Moria, on the Greek island of Lesbos, is 4 miles from Turkey and is a gateway between the Middle East and Europe. Migrants running from war, persecution, torture, as well as the consequences of climate change, pass as they travel from east to west, hoping for a better life in Europe. Built to house about 3,000 people, it is now home to more than 13,000 (including an estimated 1,000 unaccompanied minors)—more than it has ever held. The refugees wait, sometimes for more than a year, for the slow wheels of Greek bureaucracy to turn, to review their asylum applications, to send them to the mainland for a decision.  What is Moria? It…

Lesvos has been flooded with fascist groups that have been blocking all of the roads, beating up refugees, NGO volunteers and journalists.  Yesterday after our medical clinic worked our 9 hour shift, we were told by our director that we could not safely drive back to the village where we stay as there were gangs of fascists blocking all of the main roads.  In a caravan of 8 cars, we headed down dirt roads behind the refugee camp, trying to find alternative roads and paths back to the town of Mytilene.  As soon as we got back on the main road, a group of about 50 heavily armed men with masks (with metal…

February 2020. I had spent months gathering donations to purchase medical supplies (over the counter medications such as aspirin, Tylenol, Motrin, bandaids, splints, diabetic test strips, anti-fungal medications, etc.) as well as mobile phones, iPads, and hundreds of small stuffed animals to give the young children receiving medical care in the clinic. I flew with 4 extra large-sized luggage bags filled with as much as I could carry. Kitrinos Clinic is the only medical clinic inside the refugee camp, housing 13,000 refugees. Five doctors, several nurses and EMT’s and myself as the social worker. We worked six days per week, 8:30 am – 5 pm. It is hard to describe…

Spent ten days volunteering between a legal clinic (Al Otro Lado) and a medical clinic (Refugee Health Alliance). So many refugees fleeing violence and persecution from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador (also many Haitian and Cameroonian refugees).

Heading to volunteer at our border, Tijuana, with asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors. Will be at two different clinics with an MD and volunteer I met in Lesvos. We are both excited about helping more refugees stuck closer to home. The world is a very challenged place these days…maybe it always has been.

Sharing street talk found all over Lesvos Island.

Yesterday I began volunteering for Nikos and Katerina’s Home For All NGO. They are a beautiful couple who have been feeding, clothing abd providing a respite for refugees since the crisis began here on Lesvos in 2015. Yesterday, although a day off at Home For All, we unloaded a huge truckful of donated new sleeping bags. We enjoyed a lunch together by the sea, then made dinner meals which we delivered to the volunteer nurses and doctors volunteering inside Moria refugee camp. Today will be a much fuller day. Here is a video showing Nikos & Katerina: https://youtu.be/6zwckpUHUfE

I wanted to thank you for all of your electronics donations. Today I gave one of the phones to a refugee and he literally started crying and got down on his knees in appreciation. He also asked to say thank you in a video (attached). A phone or laptop is a lifeline to refugees. Also this young girl (age 17 from Afghanistan and without family here) was crying on the road. I picked her up, took her for tea to talk (I thought she may have been raped or attacked inside the refugee camp…very common occurrence here), but she had had her phone stolen (a phone here is a lifeline…

Spending the first days with Charlotte Knox at One Happy Family (a community center here in Mitilini for refugees…offering food, education, legal and medical services). Charlotte is providing teacher training for the center’s teachers, most who are refugees themselves. Very enthusiastic and motivated teachers, from Ghana, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Syria.

We cannot thank you all enough for your generous donations to help the refugees stuck in camps abroad.  Because of wars,  religious persecution (from Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, Daesh, Taliban) as well as climate induced droughts, people are fleeing for their lives…leaving everything they have to save themselves, their families and futures.  They have nothing but the clothes on their backs and hope for a better life.   Your generous donation means so much…it is a gesture of compassion and kindness in a world that has left them abandoned.  Thank you.