How we started

In the autumn of 2015, Eluna saw a call in a newspaper to donate clothes for refugees. With the help of that organization Eluna and Corinne came to know a national collecting point in the Netherlands where they spent months and months sorting out clothes for Greece. 

At the end of that year, Eluna suggested to see where these clothes ended up and at the beginning of 2016, Eluna and Corinne went to Pireaus, the port city of Athens.

A piece Corinne wrote at the time: “February 2016. Boats from the Greek islands with thousands of refugees arrive every day in  Piraeus, the port city of Athens. They carry all their belongings in bags, have already had a long and terrible journey and do not know what awaits them. In the beginning, the borders were still open and they could travel to elsewhere in Europe. But now that the borders are closed, Greece is filling up. We hand out food and water, diapers and soap, arrange hot showers and telephones, clothes and shoes, provide information, play with the children and, above all, listen. I’m baffled. Thousands of people in the cold, in thin nylon tents on the asphalt. The elderly, pregnant women, entire families. So much suffering and rootlessness. Lack of basically everything, sanitary facilities, medical care and safety. Families torn apart, traumatized people, missing children and hardly any perspective. My heart breaks.”   

These were such extremely intense times. Heartbreaking and wonderful. Connecting and cheerful. Impossible and natural. Horrible and heartwarming. We have often felt so grateful that we were allowed to do this work.

This first time paved the way for this work. When we were home in between, we told family, friends and our extensive network what kind of work we did and what the next plans were. Many of you donated  at the time and helped us make as much as possible. That was amazing! We went to Greece 6 times within two years. Hans also joined in. We worked both as independent volunteers and affiliated with organizations. We met people that we still keep in touch with to this day. We worked with people from Syria, Afghanistan, America, Poland, Lebanon and Greece. We celebrated New Year’s Eve there with 17(!) nationalities. Our fellow volunteers came from almost all countries in Europe. What a connection! This gave us great energy and motivation.