Sydneysider volunteering with IsraAID

KNOWN for being a popular holiday destination, the Greek island of Lesvos is now also where thousands of people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are arriving daily by boat as they seek refuge.

Due to the harsh conditions they face on the ocean, not to mention in their home countries, an IsraAID emergency relief team has been helping the refugees who arrive there for the last six months.

IsraAID is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation which has been offering a response to humanitarian disasters around the world since 2001 with their emergency relief teams.

The Lesvos IsraAID team is made up of nurses, paramedics, doctors and trauma psychologists.

Last month, Sydney-based fashion stylist and author Alethea Gold volunteered with the IsraAID team on Lesvos.

She witnessed what happens when “people who are completely traumatised” arrive on the island, where the IsraAID team and Spanish life-savers are waiting to assist them to safety.

“All passengers are usually very wet and very cold,” she recalled.

“The children and old people are first to be taken care of and mostly all of them are stripped of their wet clothing. Dry clothing is put on them immediately and most of them become very emotional.

“They are given hot tea, biscuits and chocolates to help bring their sugar levels up again. Then a bus from UNHCR takes them to the MORIA refugee camp.”

Through her time with IsraAID, Gold observed the harsh situation faced by these refugees on their journey to Lesvos.

“Most of these people don’t know how to swim, let alone drive a boat, yet they are just loaded onto rubber dinghies recommended to hold a maximum of 20 passengers and instead are squashed to travel with 60-70 passengers, and pushed out to sea to fend for themselves,” she said.

“They run out of petrol and capsize.

“Many of the life jackets are fake. They are stuffed with newspaper, so that if or when the passenger falls in, the jacket fills up with water and pulls them down until they sink.”

Ultimately, Gold describes what is happening in Lesvos as “a humanitarian disaster”.

Another observation she made during her time with IsraAID was the fact that Jewish and Arab Israelis work side by side as part of the IsraAID team.

“Most of us believe that the hostility between Arabs and Jews is inescapable and unsolvable,” she said.

“In Lesvos, this IsraAID team is working together in perfect harmony. To feel and witness their friendship and closeness was something very unusual for me.”

ELENORE LEVI