Becky Sakellariou of Peterborough has lived most of her life in Greece, and she still splits her time between there and the United States. So when tens of thousands of Syrian, Middle Eastern and African refugees began pouring through Greece trying to get to the safety of Europe, it wasn’t an issue she was able to ignore.
“In Greece, there are about 40 refugee camps and 60,000 refugees that are just stuck there, because no one wants them,” said Sakellariou.
Because Greece was not prepared for the sudden influx of fleeing people, the refugees are left in makeshift camps at old hotels, military bases or abandoned factories, and many of them are living in tents.
Sakellariou knew she had to help. There were problems that were impossible to tackle for one person. But there were other issues that one person on the scene in Greece, with some help, could resolve, she said.
“I started going to these camps and asking what they needed. I wanted to know on a small scale, what I could do.”
She found a number of options. Things like raising the funds to purchase three tons of gravel to spread on a mostly dirt women’s compound in the camp to help reduce dust and mud, and making a wooden walkway for wheelchairs and strollers, for example. Getting thick foam mattresses to ease the sleeping conditions for pregnant women. Or buying new packs of women’s underwear and bras, since most of the ones that came in by donation were used and undistributable.
“I was looking for that small, finite information I could handle,” said Sakellariou.
And sometimes that was not her financial donations, but her skills, such as when Sakellariou was asked to assist in teaching English to a group of Afghani women – a difficult task when many of them were illiterate and often could not attend classes with regularity.
When the class began, Sakellariou went around the camp with her translator, telling women when and where the lessons would take place.
“It was right in my face, how they were living. They had no privacy. I didn’t know what to feel,” said Sakellariou. “If you let yourself feel everything, you would just be overwhelmed all the time.”
Because there were only a few women who could come to the class with regularity, said Sakellariou, she doesn’t know how much English she was actually able to convey. But she thought it was a service that was valuable in other ways.
“It gave them a place they could feel they weren’t lost in this sea of refugees, feeling faceless and powerless. A place to be, a place to play and act out sounds and laugh a lot,” said Sakellariou.
And that was something these women needed often, away from everything they had once known.
“I asked them once if there was anything they missed from home. One woman said she had lost her personality. That she was no longer in the environment that says who she is,” Sakellariou recalled.
But though her time in those camps was often emotional and draining, she also saw moments of uplifting brotherhood. The Greek people are not entirely welcoming to the idea of refugee camps, said Sakellariou, but there are also those who show great compassion. One day, for example, she said, a farmer showed up on a tractor towing a load of 25 live laying hens. And he was quickly followed by a neighbor towing another 30. And after several more donations, the camp had 100 laying hens that not only provided fresh eggs, but gave meaningful work to some of the farmers within the camp in tending to them.
And when the minister of education decreed that the refugee children would be integrated into the local schools, there were some protests or sit-ins by Greek people who objected, but there were also teachers who lined up at the gate to the schools to welcome their new pupils.
Sakellariou said that although it was not always comfortable, assisting within the camps, she cannot wait to return and pick up the work again.
“I miss not being in my comfort zone,” said Sakellariou. “Being on the edge and having to be out of the box and creative and come up with solutions to problems I’ve never encountered before and calling on people to be their best selves. This is what volunteering is. Changing someone’s life, even if it’s just for one day.”
Sakellariou said she plans to return to assisting Greek refugee camps in the coming year. For more information about Sakellariou’s relief efforts and how to help, contact sakellarioubecky@gmail.com. Or, you can donate directly to the NGO’s that Sakellariou supports, including Armando Aid, which assisted in schools and education in camps, Amurtel Greece, for refugee mothers and babies, DoYourPart, supporting the Oinofyta camp, or Dirty Girls of Lesbos, which assists in cleaning, recycling and redistributing discarded refugee materials.