Having followed the refugee crisis since 2015, Jemma Moody had a desire to travel to Lesvos to help out. She is a trained social worker and has experience working with refugees and migrants in various parts of the world, including working with Syrian children in Istanbul. She regretted not signing up as a volunteer in 2015 and 2016. When she finally found A Drop in the Ocean, which has an extra focus on women and children, she decided to travel as a volunteer in November 2018. Below are her reflections from her time with us on Lesvos where, among other things, she contributed with English teaching and children’s activities at the Drop in the Ocean Drop-Center in Moria.
Happy New Year!
Another year has passed and 2018 is history. I am trying to find the bright spots of the year that has passed when it comes to Europe’s handling of the displaced people arriving our continent. I’m struggling to find the positive highlights.
Pictures from Syria
For the past seven years, the media has shown us a Syria where cities and landscapes are ruined. But, there was a Syria before this and this is the country Peter Lukas` pictures show in his exhibition in Larvik. We met with the photographer, Peter Lukas, who left the country the day before the civil war broke out.
“Reza’s” dream of a everyday life
Today is the UNs International Children’s Day, and we want to use this day to shift our focus to the children who have been forced to flee their countries. Thousands of children spend large parts of their childhood in refugee camps with their lives in limbo. For most of them, their right to education as determined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child is not being met. They lack safety and security in the camps and have no hopes or guarantees for the future. We met “Reza”*, who is 14 years old and lives in Skaramangas refugee camp. His biggest dream is that his father will get a job and that him and his sisters will get the opportunity to go to school every day, something which is considered a part of everyday life for most people. Read more about his story, life in the camp and his thoughts about the future.
The reunion – a story about a mothers struggle to reunite with her children
This week a year ago the twingirls Lamar and Lorin landed in Norway together with the sisters Marya and Maya after being apart from their Syrian mother Abeer for 21 months. A Drop in the Ocean has previously written about Abeer and her story. Read the whole story about the long and dramatic struggle to reunite with her children and what really happened here.