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.
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.
Last week SCM, in cooperation with a Jordanian company called S.H.I.E.L.D., held an event at the Jordan Children’s Museum in Amman. S.H.I.E.L.D. sanitized the whole museum, which is around 9000 square meters, using their new preventive sanitation technologies to help protect visitors from flu and other viruses such as the coronavirus.
After the sanitizing was complete, 56 orphan children aging from 4 to 12 years old were hosted to educate them about the coronavirus, its symptoms, how to protect themselves and how to properly clean and sanitize their hands. They also got to see how clean their hands were using UV light.
They then spent some time in the museum and enjoyed educational and entertaining interactive games. SCM distributed some teddy bears and stuffed animals to all the kids, and then we provided lunch after the event.
Thank you to S.H.I.E.L.D for partnering with SCM on this project and we look forward to doing similar events in the future to teach the children proper hygiene, especially in this time of heightened awareness of the coronavirus and the cold and flu season in general.
If you would like to support this campaign to educate children, especially the refugee children and orphan children living in crowded conditions where illness can spread quickly, please donate. We will be cooperating with S.H.I.E.L.D. again on future events around Jordan to help keep the children healthy.
Here is a video of a jewelry making class in Jordan. These women will be making items to sell, with much of it coming to Seattle and being sold out of our office and online. All money earned from the jewelry sales goes back to Jordan and the women who made the jewelry. We also accept donations for our containers of jewelry making supplies and tools.
This is a video with some of the women in our jewelry making program showing off their beautiful creations.
We are hoping to include more of the Shoes That Grow in our container next month so we have partnered again with Because International to do just that. They have a new platform to collect the donations and then at the end of the drive they will send us the shoes to go in the container. Click below to learn more about the shoes and our campaign.
https://fundraise.becauseinternational.org/scmshoes4refugees
Below are photos of past recipients of the shoes, and of the newest shoe design.
