers puts the British attitude to shame and I am not surprised that a rising number of disillusioned young men are becoming radicalised in the UK. These women have a place to find support and education they can feel empowered to make the most of their chances in Europe. If they need help with their children, they can find it here. When I left, they cried at the taste of home I had helped them build in their Danish garden. I cried to be leaving.
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| The boys learning how it's done |
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| Homemade biscuits and hot coffee for the workers |
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| Mixing clay slip |
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| Women together |
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| Mette, loving her oven |
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| English and Danish work boots |
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| Planning the garden design |
