Lesvos, Day 1 - 4 Dec. 2015
After a 12-hour, cold and sleepless overnight ferry ride from Athens we arrived at noon on Friday at the beautiful city of Mytilini on island of Lesbos (pronounced as Lez-vos). It was a sunny and warm day. We checked in to our cute little AirBnB apartment, had a quick lunch near the port and headed right to meet up with some friends at the Moria camp, an un-official, un-official camp for non-Syrian refugees. This camp is made up of a mix of cultures who come from so-called non-war-torn countries. Many of these people are considered more as economic refugees and it takes much longer for them to be processed and given the right to move on. A Syrian camp is nearby, and is a very well-organized, tightly controlled, UN-run facility (with police, high fences, first-aid, etc.). At the Moria camp there is little to no UN or official organized organization being done at this camp. This is not to say there is not a lot of work being done, however, as there is! By very dedicated volunteers from various small relief organizations. The flurry of activity was amazing to watch. We're working closely with a few volunteer from Cyprus Cares but, in a general sense, the camp is moderately organized chaos and there are a few thousand refugees in this camp hoping for a chance to a better life somewhere in Europe. The camp is set up in a remote rocky field, lighting is by generator for the cooking tent, the medical tent and a few other locations but otherwise lighting and heating is by open campfires set up by the refugees themseves. There wasn't much for us to do that night so we only unloaded the supplies for the medical tent and some of the clothing before heading back to our apartment for a good night's sleep.
Day 2 - 5 Dec. 2015
We were told that organization was desperately needed at the nearby storage warehouse so we headed there Saturday morning. Mainly it is just a large garage full of bags and boxes of clothing (see enclosed photo). New shipments come several times a week and there are not enough volunteers to sort it all. So, our job was to help get it organized and functioning more like a warehouse with a receiving, sorting, storage and shipping system where other camps can come and pull the supplies they need.
We purchased three large plywood sheets as table tops and the next-door iron workers made us some metal sawhorses in order to create a long sorting table. But, first we needed to create some floor space and thanks to several volunteers who came and went throughout the day we managed to not only arrange space but added some lighting (no electricity or water available to the space) and begin the assembly of some metal shelving (more photos to come - if I find my camera tomorrow. No idea where I left it!).
More tomorrow.
From Alan Stone fb : https://www.facebook.com/alanNstone?fref=nf
We were told that organization was desperately needed at the nearby storage warehouse so we headed there Saturday morning. Mainly it is just a large garage full of bags and boxes of clothing (see enclosed photo). New shipments come several times a week and there are not enough volunteers to sort it all. So, our job was to help get it organized and functioning more like a warehouse with a receiving, sorting, storage and shipping system where other camps can come and pull the supplies they need.
We purchased three large plywood sheets as table tops and the next-door iron workers made us some metal sawhorses in order to create a long sorting table. But, first we needed to create some floor space and thanks to several volunteers who came and went throughout the day we managed to not only arrange space but added some lighting (no electricity or water available to the space) and begin the assembly of some metal shelving (more photos to come - if I find my camera tomorrow. No idea where I left it!).
More tomorrow.
From Alan Stone fb : https://www.facebook.com/alanNstone?fref=nf
0 σχόλια :
Δημοσίευση σχολίου