SCM Medical Missions
Through our partner on the Greek island of Samos we were able to distribute clothing, hygiene supplies, and rat poison to help control the rat problem in the camps to Syrian refugees there. The refugees have been living in very poor conditions and the camp has recently had a huge fire destroying much of the meager possessions and supplies they have. Thank you for your continued support – we were able to send $3000 to purchase all these items for several hundred refugees.
SCM is committed to serving communities of color around the US. Be they Syrian, Iraqi, Afghani, or black, we believe that all people have the right to freedom and dignity, and we are doing our part to drive this change. With your help we have been doing pretty well as we work with Syrian refugees with tools and opportunities to build brighter futures, we seek the same for other marginalized communities. Thank you for all your help in getting this done, without you we would not be able to do anything.
Here is what we did in May with your help:
We want to thank you all for your generosity and assistance in May to help the refugees get by. This financial crisis for the refugees is not something that will be ending soon so we need to keep up our pace to continue helping them. With your assistance we will be able to do that.
We are getting more and more calls for help – one person gives our name to another person and that person passes it on to another person. We do check the validity of the requests, and the money is never given directly to the refugees but it is paid directly to the utility companies or to the landlords. We are also in contact with other organizations to make sure we are not double paying for anyone who might be getting some other kind of assistance that they also requested from us.
Looking forward, we are planning to send a container by the end of this month to Jordan. It will be filled with humanitarian goods and clothing we have been collecting since the beginning of this year. We have not been able to send it sooner because of the virus, so we will let everyone know when the container will be loaded and then we hope everyone will be able to come and help us load – wearing their mask and gloves and do the social distancing, of course!
So, thank you again everyone! We appreciate all your help and generosity. Stay healthy, wash your hands, wear a mask, and let’s keep on going and let’s make this a better world!
Thank you!
~Rita
Five years ago, SCM was one of the very first organizations to go to the Greek islands off the coast of Turkey to provide humanitarian and medical aid to the refugees who had made the perilous journey across the sea to get into the European Union. We were on the island of Lesbos, rescuing refugees as they got to the shores, giving them blankets and food, helping them get to safety and to medical facilities if they were in need of further treatment, providing translation services, and providing information to help the refugees take their next steps to asylum.
We followed the need to northern Greece as the refugees tried to continue their flight to countries that they believed would provide refuge and asylum for them. We were instrumental in providing immediate emergency medical care to those at the northern Greek border as well as humanitarian supplies such as food and blankets.
SCM volunteers helping to get the curtain walls up
We eventually partnered with another organization to provide these services at two large camps set up by the government in northern Greece. We also set up schools in each camp and had space in a large warehouse to collect donations and sort for distribution to the residents of the camps.
We’ve had a brief hiatus on our work in Greece as the crisis seemed to wind itself down and the refugees disbursed into the EU or found other places to live in Greece. The government was also becoming more adverse to outside organizations coming in and providing assistance to the refugees and made it very difficult for us to operate in any capacity there. We tried to set up a clinic and housing for women and children on the island of Samos as the need picked up again last summer, but our agents from the US and Jordan were blocked by the government at every turn.
In the midst of that stymied effort, we gained a local partner that has agreed to continue assisting us on the ground. This person is a Greek national so she does not face the same deterrents as foreign NGO workers face. She is carrying on our mission on Samos to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees there. These refugees have faced persecution as the anti-refugee sentiment has grown throughout Greece. The government is keeping the conditions at the makeshift camps squalid, overcrowded, unprotected and unsafe. They need our help more than ever now.
Please donate to this effort to keep provided much needed food, clothing, hygiene supplies, medicines, and more to the people who have given up everything to find safety and security.
The video below shows the unsanitary conditions have attracted rats. We are helping to get rid of them and some of the funds donated with go to that effort.
SCM is supporting LGBTQI refugees to help them get to safety in Canada. They are extremely vulnerable and are often persecuted within the camps. They need help to get out of the camps and on their way to a new and safe life in Canada, but they lack the resources to do so. As part of our mission to help the most vulnerable refugees, we are starting a new fund to help cover living expenses outside the camps and other fees associated with their asylum and immigration cases. We have people on the ground who are bringing specific cases of people in danger to us that we will assist on a case by case basis and we are partnering with an organization in Canada to accomplish this.
Please help us help them get out of the camps to safety and a new life in Canada.
What are Foldscopes and why do we want them? They are paper microscopes that can be easily used in the field and are great for children as they learn about science, and they can be used to analyze water supplies to determine if the water is drinkable.
“Foldscope is the ultra-affordable, paper microscope. Designed to be extremely portable, durable, and to give optical quality similar to conventional research microscopes (magnification of 140X and 2 micron resolution), Foldscope brings hands-on microscopy to new places!
As a company, Foldscope Instruments Inc’s mission is to produce low-cost scientific tools that globally expand access to science. We aim to break down the price barrier between people & the curiosity and excitement of scientific exploration.”
“Foldscopes were used to identify the microscopic eggs of agricultural pests in India, to catalog the biodiversity of soil arthropods in the Amazon, detect fake currency and medicine, follow toxic blooms, detect bacteria in water samples, map pollen diversity in a city landscape, among thousands of other things.”
We would like to get a supply of these handy tools to give to refugee communities in Jordan, Syria, and Greece. They will be so useful in protecting themselves against water contamination and, because they are so inexpensive and can be purchased in Classroom Kits, they are great for students to learn about the world around them. And they can be used in conjunction with a cell phone camera to record and share!
Orders of the Deluxe Classroom Kit for $70 (20 deluxe kits and supplies) can apply the discount code FALL2019 to receive a $10 discount if ordered before October 2.
Order here: https://www.foldscope.com/order and have them sent to us at our office and we will get them in to the next container going in a couple weeks, or send them in luggage for those going to Greece or Jordan.
Thank you!
Leaving Syria: The Plight of Refugees Stranded in Greece
Co-authors Bill Dienst, MD and Madi Williamson
Both Bill and Madi volunteered with SCM in Greece and have put together this collection of their experiences and those of other volunteers and refugees they met along the way. This is a powerful narrative about what it was like on the ground in the midst of the boat landings on Lesbos, the border closures in northern Greece, and the move into military-run camps in Greece.
The book is now available for pre-order at $19.95 + tax per copy. We can mail you your copy when they become available, or you can pick it up at our fundraiser event on May 20, when the book will have its official release. Please contact our office to pre-order your copy today! You can also visit our shop on our Facebook page to order:
https://www.facebook.com/commerce/products/1623373394340309/
