Emergency aid to refugees: Sunday collecting

Jon Carpenter
(site admin)
👍

Sun 1 Nov 2015, 21:49 (last edited on Sun 1 Nov 2015, 21:50)

Thank you to all the people who contributed to this collection. You were very generous and very kind. Masses of clothing, bedding, blankets, tents, medicines, food etc will be driven to Lesvos on November 15. We took two cars full from Charlbury to the the collection point today.

If you want a local update from Lesvos, here is one among many:
https://www.facebook.com/merel.graeve/posts/10154429309253747

If you want to be actively involved in a committee to engage in future work in Charlbury in support of refugees, please come to our meeting on Wednesday. Corner House at 8pm. Or email charlburyrefugee@gmail.com Definitely for workers only!!

Jon Carpenter
(site admin)
👍

Sat 31 Oct 2015, 17:08

Non-Facebook users may be able to follow stories here without logging in.
https://www.facebook.com/HumansOfTheRefuge/

Jon Carpenter
(site admin)
👍

Fri 30 Oct 2015, 16:04

Thanks to those of you who have already contributed DIY stuff, pallets, and warm clothing and blankets. Deadline for further contributions is Sunday at 1pm.

I know people are reading this, so just in case you think Lesvos is the only Greek island where this is happening, take a moment to read this. It's from Libby Freeman on Samos yesterday evening:

"I spent this evening in a living hell. I thought I was used to it by now but nothing can prepare you for Samos. I couldn't even hold it together for them.

"Tonight will haunt me forever. There is not enough support. There is not enough food. There is not enough clothing or blankets to cover the hundreds of babies wet through from the boats and sleeping in the open. It's not a camp it's just the port. No tents. Nothing. There is not enough people to help them. There are over a thousand people here tonight, probably over half are children. They are crying everywhere.

"We're taking our clothes and socks off and putting them on small children. There was seven of us. We couldn't do enough, we had to turn toddlers away for warm, dry clothes, shivering next to their pleading parents. They've been in wet clothes for hours, even days. There are at least three or four disabled children there. I thought I saw a little boy dead on a pallet with just a coat over him. I'm too scared to think what it's like when it rains. Everyone is so desperate but still so grateful. It hasn't even begun for them yet. How can they walk across Europe without any fucking shoes? They have to stay at the port for around 24 hours while they wait to be processed. Then more come so there is constant need. Hundreds and hundreds everyday.

"If you can come please come. If you can send money send money. If you can help in our Calais Action warehouse in South London go there. We're prepping for when our Lorry leaves for this Greek Island of Samos on Tues. Three young children drowned yesterday. Volunteers (all local) tell me how it feels to see the bodies, and that they're having problems sleeping. I don't understand how this is happening.

https://www.youcaring.com/refugees-in-calais-and-beyond-449154#.VhriLSP8AcU.facebook

Jon Carpenter
(site admin)
👍

Fri 30 Oct 2015, 14:53 (last edited on Fri 30 Oct 2015, 16:07)

This report in the New York Times brings together some of the most 'interesting' recent videos and reports.

www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/world/europe/as-more-children-drown-volunteers-on-greek-island-say-rescues-are-left-largely-to-them.html?_r=1

Jon Carpenter
(site admin)
👍

Fri 30 Oct 2015, 11:44

Caravans for vulnerable families in Calais

Caravans for Calais is a remarkable group of volunteers collecting unwanted caravans from all over the UK and driving them to the 5000+ strong refugee camp across the Channel, where they are used to house vulnerable refuges and families with children. One is even being used as a dental clinic!

If you have a caravan you no longer use, or wish to donate to the costs involved (they are also buying cheap caravans on eBay), please see further information at caravansforcalais.org.uk where the Menu includes the option of donating a caravan. They also post up to date information on Facebook.

Jon Carpenter
(site admin)
👍

Fri 30 Oct 2015, 09:53

"Translator volunteer needed.urgently. If you can speak Farsi and/or Arabic fluently and can volunteer for 1, 2 or more weeks in Lesvos and/or Samos helping doctors with translation, please contact me. Your flight and expenses will be provided! Thanks! Please PM me."

Please contact Alexandra Molina Vinter on Facebook, or through me, if you can help, or know someone who can. She posted this on Refugees Welcome - UK. Charlbury is a multilingual town!

Jon Carpenter
(site admin)
👍

Wed 28 Oct 2015, 23:36 (last edited on Wed 28 Oct 2015, 23:37)

From the team in Hooky:

"UPDATE on Sunday's collection: We now have a distributor who will take emergency supplies to Lesbos. As well as warm clothing, sleeping bags and tents, we can also take non-perishable food items particularly tinned tuna, dried fruit and nuts, tinned fruits, plain chocolate, energy bars, biscuits, rice pudding, 500 ml water bottles and tin openers.

We are so grateful to everyone who has supported us so far. Looking forward to seeing you at the Youth Hall in Hooky between 11 and 4 on Sunday."

Or deliver in Charlbury as below.

Jon Carpenter
(site admin)
👍

Wed 28 Oct 2015, 22:49 (last edited on Thu 29 Oct 2015, 08:22)

For more, see here: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/lliana-bird/refugee-crisis-lesbos_b_8388988.html There appears to be nothing about this on the regular media. One or two websites follow real news, but the best place is Facebook. See especially the daily posts by Merel Graeve, Volunteers-Coordination Lesvos, Caravans for Calais, Humans of the Refuge, and CalAid. For alternative news and reporting generally, follow The Canary on Facebook or on their website, also the Huffington Post.

Here is an astonishing report from Eric Kempson, whose family has been helping refugees landing on Lesvos for many months:
m.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ4f8NBupog&feature=youtu.be

Just some ideas if you are wondering where the news has disappeared to!

Jon Carpenter
(site admin)
👍

Wed 28 Oct 2015, 20:40 (last edited on Thu 29 Oct 2015, 07:31)

Charlbury Refugee Action has just received this appeal from colleagues in Hook Norton:

"Dear all,

"We are writing to you with a massive plea. The situation in Lesbos, Greece is absolutely horrendous . Families are cold, hungry and in desperate situations. We are doing a emergency collection this Sunday in Hook Norton. I know this is last minute but we have a contact who is shipping donations directly to Greece. We urgently need blankets , tents, toiletries, warm clothes, coats and non perishable food. Please please please support and donate. We will be at the youth hall next to library 11-4pm. Please share, support, tell your neighbours etc etc this is a dire urgent situation and we need your help.

Thank you"


We will be collecting items you can contribute in Charlbury from 9 to 12 on Sunday November 1, then taking them to Hooky. Please phone 811378 to arrange.


In case you are not aware of the situation on Lesvos, here's a report that is only a few hours old...

"The horrors in Greece...an account of Dan's time in Lesvos:

As some of you guys know, Dan arrived home from Greece this weekend. Emotionally drained, physically exhausted and mentally pretty traumatized, it's taken him until now to be able to put the experience into words. After taking a couple of hours to explain the journey to me in depth, he's been left with a banging headache. No surprises really, it's genuinely too much for one brain to carry.

He asked me to share the details, as best as I can, with you guys. It's not easy to write about, to even think about, and he just witnessed the situation, imagine those people living through it. I expect he'll be having nightmares for a very long time…

His first stop was the Greek/Macedonian border where he handed out donations from a small UNHCR building. He told me that he had never seen people so desperate. That he felt like the walls would collapse under the pressure of the crowds. Children were getting crushed against the fence, hands grappling through the windows, extended family groups desperately trying to push forward for the sake of a few dry biscuits, the walls moving, cracking under the burden…

Next stop was Lesvos…nothing could have prepared him for what he experienced here. The situation on this idyllic, holiday island soon became apparent as volunteers spoke of increased need for body bags and locals funding and attending the funerals of strangers or unidentified bodies, just so they were attended by someone. The surrounding Mediterranean is peppered with telltale orange - 150,000 lifejackets and floating bits of rubber boats.

That day, the thunderstorm that has made the headlines over the last week, well and truly hit. Whilst the amazing Mark made 2000 cheese rolls to take to Moria camp that evening, Dan drove through the unremitting rain, on various aid runs. He told me that anyone who goes to Lesvos to help, will undoubtedly change lives. Examples of these lives; a disabled woman, unable to walk, who had just arrived in a boat without a wheelchair. Dan drove one to meet her, lifting her, screaming in pain and panic, to the safety of the chair, then to the van. The second was a woman sitting on the roadside cradling a very quiet baby. Another volunteer ran for his stethoscope and confirmed the baby's breathing was very irregular. The van rushed mother and baby to the Doctors without Borders tent, where many other babies were waiting. After some serious perseverance and a struggle, the baby was finally taken to the front of the queue, then rushed straight to hospital in the van, half an hour from death as his lungs were filling with fluid.

That evening, the van was then loaded with volunteers and bread rolls, ready for the drive up to the infamous Moria. Moria is the camp, up in the hills, away from anything else, where people are forced to go to get registered before they can leave the island. The mood was subdued, ominous, as they drove through the torrential rain into the unknown.

Before getting out of the van to begin the walk up the hill, the people who were going for the first time were told is was not too late to turn back. They had the option to stay by the van, reloading bags of bread rolls. The girls were told to stay with the guys, the newer members told to stay with someone who had been before. Harbouring an impending feeling of dread, the team began the climb towards the front of the application queue.

The queue for European papers is 3km long and people wait in it for days. They don't stand, they kneel, crawl, crouch, lie in the mud, without shelter, food or water for days at a time. As you reach further to the front of the queue, the crowd gets denser, the desperation deeper. Dan says he felt he was wading through a sea of people, too weak to stand, but just strong enough to grab at his clothes, begging for food, 'I'm hungry…please…' They handed out the rolls, as fast as they could, fighting back their own emotion at what they were experiencing.

"Nothing could have prepared me. Never did I expect to see so many hands, reaching up at me, the hands of people slowly dying."

Familes, children, babies, elderly, pregnant, disabled; everyone sick, coughing, fever, no shoes, their clothes soaked through, their feet rotting in the cold, wet mud. And so many people; rows and rows of people. The team stayed for hours, handing out rolls from their little bags (too many at a time would be dangerous), to people in a situation that none of us can believe is happening in 2015, in Europe. There is no police presence along the queue, just some people who have been given sticks by the police, to try and control the crowd.

Through the darkness, Dan noticed many many people, lying, motionless in the mud. "They're just sleeping" he told himself. I asked Dan if he had any pictures. He looked at me, completely blankly. "in that moment, no one could think about anything, but the plight of the children being held limply up to you in the pouring rain."

When the team left at about 2am, no one said a word. Unable to go and sleep, they went to try and eat together, processing the horror they had just experienced.

And the worst of it was, what the volunteers were experiencing, is nothing at all, compared to what the refugees are living. A merciless nightmare with no end in sight. These people left war, death and destruction in their own countries, with the hope of finding safety and peace. Europe, where people are happy and life is good, where things will be OK.

On Dan and Mark's last day, as they frantically tried to make as many rolls as they could before leaving for the airport, they were delayed by the arrival of two boats full of soaking wet, freezing cold people. Dan and the team rushed to attend to the shell-shocked people, taking a baby upstairs for a change of nappy and some dry clothes, then continuing to provide warm clothing for the others. Just as everyone was a little warmer and drier, a coach arrived to take these two groups up to Moria to get their papers. Knowing what they were about to experience, Dan was hit with a feeling of dread for their fate, knowing their efforts had been wasted.

Devastated to leave but determined to return, Dan sees this as the beginning of a long road. A road we are all determined to take, together, as part of the journey towards safety and peace for the refugees across Europe."

Jon Carpenter
(site admin)
👍

Wed 28 Oct 2015, 20:32

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