Phone

Cédric is a 35 year old man. He is from Cameroon, but he had to leave his country in 2019. He traveled first to Turkey, then to Greece by boat, where he lost all his belongings. He spent four difficult years in Greece without documents, working to survive and starting to write books. Later, he was relocated to Romania through a European program, obtained legal status in five months, and now lives and works in Bucharest.

When he arrived in Greece, on the Island of Kos, he was not in touch with his family for four to six months. With his first earnings he managed to buy a 50 euros phone. The black device is little, plenty of scratches, ruined, with a damaged princess sticker on the rear panel. It may seem old-fashioned, it may appear as a basic object. But the phone was the only way to reconnect with his beloved ones, with his past.

At that time, this amount of money carried an overwhelming emotional and material weight, as Cédric explained that it felt equivalent to hundreds or even thousands of euros. The phone itself was likely a very basic, low-cost device, chosen not for its features or performance, but for its sole practical function: communication.

Most importantly, the phone represented far more than a simple object. After months of complete isolation, it became his first real link back to the outside world. The device symbolized emotional survival and continuity: bridging the gap between displacement and belonging. For Cédric, the phone was not a consumer good but a lifeline: a fragile yet essential tool that restored a minimal sense of stability, presence, and connection to his identity and past.

A symbol of survival, dignity and resilience.