October 2025

On our onward journey to Lesbos, we met people who give strength to others in desperate situations.

We started with a visit to Earth Medicine, an NGO that works in the refugee camp and offers physiotherapy, Chinese medicine and acupuncture to people in need. Fabiola runs the organization free of charge, supported by her husband from Afghanistan, who acts as an interpreter, and by volunteers who help out on a temporary basis. She provides both humanitarian and therapeutic aid in this oppressive environment.

We witnessed two treatments – a 26-year-old Afghan woman who lost a leg after a bomb attack and has had an open wound on her foot for years (and had to walk her entire escape on one leg with a serious infection on the other). After two weeks of treatment by Fabiola, the wound begins to heal for the first time. The other patient was a woman from Central Africa with gunshot wounds in her back.

After this difficult visit, we were able to go to a place where the residents of the camp can also retreat: Paréa (Greek for “friends”) Lesbos, a 25-minute walk outside the camp. Here, several NGOs operate in one area and offer meals, safe spaces for women, sports, music and other leisure activities, a vegetable garden, legal support, medical care and much more. We had many great encounters here, including with Hamed, a refugee who has set up “The Makerspace” – a carpentry and electronics repair NGO that both trains people on the run in these areas and carries out carpentry work in Paréa. As Hamed says: “We can at least do small things for the people.” But these small things have a big impact, because a repaired bicycle means a big step towards more independence where public transport is hardly affordable.

There are more than 20 volunteers in Paréa, half of whom are “community volunteers”, i.e. refugees from the camp itself who volunteer, while the other half come from all over Europe. As the main coordinator Abby said: “To build a community, you need people from the community.”