Ali is a refugee from Syria. He came to Greece with his wife and three children one and a half years ago. They live in an open accommodation facility (camp) for asylum seekers and refugees near Athens, at Scaramanga. Their baby boy was born in the camp.
Ali's daughter Mara is eleven years old and has special needs.The child protection organization Terre des hommes in Greece, managed, with the support of Child's Smile, and the orthopedic store, Kifidis, to provide splints to improve little Mara's mobility. But Ali is still very worried about his daughter. With the cash assistance provided to them they cannot access special physiotherapy support. 'I did construction work in Syria. I was able to help her, but not here. I would very much like to leave the camp, to find a job, to have the necessary treatment for Mara, to be able to do something good for our children. I would like us to be able to go to Germany because I have learned that my daughter can be treated well there with the appropriate physical therapy.'
Before COVID-19 his eldest son (who is 13 years old) went to school and the youngest child went to the kindergarten inside the camp. But Mara does not go to any kind of school.
How is life with COVID-19? 'Before the quarantine, we were able to go out of the camp, to visit Athens, for a little change of scenery, to get some fresh air that was beneficial for the little one. Now, with the continuous extensions of the restrictive measures in the camps, we can not get out, it is difficult. We take care to clean ourselves adequately, we avoid socializing, we do not communicate with our friends, not even with our neighbors in the adjacent containers; we just greet them from a distance. Our only entertainment is a walk here at the Scaramanga camp, with the kids. We look at the sea and hope that one day we will leave here, we will find a new homeland and a new life. I feel that thanks to God, everything will go well. But we do not decide, God will decide. It takes faith.'
Terre des hommes Hellas provides child protection services to the family of Ali and little Mara, as part of its project in nine open accommodation sites in Northern Greece, Thessaly and Attica, in collaboration with DRC Greece and IOM Greece, and with the support of the European Union Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (DG Home)
Date
Countries this relates to
Projects and thematic pages
Topics
You might like..
0
18
Annie Chapman, a doctor from London and a volunteer of the Boat Refugee Foundation (BRF) in Lesbos, Greece, has recently published an observer special report at the Guardian. Her story about dire living conditions and a close look at cases of…
0
2
Greece is struggling to manage what is threatening to become a ‘humanitarian disaster’ on Samos – an island which gained the nickname ‘new Lesbos’ for the inhumane conditions in which refugees and migrants have been placed as they await the…
0
53
Hundreds of children in Greece are in desperate need of the warmth and safety of a family. Some of them have lost their own parents on treacherous migration routes to Europe, leaving them alone and vulnerable. A non-governmental organization,…
0
1
[Greece] Moria fires - European Governments must urgently relocate displaced individuals from Greece
Eurochild reiterates their call on the governments of EU Member States, with support from the European Commission, to urgently relocate displaced individuals from Greece.
Lesvos and the other EU Hotspots on the Aegean islands have reached…
0
13
The first international social work conference, 'Social Deprivation, Child Protection and Human Rights', was held in Greece on 1–3 November 2019.
Ana Radulescu, the President of IFSW Europe, held a speech about poverty and the…
0
9
According to Human Rights Watch report, thousands of asylum-seekers (7,517), aid workers, United Nations, and Greek and European Union employees are at risk of lead poisoning (heavy metal that is highly toxic) in Mavrovouni -a temporary camp set up…
0
14
Greece's first integrated online platform for adoption and fostering will be implemented by the end of January. It will help reduce and significantly simplify the adoption process, according to the country's Deputy Minister for Social Solidarity,…
0
1
The National Herald reports that the number of unaccompanied minors (UAM) seeking asylum in Greece has increased in 2018, at the same time warning about the complaints from the activists in Greece that those minors are being 'routinely locked up in…
0
5
The Pulitzer Center articles paints a unique picture about the challenges unaccompanied refugee minors in Greece face, explaining how the system in place fails them and what can be done to improve the situation.
The article tells a story about 16-…
0
4
There is an urgent need throughout the European Union and the so-called third countries to respond adequately to the current asylum and migration flows of 100,000s of uprooted people that seek safety within the EU. Many of these people are extremely…
0
2
SOS The Children's Villages provided information on the backlog in deinstitutionalization, the operation of more than 80 closed institutions, the lack of educational criteria for quality care, and the inhibition of institutionalization of the lives…
0
5
Ellen Water, the Director of Development at Doctors of the World UK wrote a blog for BMJ about the Open Minds project, an initiative by Doctors of the World, which, according to her “aims to promote mental health and wellbeing for people facing…
yes
0
24
Athens, 14 July 2020 - Four Civil Society Organisations operating in the field of migration in Greece, among them Terre des hommes Hellas, published a policy brief today with recommendations addressed to national authorities about the best use…
0
How do you stop coronavirus in a refugee camp? – This is the question, that comes up in Moria, in the island of Lesbos, Greece.
One dweller was tested positive in Malakasa (another camp) and a woman, who gave birth to a child not long ago, in…
0
7
UNHCR together with the funding from the EU has been running KEDU, an informal school on Kos, Greece for children refugees living there. Xenia Passa, a protection officer with UNHCR explained “it is important for refugee children to find normalcy in…
