By Julie Bourdin | Communications Officer
In the first half of 2020, our teams on Lesvos and in Ritsona Camp have had to face unprecedented challenges. While we had braced for a demanding year - kicked off with an expansion of Ritsona Camp and the closure of a crucial transit facility in the north of Lesvos - the past months have proven to be some of the most challenging since Lighthouse Relief was formed five years ago.
From heightened tensions in the Aegean islands to the global COVID19 pandemic, LHR has been forced to adapt to unexpected obstacles. In this difficult context, displaced people were left more vulnerable than ever - and our teams worked tirelessly to find innovative ways to provide them with continued support. Today, as we tentatively restart our operations in Greece with your steadfast support, we will continue to adapt and implement necessary changes to our programmes.
In the last days of February, following intense protests against the building of detention centres on the Aegean islands, tensions on Lesvos reached a peak. With reports of threats and attacks on asylum seekers, humanitarian workers and journalists, the situation quickly escalated, prompting our team to evacuate our volunteers and suspend our primary emergency response operations. Our core team of long-term volunteers remained on the island, coordinating with other actors and partners on the north shore to continue providing new arrivals with blankets, clothes, dry food and other essential items.
In the meantime, as the Coronavirus pandemic swept through Europe, our team in Ritsona Camp had to implement changes to our programming, limiting the number of visitors to our spaces and encouraging hygiene and sanitation measures.
On March 16th, with the Greek government enforcing preventative lockdown measures to stem the spread of the virus, we decided to suspend our physical operations in camp for the safety of residents and volunteers. Since then, the team hasn’t ceased to find new ways to support the Ritsona community remotely. The creation of a “Youth Online Space” (YOS) on Facebook provided a support group to keep engaging with the youth in the camp - offering online lessons, activities and one-on-one support. In parallel, LHR coordinated with Cafe Rits, a partner NGO in camp, to distribute hygiene and food items to the residents of Ritsona as the living conditions in camp deteriorated under lockdown.
Our remaining team members on Lesvos were also impacted by preventative measures against Coronavirus. In respect of the lockdown measures and the safety of the local community, our team avoided all direct contact with new arrivals, resorting to making our stock accessible to other actors in the north and providing food, clothes and other items to new arrivals through one of our partners. On social networks, LHR’s communications team continued to document and inform about the ongoing situation for people landing in the north of the island, even as groups were transported to a closed quarantine facility.
As lockdown measures are lifting throughout Europe, and Greece cautiously opens its borders, we are now looking to restart our operations as soon as possible, taking into consideration all necessary safety precautions. Our teams are working on implementing changes to our programming to ensure the safety of volunteers, residents and new arrivals - including protective gear, and water and sanitation protocols. Meanwhile, we continue to provide non-food items, such as clothing and hygiene items, to people arriving on the north shore, who must wait out a mandatory quarantine period before registering their asylum claims.
With your never-ending support, we believe LHR can once more overcome these challenges, and return to providing much-needed relief to displaced persons on the shore and beyond.
By Marie-Helene Rousseau | Head of Communications
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