7/8/17
It is one week today since I started volunteering in Samos, Greece with Samos Volunteers.
From day one the team here have blown me away with their commitment and relentless drive and determination to deliver the best support they can to residents of the camp.
Although the island looks like an instagram hotspot of turquoise seas and sandy beaches, the truth beneath the surface is far from idealistic. In fact, it's horrifying.
The refugee crisis in Greece has slipped from media focus of late, but it has certainly not gone away. In fact, it's getting a lot worse. The camp here is hugely over capacity with Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis - men, women, children, families - all fleeing conflict and persecution, in hope of a safe life. In the short time that I've been here, we've had over 160 new arrivals.
Instead of arriving in Greece and finding safety however, they are inside thrust inside a giant 'cage' - for lack of a better term - that has double the residents it should. Instead of safety, they are subject to poor sanitation, unhygienic living quarters, cramped conditions, and (perhaps most poignantly): uncertainty and total entrapment.
Many of them do not know when they will be able to leave the island. They are imprisoned in bureaucratic limbo, victims of a failed system that is not living up to the promises it made under the UN Refugee Convention.
Since being here with Samos Volunteers, I've entertained masses of energetic children, had my hair braided by several very excitable Syrian girls, sorted piles of donated toys for upcoming Eid celebrations (in an attempt to give traumatised children a shred of normality), distributed sweet chai tea in the very early hours of the morning, rocked exhausted babies to sleep, and much more. Yet it never feels like enough.
The same thought occurs to me everyday as I walk through the giant iron-cement pen that is 'camp': this could be any of us.
The only thing that separates us is a lottery of birth. We are all human. Yet some of us get chucked in a cage when we arrive in a certain location, and some of us do not.
And that just isn't fucking fair.
To support the work Samos Volunteers are doing in Greece - providing normality, education and support to severely traumatised individuals on a daily basis - please visit their website and donate. Absolutely every penny counts:
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