The only thing that there is to give: Dignity and Respect

Bismillah.
Today, we want to present a moving article about the situation in the refugee camp Kara Tepe in Greece.
It is written by Nona, who is from the Netherlands and is doing volunteer service for refugees for years now. We get to know her as a very amiable, active and faithful girl. We were deeply touched by her eye-witness account and are honored to be able to present her article about her volunteer service on our blog.

The only thing that there is to give: Dignity and Respect
Last summer I’ve been to Lesvos in Greece. In the burning sun, on this beautiful island every day I went to the refugee camp to help with, among other things, the distribution of clothes and tea.
On the first days a lot of things were in my mind: Am I doing the work right? Do the people like me? I felt quite lonely as well, I knew nobody. I lived in a house for volunteers, all young people that were drinking beer every night. The first week I wasn’t in my bed before 2 o’clock in the morning, while I had to work the next day at 9 o’clock again. Wow, I didn’t expected this, when I decided do go to Greece to do volunteer service.

While writing this I get tears in my eyes again. Why? Because this is all about me. After a few days I realized that I had been busy with my own concerns. This made me not even notice the environment I found myself in. An environment with people that have much bigger concerns than I had. How does it feel to leave your house behind? How do you deal with the horrible images you have in the back of your mind?
I realized that even more, writing down in my diary:
“I feel so bad about yesterday, I couldn’t give the people the clothes they needed. This is incredibly stupid. These people have been to things I can’t even think of and the only thing that I can say is ‘maffi this’, ‘maffi that’. ‘Maffi’ was the first Arabic word I learned and it means something like ‘there is no…’”
I saw vulnerable people that I wanted to treat with dignity. If an old lady asked me for shoes because of her diabetes, then I wanted to give her new shoes. On the other hand I realized that if I give these women these shoes, I can’t give it to someone else, who might be even in a bigger need thereof. This was a dilemma that often occurred. I decided that, as long as there are clothes, I will keep on giving them. Maybe it puts a smile to somebodies face and that is worth a lot.

The environment touched me deeply. I was constantly confronted with the Turkish border that seemed so close. Even the thought of swimming over there crossed in my mind. An optical deception for me, but a truth for a lot of refugees. Bit by bit did all these refugees arrive in Greece after a dangerous journey. I felt an oppressive freedom. Why can I do everything? Because I have the right papers? Spending 1,5 hours and only 4 Euros I could take a boat to Turkey. Oh how I would love to be able to give my papers to somebody that really needs them.
In Greece I realized even more, that I was not just dealing with people, but with heroes. People with a story that you don’t want to know, because it is too painful: A man who swam in the ocean for nine hours with a little girl under his arms, to not put in a state coming to terms with her death. A young boy who walked with his family for days, after he escaped the genocide of IS. A woman that lost her man with a handicap right at the moment they reached the Greek shores.

The only thing that there is to give is dignity and respect, so these people know that we care. These stories and their main characters are no fiction. It is, how tragically, the truth. These were people I would give a hand to every day, giving them two kisses, and they would be the one asking me how I was doing…
I don’t even know how to end this story. I’m back in the Netherlands for quite some time now. And even though the events in Greece made a big impact on me and I will never forget the people I met and their stories, I took up my life again. For the people in the refugee camps this is not that easy. They will keep on living with a pain that isn’t just going away.
I’m not writing this text without reason. I noticed that people that flee want to be heard. These people shared the most horrible stories with me. People want to tell their stories, so you know more about the situation. Because fleeing your home country you never ‘just do’!