Uncategorized

By David Jay Green 

For two weeks last month my wife and I provided volunteer service in a refugee camp on the Greek island of Chios. The camp houses roughly 1,000 people mostly men, predominantly from Syria or Iraq-people who crossed the few kilometers of open sea from Turkey to the European Union member Greece. We worked for a Norwegian NGO, A Drop in the Ocean, generally helping with the serving of meals. The camp we worked at was a collection of plastic tents crowded together in what had been a moat for an old castle. There are very minimal services available to the people in the camp and during the recent heat wave the living conditions were quite difficult.

The end of July was a busy couple of weeks for the Warehouse and Distribution Market in Skaramagas. Here are some of the stories:

19 August marked the one year anniversary of Abeer Yaseen´s arrival in Norway. The woman from Latakia in Syria fled with her four daughters to Turkey to escape the war in her home country. Her daughters, aged 17, 14 and 7(twins), are now living with their grandmother in Turkey while waiting for family reunification. The process is tedious, and Abeer has not seen her children for more than 18 months.

This is her story.

Yesterday, Shara and I (Trude) had the opportunity to visit Bahez, Bayan and Nabaz in Zurich. Almost three months have passed since they were brought from Greece to Switzerland. Both Bahez and his mother have gone through more surgeries and treatment in Switzerland, and young Bahez is just recently out of hospital. Their recovery is amazing!