Another very isolated and small camp that we have helped since August 2017. Over that time it has risen from about 120 to 150 people living in cramped conditions and miles from any shops and services.
Invited by the UN Refugee Agency to see if we could provide food, it was immediately apparent that we could help the people on the camp and support Oxfam the site manager (now ASB). Our first task was an urgent distribution of food and milk. This camp is a long way from any shops and there were many needs.
From that start, we delivered food every week apart from January-March 2018 and since November 2018.
Unfortunately, the lack of funds and the need to prioritise new arrivals at Katsikas means that we cannot now deliver food every week.
Our food delivery was much like a home delivery service. We travelled to Doliana every Sunday with a small team of volunteers to take orders and distribute food. Every refugee family had tokens they could ‘spend’ (the bigger the family, the more tokens they have). Volunteers took the orders for the following week with the smart application we use on a tablet computer. In Katsikas that week we then prepared the orders for each family and delivered it to them the following Sunday when we took the order for the following week.
We still visit Doliana once a month to deliver nappies/ diapers and sanitary pads to all those that