In the Isle of Lesbos

In the Moria camp, that's in the Isle of Lesbos (In Greece), there is a horrible situation: the people live in overcrowded dirty tends or metal containers, surrounded by rubbish. The migrants come from some war disrupted countries in the middle east like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, passing through Turkey. The everyday life is transformed into a sort of daily battle for survival and a simple altercation can degenerate in fights or brawls. In addition, many people suffer from depression and the sewage system is so strained that the raw sewage reaches the places where children sleep. The drawings of the children are evidence of the trauma... They are full of lifeless bodies, planes dropping bombs, terrified faces; furthermore, between February and June of this year, 18 kids attempted to commit suicide. There are at least 3.000 minors (9000 asylum seekers in total) in this camp, but it was built and organized for only one-third of this number. Near the camp, there is a clinic of Médicins Sans Frontières, but the health service doesn't work so good because the wounded or the people who have a psychological damage refuse to go to it for shame or fear. It is during one phase of the therapy proposed by this clinic that the children draw the war scenes, the fleeing from their country and shipwrecks. The transfers of the asylum seekers to Athens have already begun but new migratory flows are expected for the winter and they'll bring the population of the camp up to 10.000.

A small playground, built by Salam Aldeen, is the only place where, for a few hours, the children can be real kids, and can live carefree moments of normalcy... without fights, violence, problems, rubbish... G.Licata 3H