Solidarity not charity:

I will look to offer English language training, clinical assistance and logistical support though, as conditions are ever changing in the camps, my role will be flexible and broad ranging requiring me to provide support however and wherever it is needed most. This will no doubt involve augmenting the provisions provided to the camp residents with additional food, shelter, clothing, medicine etc. The more money I raise the better equipped I will be to meet these needs and help in making their circumstances a little more bearable.

Last month the UK celebrated its 20th Refugee Week, a national initiative that celebrates the many positive contributions refugees make to our society and highlights the remarkable efforts being made by individuals and communities across our country to support refugees in beginning new lives here in the UK. In honour of this I am heading to Greece next month to help in refugee camps based in Thessaloniki and Athens. I invite any and all donations from my family and friends to help me in delivering support and aid to desperate refugees currently caught in the slowly unfolding humanitarian crisis.

A bit of background:

As of May 2018 Greece was host to more than 60,000 refugees and migrants, all of whom rely upon the UN, EU and charity sector to provide for their accommodation, food, clothing and other essentials. The overwhelming majority of refugees are fleeing war and societal collapse in their homelands with 43% arriving from Syria, 23% from Iraq and 11% from Afghanistan.

3,8oo of these are unaccompanied children, many of whom live in makeshift shelters in overcrowded, unsafe and unsanitary camps. 7 out of every 10 of these children are below the age of 12. Even with the protection and support offered by the above parties many are at a high risk of not only malnutrition and illness, both physical and mental, but also falling victim to violence, coercion and abuse.

Don’t believe the hype:

With the prevailing tug of war that exists in the media over the authenticity and agendas of these refugees it is all too easy to forget the fundamental truth of the situation: there are today, at this very moment, hungry, exhausted and desperate men, women and children scattered amongst refugee camps, low grade accommodation or undertaking perilous journeys in a bid to escape circumstances that none of us would wish ourselves or those we love to endure.

Having just returned from a humanitarian mission in Kenya, in which I worked with and lived amongst some incredibly impoverished and neglected communities, I feel that we all have a responsibility to do our best to help those in need wherever they are and wherever they are from.

Please help me to help others and together we can play a small but important part in alleviating their suffering and support them in moving forward.

Thank you.