WASH for refugees in Lesvos, Greece
Donation protected
Hi, my name is Bela, 19-year old high school graduate living in Berlin. For the past two months I have been working with ERCI (Emergency Response Centre International), a greek non-profit NGO in a refugee camp on the island of Lesvos, Greece. It has been a great and eye-opening experience for me and it has changed my perspective on life in many ways.
During my time here I've been running the WASH program in Kara Tepe Camp, a refugee camp specifically designed for families. Before this program women had to wash all their family's clothes by hand and public health issues such as scabies were spreading through the camp. With ERCI's WASH intervention, all 250 families now have access to free wash services, and scabies has been virtually eradicated in Kara Tepe.
ERCI operates 10 washing machines that run 4-6 times per day in order to wash clothes at least once a week for all 1200 residents that live in the camp. Think about the luxury of even owning something like a washing machine. Think about how big your family is and how often you do laundry at home. Now imagine you have 6 children, are pregnant with another and you live in a 3x8m container house.
This is not an extreme case but a reality for countless families in this camp. Please remember that these people are human beings just like you and me. They have fled war zones, crossed an ocean on a rubber boat and are now living in a refugee camp for an indefinite amount of time, not knowing what their future is going to look like. The least we can do for them is provide services to fulfill their basic human needs.
In my time in the WASH room I've had the honor to get to know some of these families and the whole program is very dear to my heart. Please help me keeping this program alive through SHARING THIS CAMPAIGN and donating money to ERCI that will go towards funding for washing powder, ensuring the sustainability of the program and potentially funding more washing machines in the future.
Here is what your donation can do:
7€ = washing powder for one entire day (35 washes)
49€ = washing powder for one entire week (250 washes)
During my time here I've been running the WASH program in Kara Tepe Camp, a refugee camp specifically designed for families. Before this program women had to wash all their family's clothes by hand and public health issues such as scabies were spreading through the camp. With ERCI's WASH intervention, all 250 families now have access to free wash services, and scabies has been virtually eradicated in Kara Tepe.
ERCI operates 10 washing machines that run 4-6 times per day in order to wash clothes at least once a week for all 1200 residents that live in the camp. Think about the luxury of even owning something like a washing machine. Think about how big your family is and how often you do laundry at home. Now imagine you have 6 children, are pregnant with another and you live in a 3x8m container house.
This is not an extreme case but a reality for countless families in this camp. Please remember that these people are human beings just like you and me. They have fled war zones, crossed an ocean on a rubber boat and are now living in a refugee camp for an indefinite amount of time, not knowing what their future is going to look like. The least we can do for them is provide services to fulfill their basic human needs.
In my time in the WASH room I've had the honor to get to know some of these families and the whole program is very dear to my heart. Please help me keeping this program alive through SHARING THIS CAMPAIGN and donating money to ERCI that will go towards funding for washing powder, ensuring the sustainability of the program and potentially funding more washing machines in the future.
Here is what your donation can do:
7€ = washing powder for one entire day (35 washes)
49€ = washing powder for one entire week (250 washes)
Organizer
Tom Berg
Organizer
Berlin
