By Becka Wolfe | Project Coordinator
Hello friends,
we hope you had a good summer wherever you all are.
At the end of July ECHO took its annual summer break for August and we came back refreshed and eager to start again. Our patience has been tested somewhat by some mechanical problems which has kept the library van with the mechanic for the past couple of weeks, but we hope to fully re-start in the next couple of days.
Before the break the heat meant that we often had quiet library sessions. But for sure the highlights had to be in Thiva where the evening would stretch out through the twilight accompanied by music, great conversations, pizza and birthday cake. Although many people have moved on during the summer we are staying in touch with many of them as they adapt to their new lives in northern Europe.
In June RSA Aegean released their latest report about the living conditions of the Greek mainland camps. It is a sobering read and corroborates our own experiences. If you have time it is definitely worth reading to understand a little of the challenges that people on the move experience here in accessing even basic services and support. In its introduction, the report summarises:
Greece’s encamped reception system is underpinned by inadequate reception conditions in sites isolated from urban centres and with difficult access thereto. It also presents serious issues regarding the protection of asylum seekers’ physical and mental health, compounded by severe staffing shortages, failure to disburse financial allowances to the majority of applicants and the absence of appropriate measures to assist the integration of beneficiaries of international protection into the broader society.
It continues by highlighting the legal infractions committed by the Greek government in its design and administration of these camps, including the "prison infrastructure" installed and the lack of data protection for those forced to live in these structures. Indeed the Ministry of Migration was actually fined by the Hellenic Data Protection Authority for "for breaches of personal data protection in the design and roll-out of related programmes funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund."
The report is a sobering read. Yet it also redoubles our commitment to our work as a small and flexible grass-roots project. Although these past few years we have been repeatedly refused access to the camps and then intimidated and threatened when trying to run library services outside, reports like this serve to remind us that we cannot allow authorities to succeed in their attempts to isolate and de-humanise our fellow beings. Our impact may be modest, but the connections that we make last a lifetime, both for ourselves as solidarian librarians and the wonderful library-users that we meet.
I have attached our six-month summary for more details about our activities during the first half of the year. I look forward to updating you as we roll into autumn with more books and positive energy here in Greece.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser