Six days in Athens and feeling like I know how to get around just one area of town. Traffic is insane. Today I walked for two hours as I don’t know when I’ll be back. Everything seems so expensive — I wonder how the refugees can afford living here if they get asylum. Valerie Hellermann continues to talk with medical [...]
OMG I am devastated. My friend and colleague “AA” has just received his second asylum rejection today. Hands On Global worked with this man for over six months in the medical clinic. He is a hard worker, always putting in the extra time and energy, with great kindness. This man, from an unnamed African country, had been [...]
I have been in Athens and last evening arrived in Lesvos. It is difficult to figure out what is going on with the refugees situation. We met with the MVI team leaders. They say the island camps have less than 3000 refugees that 1000 s have left for the mainland and there are many homeless [...]
Both excitement and hesitation visit me as I’m driving back to Kara Tepe 2 refugee camp on Lesvos Island Greece. I know I’ll see many familiar faces of both foreigners and refugees when I arrive. This creates mixed feelings. I would hope that all of the refugee friends that I had previously made would have been [...]
Oh, today in the camp was really cold again. Dr Taha and I visited 3 refugee families all with a member who is medically fragile, and one single woman. I am going to tell you her story. She is 24 and from Somalia. 5 years ago she fled Somalia to a refugee camp in Yemen. It [...]
Finished last clinic here at camp. I have loved working with the CMA and Healthbridge translators, the CMA team, the EODY team, MVI and the ABS German team. Each person did their best to deliver the best health care possible in very challenging conditions. It has been an honor to work together. I am very [...]
The wind was said to be 100 km. The noise in the tent was like a continuous roar and the ropes beating loudly on the walls. The wind so strong that my translator and I were knocked over a table and held there by the weight of the tent wall blowing in. The rain was torrential. [...]
This report is real. I have just seen the photo documentation of this event. I am shaking with pain for this inhumane situation -- THINGS ARE GETTING OUT OF CONTROL HERE. From Aegean Boat report. A human rights ngo monitoring the Aegean: On Saturday November 28th, at 22.00, a boat carrying 18 people landed in Ag. [...]
From CHOOSE LOVE NGO: We cannot allow the truth about conditions in Greek camps to be hidden. New rules in Greece mean that anyone working inside refugee camps will now be bound by a confidentiality clause which could be used to ban them from sharing anything they see or hear. This censorship will make it harder [...]
Sunday. Day off. Tama and I went north to the life jacket graveyard to get life jackets for making bracelets. As we left the Skala skimos, the northern part of the island where refugee rafts generally come in, about 15 minutes north on a dirt road we came across a refugee camp. We were shocked. I [...]
