Chios Update 19th November 2018

The only landing on Chios this week took place on a Grey, rainy Saturday morning. The new arrivals were all wet and cold. The Aegean Sea was rough and choppy that day and still nobody in the boat wore a life jacket. Men, women and children were put in an extremely dangerous situation. They were lucky that the boat didn’t capsized. Besides the difficult conditions the volunteers of Offene Arme e.V./ CESRT managed to give water and food to everybody. Additionally every new arrival received a towel and a winter coat. Luckily, a local couple allowed the people to seek shelter on their porch to protect them from the rain. Following the boat arrival on Saturday, the team set out to collect the boat and other items. The beach was cleaned and the boat is to be recycled for Mimycri who use the material to create backpacks and purses out of it.

On the same rainy Saturday in the Language Centre, the students and teachers sat together inside and enjoyed a showing of the film Sherlock Holmes. This week will begin a sewing session at the Language Centre, for students to learn some techniques with needle and thread. They can bring any items they have that needs repairing. 

This week the first weekly Vial Games meeting took place. It’s main purpose is to include Vial residents efficiently in the preparation. During the past week some new craft activities were introduced. Among others the volunteers created hand puppets with the children out of socks to take with them. 

Due to only one landing this week in the warehouse the regular sorting of boxes and organizing shelves continued. Clothes and hygiene donations have been received and a palette of diapers will arrive soon. At the same time we gave a lot of essentially needed hygiene articles like tooth brushes, shower gel and tooth pastes to Vial Camp as they don’t have anymore to distribute to the people.On Tuesday and Thursday the Locals Shop opened its doors again. Especially on Tuesdays we had many visitors who slowly start preparing themselves for the winter months. 

This week the team  had a lot time to focus on the Apartment Distributions. On Thursday the volunteers attended an apartment block with 12 apartments to do assessments for winter clothing sizes and other items for vulnerable families. On Friday the team packed clothing, blankets, towels, hygiene and bathroom supplies then returned to the apartments to provide the items. In the garden this week fava beans were planted and the team started brussel sprouts, cabbage and swiss chard. The remaining open space on the field is supposed to be filled with potatoes. In addition to this the students suggested to plant more flowers so the team hopes to purchase flower bulbs and seeds. For the next week the garden team hopes to build up a greenhouse to allow the students to be active also over the coldest moths of winter.   Offene Arme e.V./Chios Eastern Shore Response Team