by Beki My story of


Courage


Beki Avdyli is 32, and was brought up in Pristina, Kosovo. In September 1998, as war struck her home country, she fled with her brother and sister to the UK. She now lives in Glasgow with her three- year-old son.


‘At the time it was very bad,’ she remembers. ‘We had to escape. There were no flights going out of Pristina so we had to cross the border to Istanbul, and then to Greece.


From Greece we came to London. I was granted refugee status after six months. It was quick - because the government knew exactly what was happening in Kosovo.


‘It’s so scary thinking back to the war. I remember if you wanted just to go to the shops, there were police on every corner. You couldn’t do anything; the schools were closed. They didn’t even let us learn Albanian, our own language.


Beki has been in Scotland for 12 years now, and works for local drama and community groups with refugees from all over the world. ‘Everybody needs help when they have bad experiences – even Scottish people,’ she adds. ‘Nobody chooses to leave their home. But if someone needs help, why shouldn’t they get it?’


Beki is a member of cultural groups AlbScott and Clan Macondo, who are staging Colours of Life during Refugee Week. For more details see page 11.


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