I have been remiss. The truth is, I’ve had writer’s block. My first 3 weeks here in Doliana have been a whirlwind and every time I sat down to write I found myself overwhelmed by the amount of things I wanted to say and gave up. I’ve since come up with a writing schedule I hope to stick to. Today I want to write about the camp here in Doliana. It took me some time to figure out the dynamics in camp and I’m sorry to say that they are not always the best.
In my last post I mentioned that Doliana camp has received very little attention from larger organizations as the number of residents are smaller than other camps in the surrounding area. When the first member of Doliana Solidarity asked refugees what they felt they needed the most, their answer was English classes; that is how this project began. Upon further reflection, I’ve noticed that what is also needed in this camp is a sense of community. There is a lot of tension amongst the different cultural groups and fights and arguments tend to break out fairly regularly amongst the Syrians, Afghans and Kurds. There is also infighting amongst the families of the same culture. Unfortunately these fights sometimes end in physical altercations. Each group feels that another is favoured by us volunteers, organizations that drop into camp once a week or the military (who have jurisdiction over the camp).
Doliana from the top.
While this is a sad reality, it is not entirely unjustified. When you think about it, many, if not all of these migrants had no intention of staying in Greece this long. Being shipped off to a mountain village for an undetermined period of time with no sense of purpose or belonging would be disheartening for anyone. Add to the fact that many have fled dangerous situations and you can understand why they might feel that their futures look bleak. The camp itself is housed in a former boarding school (a music school if I’m not mistaken), where these is little insulation, communal bathrooms and no formal dining space. As the temperature begins to descend into winter weather, their living conditions will become harder.
A windowless room in camp. Thankfully, Oxfam has now placed insulated windows in time for the cold weather.
Tents are placed in rooms to give families privacy and to retain heat.
I don’t intend to bring the mood down, however these are the realities of the situation here. I was given more perspective on this when I visited another camp, Katsika, located south of Ioannina (the major city of the region). Katsika has had a community of volunteers since its inception. While their numbers have dwindled from 1000 to just over 200, the sense of community there is inspiring. At Katsika, I visited a building called Habibi Works. It is a collective art and technology space that includes a kitchen, a carpentry room, a textile room, computers, 3D printers and all sorts of materials to make art, jewellery, clothes, and even a weight machine (the kind you would find in a gym) all made from scratch by refugees. The textile room is filled with designs created by refugees that get screen-printed onto t-shirts and are sold online. The proceeds are divided amongst the artists, the camp and toward the maintenance of the space at Habibi Works. We were also shown a weight machine built by refugees that was welded from metal scraps and other recycled materials, it looked like something you would find at a state of the art gym. While we were there, one of my teammates asked in awe, “Aren’t you worried that materials and equipment will get stolen or destroyed?” The answer, to put it simply, was no. Because the residents of this camp have been given volunteer attention for so long, they understand the value of their work there and don’t want to do anything that will upset the synergy that has been created in this space. The difference between Katiska and Doliana seems to be just that, cooperation and harmony.
To that end, I feel like we have begun making some progress in this respect in Doliana. Over the last few weeks, there has been more of a presence from larger organizations like Solidarity Now, International Medical Corps and ARSIS. Our team members have begun working closely with them to help improve the overall atmosphere of Doliana Camp. But things move quickly here and at the end of October, the Greek government implemented a law that all refugee children would begin attending Greek schools. I want to note that this has not been completely welcomed by the Greek community (read more about that here). This process is said to begin as soon as possible and as a result we here at Doliana Solidarity may begin seeing dwindling numbers in our children’s classes. While this would be sad for us, as we have developed close relationships with the children, it would also mean that we could shift our focus to improving our adult language classes and implementing more community time for the residents of the camp. If anything, I feel like our mission here is to create a space for refugees that makes them feel valued, included and appreciated. All of this remains uncertain at this point and planning is therefore difficult. Having said that, our presence here has not gone unnoticed and our efforts will not be for nothing.
Teaching in my “Advanced English” Class for Farsi Speakers.
This Many Days to Freedom 