Refugees

[Eliza]

Amid The Tears And Tragedy A Very British Good Samaritan. Sunday Mail today.

[SueO]

Amid The Tears And Tragedy A Very British Good Samaritan. Sunday Mail today.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic ... RRELL.html

Spreading the word - great

[sootyandsweep]

Wow - i have been on holiday - not on Symi unfortunately - and came back to the Mail on Sunday FULL PAGE article and to see the sum raised now is in excess of 20k. What an achievement for you organisers and generosity by Symi followers. Great to see a positive spin rather than the negative that is swimming around in the media.

[Allan]

All good publicity. Andy was on "Loose Women" yesterday (Monday) and there is a rumour he could be on one of the breakfast shows today.

[Colette]

I've just watched Andy on yesterday's Loose Women and thought he explained the situation very well.What a great job he and Wendy and the volunteers are doing and what wonderful and compassionate people they are. I'll be doing whatever I can to help when I'm there and hope other holiday makers will do the same.

[Otto]

20 kg of refugee relief items packed and ready to go. Unfortunately, Ving/ Thomas Cook Scandinavia will not allow free extra luggage on their flights from Norway to Rhodes. Only Kos and Thassos. All other airlines and tour operators allow 10-25 kg without any extra charge, on all flights bound for southern Europe. So I had to pay € 50 for the extra bag Next time I will fly Apollo/ Scandinavian like I used to. Arriving late Sunday night, I will drop it off Monday morning.

[SueO]

Well done Otto

Have a wonderful holiday.

SueO

[sootyandsweep]

Hi - can anyone tell me where there is perhaps a blog on how the refugees are getting on on Symi? I am not on facebook or twitter. News carrys terrible footage of refugees being beaten back and in such misery. It would be a very welcome change to read that at least a small proportion of displaced people are receiving kindness. Its hard to Imagine on such a small island how Symi is coping.
Well done Andy - you have almost reached your target - you must feel immensely proud.

[Andy W]

You could look at the blogs by Adriana:
http://adrianas-symi.blogspot.co.uk/
and James Collins
http://www.symidream.com/
who both include updates on how the refugee relief effort is succeeding.
They're both involved with Solidarity Symi.
As at yesterday lunchtime there were no refugees at all on Symi (all had been processed and sent on by ferry to the Greek mainland) but locally it is expected that another influx will arrive with the next full moon period.
I'd second your congratulations to Andy Davies and all the other volunteers of Solidarity Symi.

[sootyandsweep]

Thanks for that info Andy W. Well done all the refugees having been processed and hopefully on their way to better things ahead. Well done Symi. However the season is changing and i can well imagine from now on in it will be hard for those landing at Symi - the seas can be rough. I wish them well.

[peterv]

For those who have not followed Solidarity Symi on Facebook.

My sister, brother in law and I did a run to Symi in January with 80 boxes (about 8 cubic metres) of clothing and other items and delivered them to Solidarity Symi as a trial and fact finding mission.

There is a new UK charity called Next Stop Symi which is soon to get Charity Commission approval. The charity has been set up to collect humanitarian aid and transport it to Symi. It can collect your donations from you for a small fee, or you can arrange to send them to Suffolk. It will arrange the sorting and re-boxing in Suffolk. Any unsuitable items are donated to other UK charities. Newly boxed items are then transported, including ferries, across Europe to Solidarity Symi for use with refugees on the island, or for them to send to other islands that have a need.

There was a very substantial quantity of aid collected in the Norfolk/Suffolk area last year. The aid not delivered (summer clothing) in January is being safely stored for transporting to Symi in April or June.

The charity can be contacted at nextstopsymi@gmail.com

[HowGally]

Hi Sue,
I have also been asking the same question. I had a response from Andrew Davies from the Symi Solidarity charity saying that Ian who is co-ordinating stock would get back to me. Hopefully I will hear soon and will let others know. At the moment I was planning to take crayons, paper etc, toiletries, sanitary goods etc. Dreadful situation.
Regards. Jackie G.

[Andy W]

Ian Leckie is most certainly the best able to say which items are most needed to keep the stock at the right levels. As a general comment, Solidarity Symi has always had two objectives, one is to ease the plight of the refugees, and the other is to help those Symi islanders who have been hard hit by the Greek economic crisis and the savage cuts the government was forced to make in pensions, medical services, school budgets and so on. It is sometimes possible to meet both objectives at once by donating money which Symi Solidarity can use to buy supplies locally, helping island shopkeepers and their extended families as well as the refugees who will actually use the supplies.