Alganesh Fessaha

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends,

today I wish to thank you for the great honor you bestowed on me by planting a tree with my name into the Garden of the Righteous with.

However, from today, on that tree, in this town that has adopted me, on a hill that was created upon the debris of war, I wish the inscription was dedicated to dozens thousands names.

They are the names of the 23,000 people who are estimated to have drowned and now lie in the Mediterranean’s seabed, victims of the death journeys that for over 20 years have caused grief and pain. These are the names of the thousands victims whose corpses lie unburied in the Sahara and Sinai deserts, who starved in the exhausting journeys even before they could reach the Mediterranean, without even being able to dream of Europe and freedom from the North African coasts.

These people have been humiliated in their dignity, often mercilessly tortured to death by traffickers to extort money from their relatives. These are the people whose corpses were found in Sinai, deprived of their organs. They could not pay for their freedom, so the death merchants who abducted them sold parts of their body - as if they were animals.

On that there are also the names of the hundreds victims of the shipwreck of 3 October 2013 in Lampedusa, who still do not have a grave; there are also the names of the survivors the Ong Gandhi helped and helps still in their difficult return to life in many European countries. There are the names of the ones died of cold in the sea a few days ago, killed by the cold temperature in the same moment an Italian ship was saving them.

On that tree there are the names of the people imprisoned in Libia by the military groups, while waiting to go on board of pontoons and rafts, in any sea condition, at the price of 4 thousands dollars each.

That tree recalls us the forgotten stories: the tragedies of thousands mothers and fathers who do not know anything about their sons and daughters anymore. It lets us remember that, during the first fifteen years of this new century, humanity saw the return of slaves trade, that flourishes on the skin of women, men and children on the run from wars, conflicts and dictatorships. Regimes as the one that is emptying my country of origin, Eritrea, of his young people, forced to life-long military service in a State where there is no freedom or development perspectives. Untill the day when peace and democracy will be in Africa and Middle East, the routes of death will be gone through.

But that tree is not only memory of an immense sorrow - it is also a sign of life and hope.

With the Ong Gandhi we saved from the hands of the Sinai traffickers of death hundreds of women, men and children, by taking them in Mai Aini refugee camps. And there, life starts again. That tree is my committment to contribute to their future perspectives, not to leave them alone, not to forget their terrible life conditions. I hope, with the help of yours and of many friends, to continue this path on their side.

Thank you.

Alganesh