Fundraising by Alba Zecca

Hello! My name is Alba, and for the past 5 weeks I have been in Greece, in Athens, as a volunteer of Operation Dove, a nonviolent peace corps of the Father John XXIII Community.

This experience allowed me to reflect at length on the role that we as social actors and citizens of the European Union have in the migration issue. The situation in Greece specifically, made me more aware of the fact that although we are constantly exposed to the media information, we actually know very little about what is really happening here.

In Greece, people on the move spend years in refugee camps, which are gradually conforming to the European model of CCACs, i.e., real open-air prisons (complete with turnstiles and barbed wire), purpose-built in industrial areas far from population centers, often near landfills, with no means of transportation or hospitals nearby. In addition, any NGOs are prohibited from entering the camps, and the UN agency IOM has been inactive for months. This implies, in addition to a situation of extreme isolation and marginalization, a lack of translators or lawyers, assistance that is necessary given the Greek government's constant arbitrary rejections in the face of thousands of asylum claims.

The camps are overcrowded and thousands of people from different countries live there. In a situation of extreme malaise, there is a daily outbreak of violence and aggression to which everyone is exposed, including children who are the first witnesses to the adults' constant confrontations, including screaming and stabbings.

People spend their days in anticipation and oblivion, waiting for the next interview, hoping that the next time will be the right one, often transferred from one camp to another without medical and psychological support, far from anything that can be called a decent life.

"Running toward humanity," this is a phrase that particularly stuck with me, said by a person as we were having dinner together outside one of the refugee camps around Athens. People on the move are running away from contexts of war and violence to seek a humanity, which in the Europe that is supposed to protect the rights of all, they have never found, guilty only of being born on the wrong side of the world.

In a few days it is my birthday, and for this occasion I have decided to open a fundraiser in support of this project. I would appreciate, if you would like to give me a thought, to donate it to this reality to keep it going. Thank you all for reading and for your support! ❤️