Jul 18, 2016 at 02:51 pm

Athens

Update posted by Sam Mitchell

Dear backers,

Long time no speak!

I have been basing myself out of Athens for the past couple of months working with refugees in the city and the wider Attica region. Athens has been hosting refugees from the beginning of this crisis. With the Balkan borders closed, over 10,000 thousand displaced people now live in and around Athens in official government camps, detention centres, informal settlements, squatted buildings, rented accommodation and rough on the streets. These are a few of the projects I have been working on to help make life a bit easier for refugees in Athens.


The Orange House


The Orange House in central Athens was an IT shop but has recently been refurbished and has now started its life as a shelter for vulnerable people such as single mothers, unaccompanied children and LGBT refugees. The upper rooms have bunk beds and bathrooms which means 20 or so people now have a safe space to sleep. The lower floors have a communal kitchen and a social space, computer facilities and classrooms. Zaatar, the NGO running the shelter, has already started running English classes here with the aim of teaching Greek and other languages, as well as cultural and social integration classes. I spent a few weeks helping with building work here last month.

Me re-painting one of the classrooms at The Orange House.

The same classroom being used for English lessons


Malakasa Warehouse


I first visited Malakasa camp, north of Athens, on an information gathering trip last April (our report on camps on mainland Greece can be found here) and I have been back many times since to help out mostly with warehouse logistics. There is an on-site warehouse here with the potential to be a great service to the camp's 1,400 Afghani residents. Unfortunately however, the camp is understaffed and lacking skilled warehouse management. Really, a full time warehouse team is needed to ensure clothes and non-food items are sorted and stored systematically ready for distribution. I have been doing what I can over the last couple of weeks to establish some order in the place that was a bit of a bombsite when I first arrived. If I had not already made commitments to other projects in Athens, I would have loved to take on this responsibility fully. As I have said before, warehouses are the backbone of any relief effort and it's a great shame to see this one in such a state. I hope to return to Malakasa when I have more time and work to develop a better functioning logistical system there.

Inside Malakasa warehouse. Having rearranged the items in the red cages to the left, here we are preparing to sort the mountain of loose clothes to the right!


Skaramangas Community Centre


The relatively comfortable Iso-Box containers at Skaramangas camp

Over the past month or so now I have been working on plans and drawings for a timber framed building to be used as a community centre at the camp in the Athens suburb of Skaramangas. This camp hosts over 3000 people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and is situated on a vast expanse of concrete by the dockyards of the Hellenic Navy. The people here actually stay in air conditioned containers with running water and electricity, by far the best accommodation we have seen in any camp in Greece. However there is virtually zero social/community space here and given the intense heat it is difficult to encourage people out from their cool container boxes to engage in any kind of civil life. This environment, coupled with a complete lack of police or security presence in the camp has lead to some isolated acts of vandalism, theft and violence. I am hopeful that more designated, comfortable, secure community space can contribute to lowering tensions here and act as a catalyst for community engagement.

My plans for the timber framed community centre at Skaramangas

For this project I am working with a Drop In The Ocean/Drapen I Havet, a Norwegian NGO founded on Lesvos on the same beaches I worked on last year and they are responsible for the management of the centre. Our current plans are for the building to be divided into four areas; a seminar room to be used for classes and workshops, as well as a venue for the regular meetings of representatives from each community and other organisations in the camp as a forum for dialogue; a library and IT centre providing free access to the internet and printed literature and a cafe to provide tea, coffee and other refreshments to camp residents

Checking the levels for the foundations

We finished laying the foundations for the building today. The first morning was a failure, myself and two American volunteers struggled. I overworked myself, got heat exhausted and very disillusioned with this huge task I had taken on. Salvation came in the form of a Syrian carpenter, a Kurdish decorator and an Afghan engineer as well as numerous other camp residents. They showed me how it is really done. I was deeply moved by their humility, work ethic and determination to work through national, ethnic, religious and linguistic boundaries. I feel almost patronising now, building these guys a community centre as if I can teach them anything about community. It's all well and good coming from multicultural, pluralistic London but our communal bonds have never really been tested. These guys have been through hell and back and still really want to make community relations work and get on with their neighbour.

The finished foundations ready to take the timber frame of the building

It's really promising to see such spontaneous and voluntary engagement from camp residents and we have only laid the foundations! It was always my hope that the building process would contribute to the strengthening of community ties as much as the finished product itself and this seems to be happening. The timber for the frame is due to be delivered on Wednesday and I will be sure to keep you updated on our progress at each stage of the construction. In the mean time please consider contributing to my fund as much or as little as you can. I am still doing this work on a completely voluntary basis and I must cover all of my accommodation, travel and general living costs myself.

Many thanks for your support!

Back to campaign page