I, Maggie HW, am part of the team that manages the women's tent where all the women and children change when they are wet from the boats. This varies so much from completely soaked to just having damp feet. We have very limited resources so must give dry things only to the most needy. It is heartbreaking not to be able to give everyone what they would like. All these families wet or dry are traumatised by their journey.
Last night we had a very wet Afgan family with mother and six children from around 12 yrs to 5yrs. Two of us volunteers welcomed them to the changing tent, they were so grateful Mamma started to cry and they then all started. We hardly had enough arms to hug them all and there were tears all round. We got them all dry and then sent them all on their way.
Today had very different challenges. I had a family with a very sick 10 yr old who had to be rushed to the medical centre, all on top of a traumatic journey maybe with no food for a couple of days.
Another family had been on the beach, a one year old wandering on her own was found by sister volunteers. They reunited her with her father and two siblings around 2 and 5. The father had been driving the boat from Turkey.
Later we discovered that their mother had been killed by snipers probably in Syria. The two sister volunteers followed them to the camp and made it their personal responsibility to look after the family.
It is common for the Turkish smugglers to make the travellers drive the boat the10 km to Greece with no training at all making it an even more terrifying journey. This poor father had been made to drive.
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