Spanish youth visit refugee camp

Nine youth of the Maristes La Immaculada school of Barcelona visited a camp of 500 Syrian, Kurdish and Afghan refugees in Filippiada, Greece, from Aug. 25 – Sept. 1 to show support and to teach children.

During their stay, they collaborated with the Hope4Kids project, an initiative of a United States citizen, which had previously helped refugees in Lesbos and Idomeni.

The young Marists set up arts and crafts workshops, painted faces, payed and taught dances, and songs.

They taught mainly English to the younger ones, who were mostly Syrian, and they collaborated in some mathematics and English lessons for the older ones, predominantly Afghans.

They also helped organise the vast amount of material that comes regularly to Filippiada, located 400 kilometers north of Athens.

The group stayed in a rented floor in Arta, about 15 km of the refugee camp, which they arranged with the help of Hope4Kids.

There, the Greek government gives refugees a temporary permit of free movement in Greece, three meals a day and a drinking water point.

The UN Refugee Agency provides them with tents that house up to nine people and a sort of hammock that serves as a bed.

There are medical visits once or twice a week in the refugee camp. They also have prefabricated showers and toilets, but no right to work.

To read the full article in Spanish, click here.