I am sharing an update about my activities, even if I am not moving around in my camper van yet. On the contrary, this month of March 2021 I am working as a volunteer on the isle of Lesvos (Greece). I had to spend the first week in quarantaine, with 5 other volunteers, all of us in our own studio, so only three weeks left to work.....
I work for the Boat Refugee Foundation (BRF), a Dutch organisation providing medical care and psycho-social support to the refugees in the camp on Lesvos. As all of you probably know the Moria camp does not exist anymore, it burned down in September last year. Some new -temporary- camps were put in place, Kara Tepe, and Mavrovouni, some call it Kara Tepe II. We are at Mavrovouni.
My role is a support role: I am at the gate to let patients in, one by one, to be seen by triage nurses before they see one of the two doctors, if need be. Sometimes there may be problems, or tensions in the line of waiting patients, which I then solve, if I can, if too difficult or dangerous I call the Shift Leader by radio, everyone carries a radio. I also help setting the shifts up, I fill up the generator with diesel, put it on when we start, and off at the end of the shift. And sometimes, when there is no French interpreter, and somebody else can be at the gate, I interpret, both in the medical shift or the psycho-social shift. I like that very much (although the cases are mostly very sad), because it feels good to explain in a clear way what we can and will do and are doing to relieve the pain or distress, and thus transmitting a sense of human love and care, and respect. And if I talk about sad cases, I mean cases like rape, which unfortunately happens in the camp as well. Yesterday I was interpreting in such a case, in the beginning I saw her tears rolling down from her eyes, later the tears stopped, she felt a bit more at ease, despite the sadness. Note that men can also be victim of rape, but this was a woman.
The medical services BRF offers are supposed to be emergency care, for the medical part, but a lot of people come for non-urgent things, which is fine of course, and many, really many people suffer from panic attacks and need to be seen. We are there when the other medical NGO’s are closed, weekdays from 17.00 – 00.00 and Saturday and Sunday from 10.00 – 00.00 (two shifts).
There are four coordinators (Field Co, Medical Co, Psycho-Social Co and Volunteer Co) on paid jobs and in separate accommodation and all the others, doctors, nurses and a few support staff, work on voluntary basis. The clinic is a mobile clinic with two consultation rooms. There is also a tent where the triage by the nurses is set up. On two days per week there are individual follow up meetings with patients who need psycho-social support, and sometimes group meetings. During the day there are also training sessions or information sessions on health topics.
The situation in the camp is really difficult for the refugees, many of which have experienced very traumatizing events, in their home countries, general events like bombing and non-stop insecurity, and personal events, like torture and abuse, including sexual abuse. The majority of people in this camp (a population of approx. 7,000) are from Afghanistan, but they also come from Iraq, Syria, Somalia, DRC (Congo), to name a few countries. Our team is really nice, and includes interpreters, people who live in the camp as refugee and work with us as interpreter. We have many, for Farsi, Arab and French. What I find so special about it is that we all are united through our shared wish to care for fellow human beings. Just to name a few of our interpreters: Atonga is the only single woman from South Sudan in the camp, a bright, young woman, with a positive energy, in spite of the harsh living conditions. Mohamed, a very kind and caring man from Afghanistan, where he worked at a bank and also worked as an English teacher for young people. He told me how happy he was with his wife and their newborn son (3 months now), and he proudly came to the clinic the next day to introduce me to his wife and child.
The medical/psycho-social team is also awesome, most are from the Netherlands, but we have some nurses from Great Britain (one of the nurses is working there, but she is Albanese/Italian), one from New Zealand, and doctors from Germany and Belgium.
During my shifts I am not really busy, there are moments there is no patient flow and then I have nothing to do, which is something I do not like. But on the whole I am happy that I came here and that I am contributing to the team work. We expect a lot of rain for the next couple of days, not sure if I will still feel happy being at the gate when it rains…..??
There are two volunteer houses, the one I live in is the ‘Red House’ – which also accommodates the office of the Coordinators. We are 9 volunteers in this house, the other house accommodates 10 volunteers. It is a bit like a hostel. I share a room with 4 others, but it is fine, for me it is for a relative short period of time!
Because of Covid-19 we are quite restricted in our non-work movements. You can only go shopping for food, and you are allowed to go for a walk during one hour per day. You need to carry a form for that, which you have to fill out yourself. We all cheat a bit, but you risk serious fines. Most checking is done in the centre of Mytilini, if you walk in the hills, the risk is rather low. One of the young doctors went for a bike tour the other day, 80 km…… so he was away for a few hours, but he had no problems. By the way, Covid-19 in on the rise in Greece and on Lesvos, but in the camps we have very few cases.
What I see of Mytilini /Lesvos during my walks is quite nice, and I would like to go back one day – after Covid 19 – to visit the island for hiking, or perhaps one of the other islands. What I like in the city of Mytilini are the houses, there are many beautiful old-style houses, some in good shape, some totally fallen to pieces, and I actually like both! The people I have met were all very friendly. And of course there is the waterfront.
This is all for now. I am sharing some pictures, but no pics of the camp, we are not allowed to take pictures there (the area is a former military base).
Take care!! I will write again once I start moving around in my camper van, probably sometime in April.
