Letter from a refugee camp in Greece
By Dimitri Dimitriou

I chose to volunteer for selfish reasons. I am an incredibly curious person; I wanted to volunteer with refugees because I thought it would help me understand the world better. Traveling to Greece was an added bonus.

Finding the right spot to volunteer was hard. I wanted to find an organization that focused on empowerment and development. I wanted to help refugees build skills towards a hopeful future rather than dole out emergency aid. I found what I was looking for in Lifting Hands International (LHI).

LHI is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that provides humanitarian relief to refugees all across the world. While working in Greece, I was most impressed by the resident volunteer program where members from the refugee community can gain work experience and help LHI co-host and co-run different programs for the refugee camps.

The LHI program in Greece is based in Serres, near the border of Bulgaria. It is a unique camp since there is only one ethnic group in residency. The Yazidis are often mistaken as either Sunni Arabs or Kurdish; in reality they are their own group located in Northern Iraq near the Syrian border. Due to another misunderstanding about their religion, which has been kept as an oral tradition, the Yazidis became one of the main targets of the Islamic State (ISIS). This August marks the five-year anniversary of the terrible genocide carried out against these resilient people.

Working with the Yazidhi people has been both heartbreaking and inspiring. In the midst of survival from slaughter, they have found hope and have kept a strong community.

While working with the Yazidis, who are trying to keep their community strong in Greece, I reflected on my own culture. I reflected on the strength of the Greeks that have faced repressive cuts to their lives since their financial crisis. Spending five weeks in Greece, I was happy to see that many Greeks have not forgotten what is most important to them, community. Everyday, nearly 24 hours a day, you see jammed packed coffee houses with people debating politics, or catching up with friends and family.

I believe supporting refugees is an issue very close to the hearts of many Greeks. The people of Greece have not forgotten their own history, which has involved multiple waves of refugees entering Greece from Asia Minor. At one point, in the 1920s, nearly one fifth of the Greek population was made up of refugees.

While traveling through Greece and working at the refugee camp I was caught off-guard with an overwhelming feeling of hope. Despite terrible odds, both the Greeks and the refugees have remained resilient. My hope is that both communities will continue to support, grow, and learn from each other.

Dimitri Dimitriou is a High School English teacher and a second-generation Greek-American. He shares his heritage with the Greeks from Asia Minor that were expelled from their homeland in multiple waves. Volunteering with refugees in Greece was one way Dimitri was able to reconnect with his past.