Tangible Help For Refugees at Ritsona Camp

When I was a little kid, my mother made a superhero cape out of some simple fabric.  It was actually my brother’s cape, but we all played with it together all the same.  We’d have adventures where we saved people from the “bad guys.” Of course, when you’re little, you believe you can save anyone and fix anything.  

As we grow older, it can feel a little harder to channel that same faith that you can save the world.  But, we can all still have a few great capers where we fix some things and save a little sliver of the world.  One week in a town in a dusty camp in Greece, we plotted one really fun caper that required others to help us pull it off.  

You see, we had been working for just a few days at a camp set up to house refugees.  Small and large families alike called this camp home for weeks and months on end and were at the receiving end of charity for everything in their daily life.  After a few days of walking through the makeshift thrift store that had been set up for residents to get essential clothing, we saw a few holes and during lulls in the day the seeds of this small venture started forming.

The needs were fairly obvious as the store was laid out with bins for each type of clothing item and their size.  We saw the consistent holes:  shoes, socks, and underwear.  I don’t know about you, but when I think about donating clothing to Salvation Army or other nonprofits back in the States, the first thing I think about donating is my used underwear and socks.  I know you do too, right? (insert internal cringe here folks)

We knew the need, but figuring out how to get these simple items to the camp is a different story.  Similar to back home, the generous communities in Greece who were donating clothing weren’t donating many socks, shoes, or underwear.  The little bit they did get in were not nearly enough to help out.  We brainstormed if larger organizations in the US who had been mentioned in the media about supporting refugee efforts and immigration would chip in, but the cost of shipping and customs might make this an impossible task, and would take more legwork.  This idea got tabled for another day.  

What could we do now?  Then the idea sparked to set up a Go Fund Me account for anyone to chip in.  We knew there were other people back home who logistically can’t get up and fly to Greece and spend a week or weeks helping out.  Work and financial limitations are a real thing.  BUT, they could get in on this great escapade too.  And so, we invited people to chip in.  

Chip in they did and then others started sharing the link and other team members with us in Greece shared it with their friends and family.  Within a 48 hour window, we exceeded our initial goal from loving hearts all over the country.  It was no longer just us in on this escapade.  We saw many names of people we had never heard of, and many anonymous people, who all chipped in to help with a big need that is often not thought of.  

With our cash total in mind, we set out down the streets of a Greek sea town to find the local shop owned by a Chinese woman who was told would give us “good price” if we told her what we were doing. This poor woman had no idea when we stepped foot in her little shop how much we would disrupt her morning, or her stock of underwear, shoes, and socks.  But, “good price” she gave us and even threw in some extra items for free too to help us out.  

Three hours, sixteen shopping bags, 500+ pairs of underwear, 200+ socks, 10 belts, 10 pairs of leggings, and about 50 shoes later, we were ready to walk back to the hotel to drop off our loot.  Reinforcements were called in for a few extra hands to carry all of the bags home in.  And off we marched the few blocks back to the hotel, all in a line.  Magic happened that week as we saw ripples coming out from a dusty refugee camp thrift store.  Ripples that reached across the globe from the others who got in on this escapade with us.  

We don’t know who will pick up these items as they shop in the store in the following weeks.  But after working in the camp for a week, we know these basics will be put to good use. The ripples of the love will continue to flow every time someone sees the basic, and often unseen needs, met.  

Thanks to everyone who helped us put on their capes this time to help us pull off the shopping spree of a lifetime!