2017 is coming to an end and as the new year is upon us, we have an opportunity to start it with a clean slate and new strength.
By Trude Jacobsen, secretary general.
It wasn’t in any sense easier to be a refugee in 2017 than in previous years. More than 65 million people are forced to flee their homes due to war and conflict. This is a higher number than during World War II.
We always have an incredible volunteer team in Nea Kavala. The perfect mix of long termer knowledge, with the fresh energy and curiosity of short termers, means that our operations continuously run to the highest standards. There are however, two Drops that are slightly more important than the rest. Everyone who has volunteered here during the last year knows them, and knows just how important they are to coordinators and volunteers alike. Without these two volunteers, A Drop in the Ocean would be in real trouble.
” I have a desire to create a feeling that absolutely everyone can help, not just a particular elite.”- Andreas Aase
”I can remember well the smiles on the faces of the people in the shop. Visiting a shop with a quite big selection of clothes, with fitting rooms, background music and friendly people waiting to help you, that was more than they could hope for. I realized that day that this concept was so much more than a fair and dignified distribution, we changed the atmosphere in the camp, the market became a social hub.” – Bart Driessen, Site Coordinator of Northern Greece.
In the refugee camp Nea Kavala one of the challenges for the residents, is the distance to the nearby town Polikastro. If they need anything, such as groceries, phone credit, medicine or to take the bus to Athens or Thessaloniki, this is where they need to go.
