Diana Hajikakou related her experiences of last year in the refugee camps of northern Greece, when giving an illustrated talk to some 35 listeners crammed into the former board-school classroom at St Mary’s Centre, Lion Street on February 1. With her husband Kyriacos, they had provided dental care in makeshift accommodation ranging from tents, a former army barracks, a shipping container and a derelict factory building. There are 25 camps in all.
Housed in these scattered camps are 60,000 men, women and children, roughly 2000 per camp, all trying to get to Europe. International aid programmes attempt to address humanitarian issues, but basic facilities are often lacking. The provision of dental care has been particularly under-resourced and it this that has spurred the Hajikakous to volunteer their skills
Diana gave a vivid account of the challenges of working in adverse conditions, often without mains electricity or running water and in sweltering heat. At the end of each day the equipment had to be cleared and carried to the distant base camp in Thessaloniki ready for the next morning’s expedition. A portable electricity generator kept breaking down and this talk was partly to help the aid organisation Health Point Foundation to buy a replacement.
Under such conditions, treatment could only be palliative, aimed at pain relief. Their attempts to establish a referral system to the main city for more serious treatment were met by every bureaucratic obstacle. Refugees were allowed outside the camps, but had no money for transport. They were not allowed to visit other camps.
Conditions were grim, but Diana told us: “It was very inspiring, everyone we met was so open-hearted, so giving of themselves. The news is very dispiriting but there are a lot of wonderful people about. In fact, we are going again quite soon.”
After the event, Diana expressed her thanks to those who had attended the talk. The donations given towards the purchase of vital equipment were most generous. There will be further information in due course regarding the use to which the money has been put.
Photo: Kenneth Bird