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One happy day

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Seventeen honoured children – from places including Afghanistan, China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – sat under blue UN flags to receive state recognition. They have all taken refuge in the Czech Republic. The government and the United Nations have decided to pay tribute to them. Even though all 17 began school here without knowing a single Czech word, they have gradually achieved excellent results and many of them are now counted among the top pupils. In the mirrored hall at the Education Ministry, they are now winning the applause they deserve. Because this is an extraordinary success.

Three years ago, one family, for example, took a few personal belongings and left their home with their hearts full of fear. They succeeded in secretly crossing the Turkish border, and with fake passports they got Czech visas. This is, in brief, the story of the Shera family from Syria. On the run was a mother with five children, of whom the youngest was 6 years old at the time. They are Kurdish, which means members of a persecuted Syrian minority. The children’s father, because of his origin, disappeared into a Syrian jail five years ago, and no one has heard from him since.


The family spent two years seeking asylum in the Czech refugee camp in Kostelec nad Orlicí. They all lived in one room there, and the kids started to go to the local elementary school. “It was terrible,” Roz Shera said. “We were totally frightened and nervous. Everyone was just watching us in some strange way. In the beginning, they just laughed at us because of our awkwardness and ignorance. We don’t like thinking back to that.” But things started to get better gradually. “The Czech language is the key,” she said. “When we learnt a few words, children started to be more gentle and even curious: who we are, what Muslims are, what is our culture like, and so on. It was a huge relief.” What she never forgets is the help of teacher Hana Stará: “She was like our second mother. She was interested in us a lot and was very friendly. Actually the whole school tried to help us in the end.” The Shera children say that the main thing was to learn as many Czech words as possible in the shortest amount of time. “But I think it is not that difficult of a language,” she said. “Kurdish sounds more complicated to me, but mainly it does not have what the Czech language does: all those words and diminutives that sound so beautiful.”

After-school lessons and a better knowledge of the language led to her first achievements: Last year, Roz, the oldest of the children, was the first to receive the Education Ministry award for top pupils, and three of her brothers and sisters followed this year – Silva (9), Judi (11) and Kolilk (14).




Their private lives improved as well. A year ago, the family was granted asylum and moved to a new flat in Josefov u Jaroměře, which is part of the government asylum programme. In a simple flat and with a CZK 9,000 allowance from the authorities, they started a new life: The mother, until recently illiterate, has the chance to go to school for the first time in her life and is taking Czech lessons, while the kids have fully integrated themselves into the local youth. Judi is a forward on the football team, and Kolilk attends singing lessons. Roz started to study at a business school in Hradec Králové, and Silva likes drawing pictures full of non-Syrian motifs such as snowmen and princesses, and she likes fairytales such as the one about the gingerbread house. Judi reads stories by Karel Čapek, and they all show off their knowledge of other classic Czech fairytales such as Karel Jaromír Erben’s Kytice and Božena Němcová’s Babička. 



Simply put: It’s hard to tell that the new inhabitants are not Czech. However, they do not forget about their native country. They try to be in touch with their three oldest siblings, who have their own families and stayed in Syria; the children also watch Arabic television, and Roz reads Arabic books on the internet. “Our relations with Czechs of the same age are perfect, I think,” Roz said. “For example I was pleased so much when they chose me in a poll as the most popular schoolmate and some even wrote an essay on me. That was a great honour. Another was when they called on me to teach an entire lesson about Syria and the Kurdish. At the moment, we are somewhere in the beginning, and I think it will be better and better because we all have our dreams: like to become a lawyer, an ambassador or a doctor. But I only wish that our mother were happier: She misses our father, she doesn’t go out much, she cries a lot and has pain in her back. But we have definitely managed to do one thing already: We have found our true home in the Czech Republic.”

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