I knew that last Tuesday morning was coming. 365 mornings since that morning and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the anniversary of waking up as a paraplegic. None of those mornings had been quite the same as any from before my injury. Over the past few weeks, with Tuesday looming, I couldn’t help but […]
Thessaloniki
Volunteering With Refugees in Northern Greece 6: There’s No Such Thing as an Unskilled Volunteer
There’s no such thing as an unskilled volunteer. It seems like an appropriate discussion for my final volunteering post. In line with the five previous posts in the ‘Volunteering with Refugees’ series, I had hoped to write my last post about the Get Shit Done Team, who carry out essential construction work in Refugee Camps […]
Volunteering with Refugees in Northern Greece 5: The Mobile Info Team
I met the Mobile Info Team on my first day volunteering in Northern Greece and was instantly impressed. I was helping out with Echo Mobile Library at Diavata refugee camp when a car pulled up and out clambered a team of smiley faces. I guess the smiles help in their work. The Mobile Info Team […]
Volunteering With Refugees in Northern Greece 4: The Food Project
Just how do you spend €20,000 a month on vegetables? Simple. You manage The Food Project working with refugees in Thessaloniki. That figure shoots quickly up to €70,000 once you add in the dried food that the project also supply. The initiative started as a means of addressing some of the nutritional deficiencies of the […]
Volunteering with Refugees in Northern Greece 3: Echo Mobile Library
Before I ever arrived in Greece, I knew I wanted to volunteer with the Echo Mobile Library. I’d come across them on Facebook and instantly loved the idea of a mobile library visiting the refugee camps of Northern Greece. I ended up spending two weeks helping out, teaching English classes and learning about education services […]
Volunteering with Refugees in Northern Greece: Help Refugees
It looks like any other warehouse in the greater Thessaloniki area; drab, dreary and really quite dull. If you read Greek, you’d be forgiven for thinking you might pick up a bargain on your industrial furniture or carpets. The signage is outdated and it seems as if the building hasn’t had much love in a […]
First Impressions: Thessaloniki and Northern Greece
If first impressions really lasted, then I would have left Thessaloniki almost as soon as I arrived. I guess it was always going to be tough to follow on from my Macedonian experience. I was genuinely sad to leave Skopje and had toyed with the idea of staying even longer, but enough was enough. It […]