Refugees fleeing Syria remember home as a place they were trying to escape. Now the idea of settling down feels like a broken dream.
The Kara Tepe camp of Lesbos, Greece, was a hill of olive trees before refugees arrived from Turkey. Now filling the space between trees are glistening, white shelters connected by lines sagging with clothes drying in the breezes rising from the Aegean Sea.
It’s the kind of place you might not mind sleeping for a night or two before returning to your cruise ship, but arriving dangerously on an over-filled rubber dinghy to stay for weeks or months has been unsettling for the families who have nowhere else to go.
“Where is Home?”
The sounds of daily life and daily chores fill the camps throughout Greece where thousands of refugees wait for what the future holds and often wait to be reunited with family and loved ones.
At first Nazir doesn’t understand the question. But finally he says in Arabic, “Home is where my family is.”
It’s true that he’s found relative safety in Greece. He’s not being shot at, no bombs are falling around him, and some of his family escaped with him, but many of the thousands of displaced people living in Greece are separated from both homeland and family.
This is the challenge Samaritan’s Purse is facing as we respond to refugees whose lives are stalled in Greece. These displaced people have been forced from their homes and have sacrificed everything for their families’ futures. Now they face traumatic memories and frustrating realities.
Offering Hope
Samaritan’s Purse has been responding to this ever-changing and deeply complex and growing need since August 2015. We’re working with the Greek government, other relief organizations, and local churches to rescue refugees from despair.
“If we can provide a way for them to smile and to laugh and to forget about their trauma for a little bit, we’re happy to provide that,” said Melissa Blauvelt, Samaritan’s Purse project coordinator working on the island of Lesbos. “But our job is not just to provide for needs and for comfort but to provide them with lasting and true hope.”
Samaritan’s Purse staff members are tasked with providing basic essentials as well as hospitality and community activities.
During the last year, we’ve provided refugee camps with water and sanitation, food distribution, hygiene kits, shelter materials such as blankets and tarps, and onsite personnel.
As we continue to assist the government and organizations with emerging needs, we are also supporting local churches engaging the refugee communities through food and clothing distribution and through family activities such as classes and sports camps.
Throughout northern Greece, Athens, and on the islands of Lesbos, Leros, Kos, Chios, and Samos, we continue to distribute food, water, clothing, and items such as hygiene kits and other personal supplies.
“People say ‘Thank you, sir. Here we feel safe and free. We need organizations like Samaritan’s Purse because it’s not only words,’” said Stavros Mirogiannis, director of the Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos. “It’s in actions. It’s in the field.”
