Asociación Projuven would like to share with you the story of one spanish youngster who decided to become volunteer in Refugee Camp in Greece.
Hello Salvador! Can you tell us, why did you decide to become a volunteer?
I could not explain very well why, but being a volunteer is something nice and always brings you more than you do. You can know wonderful people who strive for a common cause, in which you believe blindly, because you would not be there If you did not do it. And among many other things, you will get hook. You see light in a world that often cast only darkness.
I decided to volunteer in Greece because many countries in the Middle East are living a real drama and the European Union, and many Europeans, have started to see it, after when we had it here around us and when the mass media have begun to show it. The war in Afghanistan began more than 15 years ago, but it is further away from Europe than Syria, so because of this, the refugees find it harder to reach European land, which is resulting in less information coverage, fewer volunteers and fewer resources to accompany them. There are many dramas around the world that do not reach us for lack of coverage or simply because we are not interested to know about them, but with this problem we have no choice continuing in the same way because they are already here.
I also think that short-term volunteers can do a little bit more than accompany and try to spend good times with whom would want to sit next to us for talking a bit, or invite to play basketball who looks at us with curiosity from a prudent distance.
Those who took and keep taking all my admiration in Greece and Croatia are long-term volunteers, such as Olga, a Greek volunteer who goes almost every day, if not all, to the delivered of food in Skaramagas, managing perfectly one of the most tenses moments of the day. Or my Croatian friend, Mihael, who only with his smile can flood with good vibes all Porin, Kutina or wherever he is.
Those people who make you feel that everything has a solution, even if it is not in their hand or neither in yours, much more high, in a European Commission level, where they will need a volunteer in one of these fields and not having thousand meetings to negotiate quotas that they do not comply with, excusing always themselves with the few available means, when in the same time the largest refugee camps in the world have been in Kenya and Ethiopia for so many years.
Please describe us the most valuable moment during your time in the Refugee Camp.
There are so many moments to remember. It comes to my mind when my friend Mohamad was inviting me to eat or drink tea at his house. His mother cooks so well and they always laughed a lot at me, when they were looking me to eat so much. But I really couldn’t stop, because Syrian food is spectacular.
Or playing basketball with children who approaching me, especially with Fahir, an 11 years old boy from Kurdistan, Iraqi, a survivor and a boy, who gave me the feeling, that has grown too quickly.
Is there something that has changed in you when you come back home?
From each volunteering you bring something that is not so easy to explain. I think this could be summarized just in responsibility. The responsibility to tell what you have seen, what you have felt and how you can motivate others to contribute to do their bit. Not everyone has time, money, or possibility to go and help in the refugee camp in Greece, but there are a lot of other ways to do it. The most direct way is to collaborate with UNHCR or any other NGOs that are working on refugee-related issues, but you also could just talk about the topic with your friends, not leaving it as impossible, because everything adds up.
If you could summarize your experience into a main lesson you have learned what would you like to share from it with the other people?
Most of these people want to live in the same place where they were born, in their home, with their people. They do not want to come here and take our jobs, they are not calling for our help, nor anything else. They just want to live in peace in their tiny patch of land, it doesn’t matter if it`s the coldest, the most arid in the world or the ugliest, because it is their home. And remember, everything adds up.
Many thanks to Asociación Projuven for this great project and for leaving me a little window to tell about my experience.
