After two years of working at Al Jazeera English in Doha, Qatar, where there was consistent coverage of the refugee crisis and I, due to my role, was in weekly contact with political advisors, politicians themselves, actors on the groundwork and refugees themselves, I wanted to go and see the crisis firsthand. So in the summer of 2017, I made my way to the Greek island of Chios. Through a contact, I ended up joining an independent emergency response team, the Chios Eastern Shore Response Team (CESRT), that worked with its own funds and was made up of a group of alternating volunteers, none of whom had any associations or affiliations to larger non-profits or philanthropic organisations.
CESRT would meet refugees at the shore on arrival from Turkey (just 7km by boat from Chios) and provide much needed water, tea, hypothermia blankets, food if time allowed and dry clothing. There was always a small window of time to provide them with such items before the police arrived and before they were taken away for processing at the camp, located about 3km inland. At the time, there were two refugee camps on the island. The official one, Vial, was controlled by the military and only official actors were allowed to enter, including the Red Cross, Save the Children, UN agencies and the like. The Red Cross, however, never had a doctor on site for the more than 1,000 refugees living there, only nurses. The second was a spillover camp. Located at the beach in the capital city, Souda camp was an ever growing mass of tents set up along the UNESCO protected Chios walls. It was rife with violence, rape, theft and illness.
I was so taken by the work CESRT did and after an initial stint of 3 weeks, I decided to return to the island for the rest of the summer. Taking on slightly more responsibility, I became the activities coordinator and eventually was spurred to fundraise for what eventually became the CCC. Initially, this was part of CESRT, but eventually became independent itself. The CCC (Chios Creative Centre) lasted 4 glorious months, with the IOM even hosting their psychological and psychiatric sessions in the space, but was forced to close unfortunately due to the closing of Souda camp and the mass transferring of refugees to the Greek mainland. Although Vial Camp remained open, the lack of transport meant that those who were still on the island were unable to get to the city centre. The good news, however, is that the artworks and the furniture made by refugees still exist and found a new home at the Ankaa Project in Athens, and so their legacy remains.
Below you will find links to the original fundraising page, all the correspondence I conducted with the donors and a final reflection of my time in Chios.
Should you like to, please feel free to get in touch: [email protected]
More information and photos are available at: https://www.alienahaig.com/chios-creative-center
A personal mulling over of my time in Chios
“Strong emotion and raw passion. I don't think you will have left readers in any doubt about how you feel about the refugee situation. You should be very proud of what you have done there with your community center and there is no doubt that the legacy will live on for a long while.”
“Wow - I'm speechless. Your last email has really made me think - no - stop, collect my thoughts and try and think. I think that you may have just me think about the whole refugee crisis in a completely different way. I have watched documentaries, listened to a radio 4 play and read a novel about it - and still felt rather dispassionate - but your email has really made me stop - I feel that need time to reflect now on how I feel about it. What a fantastic email. Thank you.”
“Thank you for the note and all that you have been doing. Your note resonates a poignancy about life that most of us are too busy to even realize. How simple things, with human connection can enrich our lives, and to embrace such an opportunity like this shows incredible maturity & leadership on your part.”
