In 2015, 856,000 people passed through the Greek islands, and in 2017 and 2018 only just under 30 thousand (according to UNHCR). But 2019 brought already a growth – over 60,000 newcomers. Today, boats coming to Greek beaches are back again, and practice shows that you can get stuck in Lesbos for a good few years. Nikos and Katerina run a small restaurant on the island, where every refugee can feel at home and eat a meal for free.
31.10.2021
– Kasia, we need to pack 10 more boxes!
The day before yesterday, another dinghy with ten people miraculously reached the shore, which on the one hand allows us to breathe a sigh of relief, but on the other hand immediately causes quite a commotion in the kitchen – after all, the first thing we have to do is feed these freezing and drenched people. We don’t know when they last ate a meal. Among them are children, people with chronic illnesses, pregnant women etc. They had to throw everything they had with them out of the dinghy so that it would not take on too much water. Two men jumped out of the dinghy and swam in the water, holding on tight. This was the only way they could lighten the load. After all, their children were on board the boat.
Diabetes, malnutrition, young children with severe digestive problems, postpartum women – row after row, the table flashes red as I transfer the paper list of 240 meals for refugees into an app that will help us reach everyone who needs help more efficiently. Entry after entry, with each one I am more horrified by the scale of the problem.
What would their lives be like without your help?
We pack up the extra meals and hop into the van so that we can deliver them while they are still warm.
Your help can be seen everywhere. From the kitchen aprons we wear to prepare hundreds of meals a day, to the app we use to distribute meals in an organised way (which you also funded), to the grateful faces of parents when they collect the food you’ve donated – your help makes a difference.
Why is this help so important?
The food offered by the camp authorities at times is not enough for everyone. People with mobility problems will not be able to stand in line for hours to get a meal. Children with digestive problems will either not eat anything or be condemned to hours of stomach pain. The condition of diabetics, without access to medication or insulin, can only get worse on the camp diet. There is no room in the camp setting for celiac disease, food intolerances or more serious illnesses.
It is not surprising to see the immense gratitude of parents who receive warm, balanced meals that enable their children to grow healthy and to attend the newly built School for All.
That is why we are asking you to find 15 PLN in your pocket for one meal. In just a short while, there will be more dinghies full of families whose situation in their home country has taken everything away from them. We are ready to serve meals – we have a team of volunteers, cooks – people who, if necessary, will stay late into the night to make sure that everything is prepared. Will we have enough resources to provide the food itself? We believe that with your help anything is possible.
27.08.2023
The unpaved road stretches for kilometres and winds down the mountainous slopes. It cuts through bone-dry pine forests. From here to Mitylena, the island’s capital, it is more than 40 kilometres. To any sign of civilisation – more than 10. Out of sight, out of mind of all outsiders, a gigantic new refugee camp is […]
14.08.2023
Onur was a baker in Kurdistan. He is not afraid of any job. Stately, broad-shouldered, hands like vices. They have strength and feel. He arrived in Lesbos eight years ago. Abdul got off the boat on a Greek beach a year later. In Syria, he was a mechanic. He has fixed up his decrepit old […]
09.08.2023
“No disease will touch them. They are wild trees. They have already survived more than one pest.” When Nikos talks about olives, he grabs the listener’s full attention. You fall into a tunnel where there are you, Nikos and the olives. We talk like this for several hours. I don’t know how many. Nobody is […]
