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Volunteers rush to help Greece fire victims
RAFINA, Greece, July 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Schools in the Greek port town of
Rafina are unusually busy for summer — overflowing with donations and
volunteers, showing the vast wellspring of local solidarity for victims of
deadly fires.
“You see this girl? Her house burned down, and now she’s here every day
helping,” said Anastasios Moustikadis, pointing to a teenager tidying bottles
of water.
The 40-year-old, who organises donations at the primary school-turned-
warehouse, himself lost one of his closest friends in the fires when they
destroyed the neighbouring village of Mati.
“I will go to his funeral Sunday, that’s the only break I’ll allow
myself,” said Moustikadis, as a batch of volunteers arrived to help
distribute donations by car.
In the hours after Monday night’s tragedy, when more than 80 people died –
– mostly suffocated by smoke or burned alive in the terrible blaze — a vast
wave of solidarity swept the country.
“Mati looks like a war zone, it’s unbelievable,” said Zoi Pantelidou, 26,
who has been volunteering at the town hall since Tuesday, coordinating
volunteers and donations.
“I can’t tell you exactly how many (volunteers) there are, the number
grows every day,” said Savvas Arapkilis, deputy mayor of the city.
On Thursday, dozens of people, mostly teenagers and young adults, queued
patiently to register for volunteering duties.
“They are the children of the crisis, they know that we need solidarity
and to work together,” said Moustikadis.
– Volunteer nation –
Greece, hit by years of austerity and on the front lines of Europe’s
immigration crisis, has learned to rely on an organised civil society, in the
face of underfunded public services stretched to breaking point.
MORE/MR/ 1107 hrs
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Free dispensaries, citizen canteens and volunteer activities for refugees
have flourished across the country.
The momentum after the fire has been such that Rafina’s mayor Evangelos
Bournous has had to appeal to citizens to stop sending food, saying they
“cannot manage any more”. Four municipal buildings are already overflowing
with donations.
“Would you like some water,” a teenager asks an elderly couple who are
busy trying to clean up their charred house in Mati.
It’s the third team to offer them water and food in less than a quarter of
an hour.
“I take the water every time,” said Sophia Tsaganou Profitou.
“It could be a month until they’ve restored the water,” added the
septuagenarian. The electricity is also cut.
Patrols by teams of volunteers has allowed them to discover critical
humanitarian situations which could have escaped the authorities.
But sometimes, volunteers are patrolling an area where no residents are
left. At burned houses, short notes have been scrawled outside: “We’re fine”
plus a mobile number at which they can be reached.
“What we’re doing is just a drop in the ocean, but I couldn’t continue my
holiday as if nothing had happened,” said 17-year-old Photini, wearing a
paper mask to protect against the smell of smoke which still envelops the
burned village.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1107 hrs