"I wish that… there is no pain in anyone's heart - that they have to leave their own home behind and come to a place where they have to experience all these insults and loss of dignity.”

Mana 32, is an Iranian refugee living in Germany. In her first months in the country she lived in refugee homes that were “dirty” and that made her feel “unsafe.” She experienced “anti-foreigner” hostility, including stones thrown at windows of the centre she stayed in and being spat at. She doubted her decision: “Sometimes I was sitting in the street and starting to cry,” she says. "Were the [better] conditions of living in Europe worth someone insulting you, destroying your dignity, looking at you as 'foreigner'?" Her experiences have "caused me to... grow to understand what is really happening around you - life is not as beautiful as you think." Previously, Mana dreamt of becoming a social worker; today, her dream is still to "help people who are really in need, both financially and morally.”