Because no one can best describe what AWoN is, means and feels like but Practitioners themselves, here is a selection of the reflections some of us shared as we returned home after AWoN’s 2025 Annual Summit in the east of Poland.
Zoé Balakrishnan, AWoN Board member, France
There’s a place where I feel at home, wherever we are. This year’s Summit took place in Podlasie, Poland – and it was a rollercoaster of emotions. From the joy of seeing each other again and the satisfaction of how the network has grown in a couple of years, to the sadness and anger of what’s happening deep in the forest since 2021.
Visiting one of the only Muslim cemeteries in the country, where the local Tatar community takes it upon themselves to bury the few identifiable victims of the forest, and seeing friends who have survived the Blue Border of the Mediterranean take the time to honour each of them is a memory I will keep in my heart forever.
Testimony by Zoé Balakrishnan, picture by Pedro Amaro Santos