Help Anna to make a difference in Greece

I am going to Lesvos, Greece on the 11th of January to provide on the ground support to the many thousands of refugees arriving there each day by boat.

Like so many people I feel a strong pull to do whatever I can to help these people who are arriving in a strange new land, leaving their homes behind.

Volunteers arriving to the many refugee camps and aid organisations on the island have to organise their own accommodation and take responsibility for all the expenses of arriving in order to provide assistance to these people.

I have the time and skills needed to get out there and make myself useful, I just need to get the finances together. Alongside picking up as much work as I can in the interim to help self-fund this project, I am also reaching out to ask for help in the form of donations.

Helping is what drives me, I feel a pull to get get out there and make a difference. I have spent much of my adult life training in various emergency situations, volunteering with St John Ambulance, as an ambulance officer as well as assisting in the crisis relief/welfare centre after the Christchurch earthquakes

The situation is dire - each day between 1000-3000 refugees fleeing war and persecution are arriving on Lesvos by boat, a treacherous journey across the Mediterranean sea that has taken the lives of over 3000 people this year alone. Lezvos is often their first point of arrival in Europe and a majority of the help being provided on the island is by volunteers who made the journey and given up their time to provide a helping hand. Winter is setting in now and the boats just keep on arriving, Lezvos needs so much more help & support!

This is where you can help!

Whether your donation is big or small, every little bit helps - I have so much appreciation and gratitude even for the tiniest of donations that will help me to get there.

Don't have any money to donate?

That's fine too! Please help out by sharing this campaign amongst your friends and family. The more exposure this gets the better the campaign will work.

I will provide on the ground support in several ways:

- Utilise my emergency first aid & ambulance officer background in providing emergency first aid assistance to the medic teams as needed.

- Get hands on and involved wherever I am most useful, whether that is meeting boats out in the middle of the night, making bulk sandwiches for hungry refugees in one of the kitchens or processing new arrivals and sorting donations at one of the camps or many donation storage warehouses.

- Support and encourage current volunteers who have been out on the island for weeks and in some cases many months.

-Provide information to arriving refugees to help relieve the immense stress that comes from arriving into a new country under such difficult circumstances - these people are arriving with no idea what to expect, or what happens once they get here.

-Take additional supplies over to Lesvos with me from one of the many donation collection points in the UK.

-Provide real information on the situation back to the outside world, bringing more awareness to the situation and what people can do to help.

The donated money will provide:

- Air travel for one to Lesvos from the UK.

- Simple, shared accommodation throughout the project for one.

- Basic food and necessities required during my time there.

** Additional funds raised will go back into the local economy and wherever it is most needed amongst the refugee organisations operating on the island.

Items required for my time on the island (wet weather gear, torches, sim cards etc) will be passed on to a newly arriving volunteer on my departure from the island to help them get started on their volunteering journey.

I will also blog and video my experiences regularly so that you can keep up to date with the situation at http://jetsettinglivingwell.info