In 2015, 856,000 people passed through the Greek islands, and in 2017 and 2018 only just under 30 thousand (according to UNHCR). But 2019 brought already a growth – over 60,000 newcomers. Today, boats coming to Greek beaches are back again, and practice shows that you can get stuck in Lesbos for a good few years. Nikos and Katerina run a small restaurant on the island, where every refugee can feel at home and eat a meal for free.
09.12.2021
“I love flowers. I always used to have plenty of them at home. When we had to flee, I said goodbye to them out loud. There was no time to pack. If we had not fled that night, we would now be dead. We lost contact with our loved ones and neighbours that night. I don’t know what happened to them. Maybe they didn’t make it” Ramzia tells us as she plucks the yellowed leaves from a plant hanging in a pot in front of the entrance to her tent in the refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece.
At the same time, Cobra Cazimi, an Afghan woman living in a container in the red zone, is neatly folding her seven-year-old daughter Mahnaz’s clothes. The floor, covered with blankets, gives the impression that no one has ever walked on it before. It is raining outside, mud sticks to the shoes, but there is no trace of it in Cobra’s dwelling. Everything has its place here. In the tidy kitchen, the dishes are drying, carefully arranged in the right order.
The red section in the camp is depressing with the sight of people who are stuck here for months, often years. At the same time, it is astonishing to see how much people crave normality in even the most undignified conditions. There are small home gardens, pots with herbs and flowers at the entrance to the tents and swings for children made of pallets. There are also small houses for the Greek cats with which the inhabitants of the camp have teamed up to fight rats.
It may seem to someone that the effort to keep one’ s tent tidy with the things one has collected or to create a makeshift garden in the transience in which they are suspended, is completely pointless. Human beings, however, are not only about their basic needs. Everyone needs to be treated with dignity and have their dignity nurtured regardless of the situation they find themselves in. In addition to providing food and basic assistance, our aim is to help people regain their dignity. That is why we visit them in their homes, listen to their stories and tell them about ourselves. We admire the home gardens and the ingenuity of the fathers who build play areas for their children.
Join us today! By purchasing a hot meal, you give strength to a refugee to survive in such a difficult reality. You can also invite one of them to your Christmas table by purchasing a handmade bauble featuring a painting done by one of the refugees.
20.06.2024
A refugee I am Forced to flee, I become someone I am not These few lines from a Lao Che song have been on my mind all morning. The World Refugee Day, which we celebrate today, could easily be called World Day of Helplessness, Lack of Solidarity, Fences, Barriers, and Lack of Hospitality. “In Nigeria, […]
27.08.2023
The unpaved road stretches for kilometres and winds down the mountainous slopes. It cuts through bone-dry pine forests. From here to Mitylena, the island’s capital, it is more than 40 kilometres. To any sign of civilisation – more than 10. Out of sight, out of mind of all outsiders, a gigantic new refugee camp is […]
14.08.2023
Onur was a baker in Kurdistan. He is not afraid of any job. Stately, broad-shouldered, hands like vices. They have strength and feel. He arrived in Lesbos eight years ago. Abdul got off the boat on a Greek beach a year later. In Syria, he was a mechanic. He has fixed up his decrepit old […]
