The child refugee and the big red bicycle

Mevan Babakar and her parents fled Iraq when she was only an infant. Over the next five years they travelled through and lived in multiple countries including Russia and the Netherlands before eventually settling in the UK.

It was a difficult and sometimes dangerous journey. Mevan only has limited memories of that time but one that stands out is the kindness of a stranger in the Netherlands who gifted her a red bicycle. That bicycle gave Mevan permission to be a child and allowed her for the first time to feel unadulterated happiness.

Years later, as an adult Mevan decided to revisit her childhood experiences, retracing their footsteps from Iraq to the UK which involved an unplanned and moving reunion.

Mevan has written a children’s book about her experience called The Bicycle: How an Act of Kindness Changed a Young Refugee’s Life.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Tom Harding Assinder

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(Photo: Mevan Babakar as a child and an illustration of Mevan and her bicycle. Photo credit: Mevan Babakar; Image credit: Yas Imamura)