10 Jan Waldorf comes to a refugee camp in Greece
Ingrid Krause, a member of the Anthroposophical Society who lives in Quebec, has recently returned from Greece. This is a country she knows well, having explored it for the first time on a motor bike shortly after completing her studies in Germany. Since retiring, she has gone back again five times. “Greece welcomes me like a sister soul with the uplifting radiance of her sky, the brilliant blue of her sea which causes the melancholy heart to rejoice, and the warmth and friendliness of her people.” She owns some plot on the island of Cythera where “I share the land with wild mountain goats on hills fragrant with the scent of thyme and sage set against a backdrop of the blue sea.”
The scene is however far less pastoral in Athens, where this fall she visited the Ellinikos refugee camp. The people there are among the thousands of migrants initially headed for the north of Europe who are now forced to live in pitiful conditions in Greece since the borders were closed in the spring of 2016. Ingrid received some monetary donations from friends in her community in an attempt to help ease the living conditions of these unfortunate people. This money was handed over to Helga Natoli, who works with refugee children.
Helga is a 37-year old mother who is taking Waldorf teacher training courses in Athens given by Michael Tsigotsides, a long-time anthroposophist who taught for 20 years in Swedish Waldorf schools. He is a true pioneer in bringing Waldorf education to Greece, in particular by offering teacher training seminars. These sessions take place in an inviting space located above the store in which he sells Waldorf educational supplies in the very heart of the Greek capital. (for further information: tsigotsides@hotmail.com).
And one of his students is indeed Helga Natoli, with whom, as Ingrid tells us: “I have had the privilege of forming a precious friendship. To my knowledge, this Waldorf education initiative is the only one existing in Greece. Two years ago, upon meeting the economist and researcher Christopher H. Budd at the Economic Conference in Montréal, he informed me about this initiative and gave me the address of Michael Tsigotsides.”
Ingrid provides us below with a slightly shortened version of a moving account recently sent to her by Helga Natoli. In it, Helga describes her educational and therapeutic work with refugee children.
Athens, Saturday 21st May 2016
This is an ongoing story that I believe is worth telling, also believe it is a story people could join in and become part of; I do not write it to make sure you believe in the validity of what I do, this outcome is a consequence that might take place or not, it isn’t my choice, it is your choice.
On the 16th of March 2016 I began visiting the provisional refugee Camp in the Port of Piraeus, at gate E1.
Listening about how critical the refugee situation in Athens was, I wanted to find a way to help.
I had heard stories about the camp in the port of Piraeus, how it is lacking hygiene and security measures. How distribution of food is dealt with through some NGOs and the army, at times… I had heard about provisional “medical tents” or containers and vans brought in by the Doctors Without Borders and other well-known organizations, but not much was spoken about the wellbeing of children on TV, Radio or Internet… I Had questions such as: Are there people entertaining these kids? Are their parents in the condition to take care of them or make them feel safe? Is there a pre-designated area for them to play? Do they get books and materials to work with? What about their education? have they ever been to school? How long have they been on the run?
With all these unanswered questions in my head, I decided to visit the camp on Wednesday with my friend Vivi. Bringing along a bag full of colored pencils, pastels, markers and paper, we would do a workshop with the children if allowed by those in charge and if desired by the children we would meet.
We took the internal port bus from gate E7, the route-view was hallucinating, tents and people all over the port, sleeping on the cement with their travel bags for pillows or aligned at some medical container to receive medical care. Kids running barefoot, thousands of people camping… We stopped at the last building in the port: the E1 building. There was a distribution of food going on outside it, two ladies were distributing plastic bags containing packed meals, to a line of hundreds of people.
We walked around, in and out of the building searching for some person to tell us if we could – and where to – set our workshop. The two ladies where the only ones we saw in a sort of uniform, an orange jacket, and I asked them: “Sorry to interrupt, I came to draw with the children, have material for a workshop, do you know where I should go and ask for permission?”
The 2 ladies continuing their distribution to the aligned refugees looked at me, the older one said: “Just go in and do it!” So I did…
I entered the building with my friend, the floor was covered in large gray blankets; each blanket was sleeping and living space for 1 person and up to families of 4. On each blanket a box with supplies and personal items, or a travel bag; some had extra blankets to cover up, back in early March it was cold in Athens, some had sleeping bags, some had neither.
I asked a lady, with gestures and few simple English terms, if I could lay down a sheet on the floor next to her family’s blanket, she made some extra space for us, folding her blanket, and we sat, took out a box of pencils and paper and started drawing… Kids and grown-ups immediately came our way asking for a pencil and a piece of paper, some left after taking the items we offered, some sat on our sheet drawing along with us. On that evening we worked with over 80 children of all ages.
That very first workshop, in the E1 provisional camp, begun at 17.00pm and ended at 20.00pm, we handed more than 150 size A4 pages and about 50 large drawing papers; many were the kids that after drawing would give us their pictures, as a gift; a mother kindly offered me a bottle of water she had lined up for a while to get; children were smiling, eager to spend time in our company and kind to us. I also noticed they seemed puzzled because as I would hand them the items I would also look in their eyes and smiling, say: “For you!” just as I would do with Joe, my son… Only later realized they didn’t get much of that, most probably, in quite a long time.
There was a large column in the middle of the building, we glued on it some of the drawings and the kids were keen to help with it. A girl made a drawing with an English phrase on it: “Please open your door… She gave the drawing to me…
… I still see this girl at the camp, when I visit.
Vivi continues to do drawings for the children. …. A boy aged 14-15, this week came by us and taking out from his pocket, unfolded a piece of paper to show Vivi that he still has the drawing she had made for him time back. In her circle children sit patiently around her and wait for their turn to get her pictures; in the meanwhile some draw as well or observe her do it.
That one first time, kids made us promise we’d return, they didn’t want to let us go… Until now we have kept this promise. All our art supplies were over at the end of the evening.
What we can offer to these children isn’t nearly enough; they lost so much… lives crashed under images of excruciating pain and violence that these kids have witnessed both victims and survivors. Many are the kids that don’t have relatives, travelling alone into a very dangerous and scary adventure.
In these situations a drawing and some pencils cannot heal wounds so deep; the vacuum, the sense of being lost in space with a very vague hint of orientation, if any… needs constancy, patience and perseverance, to be – at least partially – overcome. And I do have faith that, in every smile these kids find within their hearts and share with me, Vivi and the other volunteers, there is, hidden in it, a tiny portion of healing, happening literally bit by bit and in extremely slow motion, contributing to the reconstruction of what was savagely broken and scattered inside of them, with War.
Vivi and I keep visiting the camp in E1 on Wednesdays, since. Two weeks later, on the 30th of March, we noticed more people in orange and yellow jackets were present at the port. On our way to E1, passing outside the E2 building, we saw a lady doing a workshop with some kids camping there, some others holding hands with a particular child were walking them around safely.
Reaching E1, other volunteers in yellow jackets were there, and they guided us to the back of the building to meet a woman who was in charge of the children’ programs, attempting to organize some more structured childcare in the camp.
This woman’s name is Belle, she had arrived from Lesbos at the end of the previous week, where she had been volunteering. After our introductions I asked her where to set up our workshop. It was a sunny and hot afternoon.We were there earlier then at previous times, at 14.00pm, so she suggested we could set up outside the building; she found a nice and shady spot for us, and we began our work. Kids, as always, were welcoming and eager to work with us!
Belle asked me if I would like to join and volunteer with the childcare crew; I replied I am an independent volunteer and wouldn’t like to join any NGO. She told me that likewise she and her group are all independent volunteers also. Thus I said that in such case I could apply for Wednesdays! We exchanged Facebook contacts.
On that day I had thought of having a drawing theme: “Trees”. I would do a linear trunk and branches that the children could fill in with leafs, flowers and fruits as they pleased. I worked on my tree whilst they would work on theirs… And I noticed they had a constant need for me to guide them and check on their drawings, on every single leaf or flower they drew… some would wait until I even told them what color marker to use. They focused on these drawings for many hours.
A little boy, he couldn’t have been more than 3-4 years old, came next to me wishing to feed me with bread; he was persistent, I took him in my lap and carried on drawing. He wanted to help me, so I took his hand into mine and we drew together. For the flowers I did 5 points collocated as to shape a circle and one more in the middle, whilst, at every point we’d make on the paper, I would say: “tick – tick – tick – tick – tick” and with the middle one: “tack”. The kids laughed and the little one was amused, he teased me using the marker to draw points on my cheek at every “tack” I’d speak!
This boy is still living in the port of Piraeus, has 3 siblings and his parents are very friendly; he is now much taller, he comes and smiles at me every time I visit.
—– My Wednesday workshops have since evolved, I am now doing weaving/knitting with the kids instead of drawing, they get enough drawing with other teachers. I might begin doing also form drawing as I learn and read about it in the seminars of Mr. Mihalis, I am attending. But mainly the kids guide me on what is they need, it’s as if we know each other from very long ago; when I am there, I might not speak Arabic or Farsi but we communicate at a much deeper level just with our eyes.
I am a 2nd year student in the Waldorf Association’s “Teacher Formation” program, and I am consulting Mr. Mihalis on various issues that arouse in my workshops. He has helped me and through me, lots of other volunteers, with advice. I am truly grateful to have access to such valuable guidance!
When I introduced the Knitting/Weaving Workshop to the group of volunteers, and explained I had a donation from a member of the Waldorf Association to use on materials, Belle confided to me that she has four “Waldorf kids”; she is from Northern California and owns an Alpacas and Bee Farm.
The cooperation with the group of the independent volunteers in Piraeus has also evolved; Belle had a wonderful idea about creating a school project that can move, thus a school in a container that can be shipped to any camp where is necessary for it to go. The 1st container-school is located behind the E1 building since beginning of April, it serves as storage space for the materials we use for workshops and lessons; and on the space around the container, set accordingly each morning (at opening hour) and afternoon (after the 1 hour lunch break), with mats and tables offered to us by private donors, sits the workshops. This gives me also a stable space to set up the knitting workshop.
The older children have been allowed the use of few tables in the café located on the 2nd floor of a nearby building within the port for English and Math classes. These classes are run by volunteers, but there are always some volunteering refugees who have joined our cause. They used to be teachers in their countries of origin. Those who speak Arabic teach Syrian children and those who speak Farsi teach Afghan children.
The School, whose name is “The Schoolbox Project” is open daily 11.00am – 18.00pm (Saturdays and Sundays also) and is run by independent volunteers, coming and going when they can, from all over the World, that connect via a closed Facebook group. The group, when I entered – end March, beginning of April- had about 20 members, right now it has 185 members and it is growing.
https://www.facebook.com/theschoolboxproject/
http://www.theschoolboxproject.org/
This is the public site, Belle has applied for turning the project into a Non-Profit Organization now, it is necessary for legal purposes, yet the school will still be run by independent volunteers on the ground. The Organization will be dealing with locating the container-schools and providing for our access permits in the camps.
We have a meeting at the Port’s café every Monday at 10.00am, before School opening hour, to introduce new volunteers, talk out difficulties, consult each other and organize special lessons or events for the week, according to the specialties of the volunteers present on the ground, at a particular time.
In the past week, Belle issued the “Trauma Informed Care” training (an on line course) that is mandatory for all volunteers, and such training will help a lot, especially volunteers preparing to join, to inform them on what they will encounter here. It also helps the ones who are at the school already, to understand specific behavior of children and manage to stay calm when facing those.
There are ground volunteers that cover all week, others, like myself and Vivi, who can only do a day per week. Every volunteer has his own private funding for materials needed for the lessons, transport, accommodation and the rest of his expenses.
In the above described mission, I am the “finger knitting/ weaving lady”. For my workshop I use the following materials:
Hula hoops (28”)
A sack with: Rolls of strips of t-shirts of various colors, scissors and a sheet to sit on.
………The activity of weaving helps children count, measure, size, helps them into a rhythmic outward spiral movement that is very relaxing. And they are able to concentrate, even when it gets loud around them; let me remind that we work outdoors, in a port with boats arriving and going all day and were thousands of people are camping for months now, some are living there for nearly a year.
——We have created rags, hats, baskets and a purse. —-
Some children come to the workshop because they want to make a hat for their baby sisters or brothers, or larger ones for themselves, some others just love the weaving in itself and don’t really mind about the outcome, there are kids that start weaving at 11.00am all the way to 14.00pm for the launch break and at my return, at 15.00pm, are patiently already waiting behind the door of the container for me to give their hoops back so to continue their work. They go on weaving until closing time!
The other great thing about this workshop, and these particular children, is the fact most help in the camps is provided to them “ready-to-use”… food is ready in a pack (few refugee-residents help out in the process of preparing it), medicine is ready, clothing although not in right sizes (especially shoes) comes ready to them; this is a highly detrimental position to be, people in this way lose the sense of their own ability to create and build something useful for themselves; this ability goes in lethargy, and people tend to start begging for what they need. We create hats, rags … maybe it isn’t much, but at least it is something these kids create on their own and that is useful!
— The kids know I cannot manage to help more than 10-12 of them at a time (in between singular and group weaving) and get anxious to be the ones, they spot me arriving at the bus stop and rush to follow me to the Schoolbox for them to be given a hoop.
— Due to their really devastating backgrounds they have a constant anxiety there will not be enough time for me to help them, they persist, but it all resolves with smiles, it all needs much reassurance and kindness.
Yet, I fail at times to cover for all of them on my own. Last Wednesday Jess, an Australian volunteer, joined me in the weaving, and she did help me a lot, we managed 8 hoops at a time, in the afternoon shift. I dream of this moment in a slightly different manner, every 1 volunteer 4 hoops and a maximum of 8 children per volunteer, a large circle and a song sung together by all of us. I wrote a song that goes with movements to enter the rhythm of weaving…
Please note that in Piraeus at the moment there are approximately 1500 resident refugees mainly from Syria and Afghanistan, provisionally camping. Back in March they were a total of 4500.
Also note that there are children here of all ages, their parents are very young too, actually I haven’t seen people much older than 30-35 years of age. In my eyes all 1500 of them are children!
The government and the port authorities are planning to clear the Piraeus camp soon, moving these people in other provisional facilities. In Athens there are two other large sites Eleonas and Ellinikos, the last one is in extremely ill conditions, and there are many kids there with no school project running! We are planning to move there when the port will be entirely cleared.
Meanwhile, boats keep arriving with low numbers of refugees, 10 to 40 daily, from the islands; we have lots of new kids at the school. Children numbers do not decrease easily exactly because of this, but it is hard to do work that requires progressing continuation, it is a day to day see-how-it-evolves project. Many hello’s and many goodbye’s, many smiles and many tears (when back at home), many prayers… much tenderness is required from all the corners of this Earth!
Thank you again, for your kind contribution and interest.
With Sincere Love,
Helga
The educational project in support of the children and families of refugees in Greece is appealing for aid from the public. There are some ways you can help:
- By volunteering to work in Greece, in Athens and elsewhere, ideally for a period of four weeks, and at the very least for a minimum of two weeks.
- By offering financial support to Helga Natoli to fund the purchase of educational materials and services. This can be done through Ingrid Krause, who will hand the money over to Helga during her next trip to Greece. Ingrid can be reached at 450-532-3540, or by email at : ingkrause@cooptel.qc.ca
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