First Week in Athens

Catherine and Tim Frodsham. 6 September 2024

We have been in Greece one week now and are beginning to get a handle on all of the work there is to be done. Most countries in Central Europe have three or four humanitarian projects open, we have thirteen with two more in definition. It has been months since a WSR (Welfare Self-Reliance) couple has worked on projects in Greece. For a while, the country was covered by someone from the area office, then the husband of the last couple here was called as the Branch President. With the responsibilities of that calling and health issues, they had no time to work on humanitarian projects. When they returned home for health issues, the Area transferred us to Greece to catch up.

The Nelsons, a couple in the Frankfurt office who assist WSR couples in Europe, spent the last three days with us, going over all the projects in Greece and visiting NGO representatives in Athens. (An NGO, or Non Governmental Organization is a non-profit charity). These organizations help refugees including children who lost their parents while trying to get here. They help them with medical care, hygiene, food, job training and courses on how to assimilate into their new country. The stories are heart wrenching. Once we get on top of the backlog of correspondence, we will visit various sites in Greece to assess the problems and how these organizations are using church funds to address them. We are already planning a trip to Thessaloniki, about 500 km north of us, to visit two or three organizations and the refugee camps they are assisting.

We met a woman yesterday, Laura Papa, who started an organization called MetaDrasi, dedicated to assist refugee and disadvantaged women with housing and care. Unaccompanied refugees children were held at police stations or other detention centers under appalling conditions, the system in place simply did not know what to do with them. A focus of the organization she started was to get these children to a safe place and provide them with the nutrition, health care and support they needed. She is a force of nature. Some of the women they assist were raped during the flight from their home country and have a multitude of problems to face.

We visited a medical clinic in central Athens that serves refugees, ROMA (gypsies) and other disadvantaged people. One of the volunteers we talked with is a dentist in Athens. He has a thriving practice, but donates two days a week to provide basic dental care to both adults and children. I don’t think we have ever met someone so upbeat. No one is turned away. There are wonderful people here in Greece who dedicate their lives to the care and well-being of the least fortunate. It is gratifying to see what the church is doing to support this humanitarian work.

Twice Catherine started to tear up as these dedicated people talked about helping children refugees who are alone or young women who are pregnant because of abuse as they left their countries. Many refugees in Greece live in camps. They are fleeing their countries because of war or violence, hunger or lack of freedom. We will be visiting these camps to see what the church can do to help fund programs to help them with healthcare, food, language skills etc . . . We were meant to be here.

We visited a portable laundry service, Ithaca Laundry, that the church helped to purchase a van to wash clothes for homeless. The van is full of washers and dryers and they drive it from place to place and wash clothes on the spot. While there, they feed them and offer counseling.

We will continue to post about the humanitarian work moving forward in Greece, but will not post pictures of the people being helped by these efforts. Government regulations forbid posting pictures in a public forum and the church agrees and supports this policy. We can, however, post pictures of the sites and some of the people who give so much to their care.