♥️ Rhodes: Afantou Town, Evacuation Heroes♥️

Hello everyone,

We stand with the people of Rhodes.

We thank the community of Afantou. ♥️

We have just returned from Rhodes. Having been evacuated from the wildfires, we were blessed to be taken to Afantou High School.

So many of us, British and international tourists, were taken into the safe arms of this loving Greek community at Afantou.

Families, young and old, who had lost their own land and livelihoods to the blazing fires, took time to comfort us all; shared their food and water with us; provided us with shelter and provisions; opened the pharmacy to provide life-saving, long term prescribed medication to those in need; brought bedding and mattresses for the elderly and frail to lie on; provided fresh towels and toiletries for much-needed bathing in 40° heat…and so much more, I could go on and on.

In a time of national disaster, these lovely people gave us love and hope, when there was no contact, information or assurance of safety from our own holiday rep, Jet2.

In a time of national disaster, where their own families had been displaced, these lovely people also took evacuated tourists into their own homes, too.

We would like to repay their kindness and help raise funds for the townsfolk of Afantou.

We are ashamed that there has been no support from the UK Government to send firefighters to help and we are very concerned to hear that the school students- 13 to 15 year olds are now being enlisted to help put out the fires, still blazing through this beautiful country.

It was a very emotional goodbye, when we left to come home, yesterday. Our hearts are with the people of Rhodes. We stand with our friends of Afantou. We all wish them well with their fight against the wildfires and we hope and pray that they will all remain safe.

So much has been lost, we want to help by donating what we can. No amount of money will be compensation for the lost livelihoods/ land/ forests/ crops/ homes/ livestock/ animals etc.

We want to share our donations with the town who helped give us shelter and so much more. The kindness of strangers became the compassion from friends.

We love you, Afantou, and we will see you again, I know.

♥️

Eleni Tantouri and all the Jet2 passengers you took such good care of.

Ευχαριστούμε!

♥️xx