Written by Bjørn Gunnar Saltnes
Bjørn Gunnar, Cand.Paed (M.Ed), has worked in Scandinavian University Press and Aschehoug. After retirement, he volunteered as human rights observer and ecumenical accompanier in Palestine. He volunteered with a A Drop in the Ocean in Nea Kavala for three weeks.
“It is what it is, it’s still better than war,” says a Syrian father of four. They have just arrived Chios, the Greek island that currently receives most of the new arrivals of refugees. On my first day as a volunteer for A Drop in the Ocean it was cold with a freezing wind, but it was not the weather that gave me goose bumps and tears in my eyes.
(Written by Ingrid Mee Hushoft, printed in Norsk tidsskrift for ernæring no. 1 2017)
For the residents of Souda Camp in Chios, each new day can look just like the last. For the 500 or so left behind every time the big ship leaves for Athens, three times a day, they queue for food. After breakfast, a small number play chess. On sunny days, a few men fish with equipment provided by A Drop in the Ocean or share stories with volunteers. Others sit in their tents and ruminate, or stare out across the sea to Turkey.
(Written by Sarah Unsworth)
One year has passed since the EU-Turkey Agreement was implemented. The numbers of refugees seeking help in Europe has been significantly reduced and since last march, the average monthly arrivals have been “only” 2450.
(Trude Jacobsen in Klassekampen 2017.3.20)
My name is Sofia Lobo, I’m fifty years old, I’m an actress in the theater company A Escola da Noite, in Coimbra, Portugal. In theater, as in life, I have always been more interested in stories where the human being is reduced to his most intrinsic characteristics, stripped of the material possessions he has and that make life easier.
