23rd September 2024

Preparations

I want to let you know that in just nine days' time, Liz and I will be travelling overseas to take part in some volunteering work.

Over the last few years or so, it seems that we have seen increasing numbers of catastrophic cases of entire families being victims of war and famine. Completely innocent families made destitute, guilty of nothing, but finding themselves living in the wrong country at the wrong time. It reminded me of how insulated we are in the UK and how protected we are from these wholesale tragedies in so many regions of the world.

It prompted Liz and I to speak to my dear friend Chris Jones to see if it would be possible for us to help out in any of these places. Chris spent many years working for a very large charity in the capacity of Auditor, ensuring that their money was being properly spent. As such, he inspected projects all over the globe where his organization had a stake. I asked Chris if he knew of any such organizations where Liz and I could volunteer. He gave it considerable thought, and from the list he provided, we contacted a few.

We had imposed a few conditions upon ourselves: 

1. We wanted to travel overland if at all possible, but not through areas known to be volatile.

2. We wanted to work in a region with a genuine need for overseas help, an area where we might feel that we made a real difference.

However, to be perfectly honest, the more we looked, the more that one of our min considerations became that of our personal safety.

We settlrd on a project where the aid provider is assisting NGOs in providing essential support to refugees, migrants and Greek nationals amid overwhelming homelessness in Athens. Greece has been struggling with enormous levels of destitution for generations, but being on the frontline of escape routes from Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Palestine and many North African countries, it is now has some of the worst conditions in the developed world with a third of its population living in poverty.

So, to summarize:

We have signd up fpr four weeks of work in Athens, leaving home on 2nd October 2024.

To get there, we shall travel from penzance railway station and onward through Europe by train(and by ferry from southern Italy over to Greece).

Our accommodation will be an Athens city centre hostel. It is a former refugee centre which we will share with the other the other volunteers.

We don't yet know exactly what we will be asked to do. We have been told that the situation is fluid due to the unpredictability of resources and various requirements on the ground.

To help awareness, I will be posting a weekly diary which will describe what we find in Athens; the people we encounter(names will be changed where appropriate) and their stories. If you do not wish to receive these instalments, please let me know in advance.

There wee are, that's what we are doing. I'll keep you posted.

Best wishes to you all, as ever

Rob

Honddu Valley Hearld 23.09.24