Description
During the summer and autumn of 2015, record-breaking numbers of refugees arrived on Lesvos, sometimes more than 60 boats a day. So a transit camp was built in the car park of a nightclub called Oxy to provide food, water, shelter, medical facilities and buses to Mytilini for every refugee. Donations from tourists and volunteers from around the world all helped to make this possible.
When the flood of arrivals slowed down during the spring of 2016, the Starfish team thought carefully about how to redirect our efforts. As a local organization, we decided to suspend our volunteer program and focus on a few ongoing programs while continuing our efforts to assist local people-the island that weathered the storm of migrants and volunteers alike now faces the challenge of rebuilding the tourist economy that evaporated during the crisis.
Meanwhile, Starfish continues to do what it always has and what the people of Lesvos are known for: providing a warm welcome to travellers, standing together to take on the challenges they face, and most importantly, never overlooking the value of offering help, for it is by living out the spirit of Starfish that the world will be changed.
