Meet Joy
At Roma Termini train station. Rome, Italy; 2 November 2018. © Pamela Kerpius/Migrants of the Mediterranean
Meet Joy.
25 years old and from Benin City, Nigeria.
I asked Joy her age and she said, “1993,” the year she was born. She is soft spoken, shy to the point of being almost invisible, and like almost all women migrants we meet, reluctant, unsure and unconfident in herself to speak.
Our friend Pazi introduced us to her, knowing she had a very important story to tell about her experience traveling through Libya and across the sea to Italy, where she landed in October 2016––the same month as Pazi’s arrival.
Pazi bumped into her on her way to catch the train back to her housing camp that is three hours of commuting from central Rome. We took the ten minutes we had together on the plaza aside the entrance of Termini station to introduce ourselves.
We will connect with Joy again in the coming months to further document her journey story and years spent living in Rome as a migrant.
Joy is an amazing human being.