‘Her name was Noura’

A THOUSAND WORDS?Flotsam washed up on Samos tells the harrowing story of failed boat crossings. This picture was taken in late September.?Pic: Jenny and Derek Graham.

The human stories behind the headlines, as witnessed by a Ballina couple volunteering with Syrian refugees in Greece

Interview
Ciara Galvin

How do you comfort someone who has lost everything?
That is the daily struggle facing volunteers Jenny and Derek Graham (pictured). The Ballina couple is currently preparing to return to the Greek island of Samos to help refugees fleeing Syria and other war-torn countries in the Middle East.
They work mainly at the Malagari port in Vathy, at Samos town, but they also help out when needed at a detention camp in the mountains. “The port camp is the largest one, but unaccompanied minors, and those without paperwork or classed as ‘migrants’ as opposed to refugees, are sent for processing in the detention centre. All the Syrians are kept in the Malagari port camp,” Jenny explains.
Jenny and Derek returned home from three months on the Greek islands of Kos and Samos to their native Ballina for Christmas, the first Christmas they have spent at home in four years.
After spending a number of years volunteering in Gaza, bringing in aid and successfully constructing a well that now supplies 5,000 people with fresh water, the caring couple turned their attention to the refugee crisis. They will go back to Samos at the end of the month to continue helping in any way they can.
This can mean anything from providing blankets and food and taking the injured to hospital to, tragically, organising funerals for those who did not make it to land.
“The port authority called us when four children were lost at sea. Only three were recovered. We had to find a burial site, as families don’t have the money for repatriation,” explains Jenny.
Derek carries on, “One child was four, the other seven and the other child seven months. We found a plot in a Christian graveyard, and the Samos Municipality allowed to have a Muslim burial.”
Derek praises the Greeks, and the people of Samos in particular, for their efforts in dealing with the refugee crisis.
“There has been no negativity. They come down [to the port] and see what they can do. Without the help of volunteers it would be a much bigger crisis. It’s volunteers that are providing food, not the NGOs. The NGOs provide medical assistance,” says Derek.
As I write, around 2,600 refugees are at the port waiting to be processed. The numbers of refugees coming into Samos are down, but, Derek explains, only because of bad weather.

Harrowing
Each new day in Samos can bring unimaginable scenes of hardship and tragedy. The couple reflect  on one ‘extremely difficult week’ in which after dealing with the loss of the four children at sea, the next day tragedy struck once more. Eleven more lives were lost, all women and children.
“Jenny had to rock an eleven-year-old girl to sleep on her knee. Her name was Noura. She was travelling with her mother, brother and sister, and lost them. The father had gone ahead months before. Imagine an eleven-year-old child alone at a port, not having all the details.”
Noura was eventually reunited with her father in Athens, where her mum and siblings have since been buried, and she remains in contact with Jenny.
These experiences take their toll on both Derek and Jenny. They get upset. They go home from the port at night and cry.
Their experiences in Gaza help them to pick themselves up the next day and continue to help others. The reaction of the people they are helping pushes them on too.
“They’re hugging and kissing you. That picks you up again,” says Derek, adding that ‘just to see a smile on a face’ makes a difference.
“One child at the port with his father had an extremely bad stammer that he didn’t always have, after three days he had made huge improvements. We were talking to him a little in Arabic and in English,” recalls Derek. It was the first time the child, who had come from a conflict zone, had met strangers who were not trying to harm him or his family. “By the time he left three days later he was saying ‘Goodbye, I love you’,” recalls Derek.
Jenny says that the couple have received messages from refugees they have helped, letting them know they have made it to other countries and have been reunited with their families.
For Derek, the most heartbreaking thing about his experiences helping refugees, is seeing the effect it has on adults and the elderly.
“Children can bounce back. Give them dry clothes and a football and you see them the next minute playing. But a lot of these people are too proud to ask for help. At night, we walk around to see who doesn’t have a blanket. One night walking around I saw two men in their 60s or 70s, lying on the concrete. I put blankets over them … I thought it was one of the saddest cases. They don’t know where their children are, barely know what country they’re in and they know they’re probably too old to get a job again. After working their whole life, for this,” says Derek.
“All we can do is put a blanket over them,” adds Jenny.
Scaremongering
Ireland’s pledge to take in 5,000 refugees has sparked much debate about opening our country to those fleeing Syria and other Middle Eastern countries. Derek and Jenny urge us to welcome them. We shouldn’t be afraid, they say.
Some argue that many refugees are coming here specifically for economic reasons, but Derek outlines that Ireland itself has produced more ‘economic refugees’ per capita than any other country.
“Two hundred thousand people have left Ireland in the last few years. We can’t say there’s no space here. We’ve always been welcomed, and we should extend our welcome now. These people didn’t want to leave their homes. They want to go home”
Derek also refutes the notion that terrorists could enter country under the guise of refugees. “It’s scaremongering. Ireland is one of the safest countries. We are neutral.”
Jenny simply says, “They’re not coming to take benefits, their country is being bombed.”
Asked what the international community could do to help Syria, the volunteers are united: “Stop bombing.”

How to help
Unable to return to Gaza due to a border lockdown, the couple plan on continuing to volunteer during the refugee crisis in two- to three-month stints on the Greek islands. But with 27,000 homes destroyed in Gaza in 2014, they hope to return eventually to help rebuild what was demolished.
Donations to help Derek and Jenny buy supplies such as baby milk, food and medical equipment for refugees can be made through the ‘donate button’ at www.irishingaza.wordpress.com.
In the words of Jenny, ‘€5 will buy a hell of a lot for someone who has nothing’.

To keep up with Jenny and Derek Graham’s experiences, visit www.irishingaza.wordpress.com or find the ‘Irish in Gaza’ Facebook page.