Our last day! A very long last day too, up at 7am and not returning to our flat until nearly 1am .. with an 9am wake up call for the journey home. This is going to be a loong post too, so here are all the photos and then I’ll share the stories behind them.

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At the beginning of the day we went into the main Idomeni Camp, we had an appointment early to shoot an interview with the Team Bananas crew. Where they deliver upwards of 4,000+ bananas to as many children and breast feeding mothers in the camp as they can every single day. They are a fun group and in pairs, you work as volunteers to deliver bananas directly to the tents. People know you are only delivering bananas so its a lower risk project to work with and so incredibly good too. It’s a very happy job to do.

Every time you enter camp you see different and new situations, even if it’s similar to another situation from the day before in that people need to eat, survive and life in this camp .. there are different aspects that you see with each day. Today was the day we had advanced notice that there was going to be a very BIG protest about the borders being closed. Unfortunately we heard that there were some websites or information places that were spreading lies that the borders were going to open for a short time and only to open at the FYROM borders at the camp. Complete and utter lies. Those lies caused so much heartache in so many different ways. Because of those lies we saw this (except after the disclaimer point, I share what my friends told me and experienced):

• People leaving the satellite camps and walking miles to get to Idomeni camp in time for the supposed opening of the borders.
• People carrying only the items they needed to survive and take care of their children.
• Children and infirm (at risk) elderly being wheelchaired in
• Entire sets of families peacefully waiting on the train tracks for hours in very hot stifling conditions (weather was about 28 degrees C that day)
• Peaceful protest in front of the media and police barickade on the train tracks
• About 1pm an uprising of voices, louder and louder, shouting out and trying to raise the camp to protest.
• Shortly after this we left the Idomeni Camp as previously advised.
• About 2pm everything in camp changed. People moved to the borders, hoping that they would open.
• DISCLAIMER: I was not there, I only share what I heard happened, there are hopefully news reports sharing the events.
• FYROM guards were on their side of the border and lobbed tear gas into the crowd at the border
• They continued throwing tear gas all along the border for the rest of the day into the general tent area where there were families NOT protesting.
• Volunteers and medics washed as many faces and eyes as they could.
• What was needed next over the following days is full showers for everyone involved, new clothes and the tents to be washed down. Did this happen .. I’ve no idea.

Because these families and individuals moved from the satellite camps to Idomeni, they lost their temporary homes due to new people moving into their vacated spots. They had not enough shelter for them all that evening after the tear gas stopped. So many thousands of people hurt because of lies that the border would open.

I don’t understand a humanity that would play on the hopes and fears of such a vulnerable people in order to incite activism. You have a right to protest the closure of the border in your own country, raise up and do so. But, DO NOT spread lives that impact and damage the lives of an already vulnerable people. These camps are full of people fleeing war, bombs and hate and those lies brought another kind of war upon them. The war of asking for their human rights. It is so incredibly shameful that these people were hurt like this.

You are NOT DOING THIS IN MY NAME.

Note: FYROM is the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, what the world called Macedonia is technically FYROM. Macedonia as a land is also in northern Greece and the border is held by FYROM, not Macedonia.

. . . . . . .

So while working with Team Bananas to capture footage and interview talk with them about what they are doing, we went to a section of the camp that is the old abandoned train shed and it is full of tents for families. Normally when you go in there it sounds like the best of childrens creche’s, loud, full of childrens voices and the occasional adult telling off a naughty one for some such deed or other. Today when we went in it was quiet, so many families left and were down at the train tracks, waiting and hoping for that border to open.

So we filmed and delivered bananas anyway, because children and mothers still need to have breakfast. In the video above you’ll see the cutest little baby being handed a banana in a tent. In the photos you’ll see a baby holding a banana that’s gone to mush from being gummed so much.

You will see in my photos a picture of me with two lovely children. They followed me for a while and asked several times for a photograph. I thought they wanted to photograph each other, but they wanted one with me! So I said yes, anything to bring a little joy and a ‘yes’ answer instead of the myriads of no’s I’m sure they hear. I am and was so incredibly glad that they were there and not down at the borders. I’ve no idea if there were there later but I hope they escaped the tear gas that day.

In the photos you’ll see a photo that may not look like much but shows ingenuity happens where ever there is life. A grandmah had collected the golden foil wraps that are emergency heat wraps and made a table look pretty. You’ll see an artist’s portrait and his work of making planes and helicopters out of wire. You’ll see a pair of shoes that have been cut and made out of welly boots. Innovation, everywhere.

You’ll see the outside of the Idomeni Cultural Centre that is a school during the day and an activity centre as well. We gave them hundreds of kids t-shirts and fabric paints as an activity for the kids to do, all funding raised by my partner and her daughter in affiliate with Refugees START. My partner is one of their trustees.

There are photos of the families waiting on the train tracks and also photos from the front of the protest and hope for an opening of the borders. We left shortly after those photos were taken.

There are photos of the childrens activity area at Camp Eko which is a petrol station that is still working to this day. Volunteers and others still get their petrol from there, while there are roughly 3,000 people living there. Little children drawing their fears and experience, their hopes as well.

There are photos of volunteers from A Drop In The Ocean sorting through donations in what used to be an old playboy building, that is across the road from the main volunteers hot spot called the Park Hotel. This group A Drop In The Ocean are amazing and have on the best distortion systems I’ve seen so far. They are a great organisation to volunteer with. Check them out.

After all of this, the volunteers are still here, the refugees still need all the aid they can get and meetings go on .. trying to figure out how to give the best help a bunch of independent volunteers can.

I have a massive amount of respect for these people, giving weeks and months of their time to help others.

I encourage to you volunteer, help the homeless near you, volunteer with a youth group, help the refugees who settle in near you, give time to sorting donations at warehouses. Just get out there and help, without expecting anything in return .. except maybe a feeling a self worth that you are trying to make a change.

Also write to your local MP and ask for them to accept the refugee unaccompanied minors into the UK. Ask them to get the government push for the border to open. If my home and livelihood were taken by hate and bombs, I would hope the world would grant me my human rights to live in a place without fear.

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