#ritsona

[auraeseer]

A made up beer

[cilantroodon]

[ID: The figurine is seated in front of a large bowl with a raised center. Next to the bowl is a slab and knife, and on another side is the man on a yellow stool. He is running cheese across a grater over the bowl, and looking directly at the viewer from this angle. Caption in the image reads "Figurine of a man grating cheese. From Ritsona, distinguished by the excellent preservation of its colour, its plasticity, and its realistic rendering. Circa 500 BC. End ID.]

how about you look at this ancient figurine of a man carving cheese and maybe you'll calm down

[elladastinkardiamou]

"No matter how many prisons are built, even if the fence is narrowing / our mind is a scumbag that will all escape"

Refugee protest in the camp of Ritsona. World Refugee Day. Photos by Marios Lolos

[coeval-magazine]

The photo series #ritsona was taken in January 2017 on a short trip to the refugee camp. More on www.coeval-magazine.com

[mike13mt]

BMW M3 E90 by kaldio660

[andiamoavventura]

“America is Not on the List”

Alternative Title: How You Can’t Hide From Trump, Even* in a Refugee Camp (*Especially)

This trip came together serendipitously.

After working two years at my organization, you’re provided with a fairly unheard of opportunity; to volunteer anywhere in the world for four weeks as a mini “sabbatical.” I hit my two years in August. But the election was coming up, and then the aftermath of the election was chaotically and unexpectedly consuming every pore and muscle of our beings (#tbt).

After pulling together an interim strategy for this new reality, I thought; this was my chance. February would be a fairly tolerable workload for me and, selfishlessly, how great would it be to leave the country for ⅓ of the 45th President’s First 100 Days in Power?

I planned to devote my time to an issue that’s close to my heart, the Syrian refugee crisis. I arranged to help with program execution & development at a refugee camp in Central Greece (as Greece currently has tens of thousands of refugees stranded within its borders).

During this “sabbatical,” I would avoid all Trump related discourse. I anticipated having little to no reliable internet access, being fully consumed by the chaos and strife of emergency relief work, and wanted to unplug, re-charge, so I can come back swinging in five weeks ready to take on as part of the Resistance™ for the next 4+ years.

Alas.

One of my first days in Ritsóna, I was conducting outreach with the Gender Based Violence (GBV) Protection team. Each morning, we go around to all the Isoboxes* that are home to women, ages 12 & up, to check in on them, inform them of services and psychosocial support activities that are available, and identify any Persons of Concern who may have experienced, or are at risk, for GBV.

*Large metal containers the residents are now living in, replacing their tents which collapsed this past winter due to heavy amounts of snow.

In my broken Arabic and Kurdish, I introduced myself to women from Syria. Somalia. Iraq. Iran. They asked where I was from. When I answered, “United States,” a familiar expression washed over their face; pity. Pure pity and empathy. “Oh no, I am so, so sorry,” one woman said, her husband behind her shaking his head in sorrow with a deep sigh, “Trump. We are sorry. America is not good anymore.”

Relentlessly resilient refugees. Who had lost their homes. Who fled persecution. Their family members have been senselessly, callously, and systematically murdered. Husbands. Sons. Daughters. Brothers. Sisters. Fathers. Mothers. Many have children who are suffering from chronic bronchial infection from the air pollution, or traumatic burns from car bombs or shellings. Many have PTSD. Some have looked suicide bombers in the eyes, and managed to escape. Have traveled treacherous waters through multiple countries over many months & years to arrive here. They are living seemingly endless days in an unfamiliar camp, in purgatory, not knowing if they’ll ever leave. Many still separated from their family, friends, loved ones, not knowing if they’ll ever see them again.

These brave beings, who have endured countless atrocities, tragedies, terrors —  the impact of which I’ll never fully be able to begin to understand — looked to me, an American, with sincere pity. Pity for the state of our country. Pity for what has happened to us.

Arriving in the refugee camp mere days after the supposed “Leader of the Free World” banned those from Muslim majority countries and refugees from entering the US, I assumed tensions and anxieties would be high. Speaking with other staff members and volunteers, many expressed the refugees who have been in a constant state of “fleeing” for the past 5 years understand the options of where they can go are becoming increasingly limited in nature. The longer they are stagnant in one camp, the more likely they feel they’ll never be able to find true, sustainable, and secure refuge.

Through working in the Female Friendly Space for the past four weeks, I’ve befriended a 12-year-old Syrian refugee. While she looks after her five siblings, cooks, cleans, and takes large responsibility running her household, she has the typical 12-year-old moments of obsessing over Snapchat filters and pulling pranks on her friends (okay fine…mostly just on me.) Each day we speak about her life in Syria, her journey through Iraq, Turkey, Lesvos, Athens, and now, Ritsóna, and about what she hopes for her future and her family.

The first day we met, she was wearing an “I ❤ NY” shirt that had been donated. I pointed to her shirt and told her that’s where I was from. She smiled and told me she used to dream of New York, of going to America, but now, “They do not want me.”

Another day I sat outside a Kurdish family’s caravana as the matriarch made chai tea for us. Two of her sisters are still in Syria, two siblings are in Germany, and two are stuck in camps in Greece. They each have multiple children and grandchildren stuck in various locations. Her and her husband have their third interview with the asylum office in Athens on Monday. They hope this time they’ll get their assignment for where they will be resettled. Inshallah

I asked where she thinks she’ll be resettled. Where she hopes she’ll end up. She named a few countries. Then, knowing where I’m from, she sighed sadly and said, “America is not on the list.”

It would be foolish to ever think the decisions being made by America’s Public Enemy #1 would only affect us. Despite a growing “agenda” towards an isolated state, we are not one. The Ripple Effect clearly is in full swing. What I was surprised by is how much “he” (“he” to reference the embodiment of the problem, as #45 is clearly not the root nor the extension of the devastating phenomenon of systemic oppression & xenophobia) is truly inescapable.

Banishing yourself to a remote, abandoned airfield (not searchable on Google Maps), having little to no reliable internet access, deleting all the news related and social media apps on your phone, consciously making the decision to avoid the topic at all costs won’t allow you to escape this. As much as the refugees I’m working with everyday would, too, like to unplug and stop talking, thinking, hearing about it, they cannot. We cannot. This reality is suffocating & toxic, but it’s the air we have to learn to breathe, to survive & thrive within, in order to be able to change and decontaminate it. What happens in the U.S. does not stay in the U.S.

[ashifilms]

My short film, “In The Eyes Of Children” is inspired on my visit to Ritsona Refugee Camp, Greece during the summer of 2016.

Over the past few years, many documentaries have been made about the refugee crisis and the refugees in Greece. I had a desire to make a documentary that told the story from a new perspective. I feel that although it's overwhelming to consider our lives as refugees, perhaps we could relate to how it feels to help someone in need and how that experience enriches our lives.

My documentary focuses on the life and work of a middle aged Greek photographer who found his own identity by becoming an integral part of the refugees lives in the camp near his home by initiating a Tuesday movie night for the children.

These are unusual times for society, in many countries the national and social media swirls fear and sensationalism in concentrated sound bites that cloud our core beliefs.  This makes it the perfect time to show my documentary which re-frames the narrative about refugees by focusing not on the politics, or religion but simply on Vassilis Nikas, a Greek photographer who has made it his priority to replace their dispair with hope and smiles by being true to not only his own core beliefs but all of ours.

[yahoonewsphotos]

Photos of the day - January 12, 2017

A man climbs an artificial wall of ice in the city of Liberec, Czech Republic; Siberian Tiger plays with one of her 3 cubs  at the Joburg Zoo, Johannesburg, South Africa; and migrant Petram Mehdi, 2, from Tehran, Iran, stands by the window of his family's shelter at the refugee camp of Ritsona about 53 miles north of Athens; Chinese workers display an eight-meter-high giant inflatable chicken resembling Donald Trump in a factory in Jiaxing, China's Zhejiang province; a municipal worker washes a ceramic reproduction of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso's Guernica, in the Basque town of Guernica, northern Spain; a couple cross a bridge as the sun sets at the King Juan Carlos public park in Madrid are some of the photos of the day. (AP/EPA/Getty/Reuters)

Photo credits: David W Cerny/Reuters, KIM LUDBROOK/EPA, Muhammed Muheisen/AP, ZHU JUN/EPA, Vincent West/Reuters, Francisco Seco/AP

See more photos of the day and our other slideshows on Yahoo News.

[terminusantequem]

Dimitris Mytaras (Greek, 1934-2017), Funéraire de Ritsona, 1979. Oil on canvas, 226 x 170.5 cm

[venusinorbit]

In this refugee camp and with this magazine, they are creating the rare example of art activism that is truly born through the struggles and experiences endured by the very people in the middle of some of the most intense conflicts in the world. For the most part, people in the middle of crises don’t have the opportunity or resources to create art, let alone to share it with a world often blind to the very serious struggles they face.

[thoughtportal]

This episode is brought to you by our book, Never Too Small: Reimaging Small Space Living. Available now at our store https://www.nevertoosmall.com/store 

Located in the famous and lively neighbourhood of Plaka in Athens, the aptly named Pretty in Pink was inspired by it’s vibrant owner and her love of all colour and texture. Originally a one bedroom apartment in a fairly dilapidated state, the space was transformed by Moy Studio into a bright, functional two bedroom. By adding a new entrance, kitchen, dining area, bathroom and additional small bedroom, as well as additional storage hidden in the renovated kitchen and bathroom. Using a cleverly selected palette of pink including white flecked Ritsona marble, divides areas within the home and accentuates the personality of it’s owner.

[hummussexual]

excerpt:

Ritsona Kingdom Journal was produced through Lighthouse Relief Hellas, a nonprofit providing support to especially vulnerable populations of refugees. The young people involved are part of the organization's Youth Engagement Space (YES), a drop-in program that offers a safe place for people between the ages of 16 and 25 to attend skill-building workshops and start creative projects. What began as an art-focused initiative became a physical space where youth can connect with one another, talk if they want to talk, or just have a dedicated place in the camp to relax and tap into their creativity.

You can view the full Ritsona Kingdom Journal digital exhibit here.

[elladastinkardiamou]

Restrictive government decisions have cast thousands of refugees out of protective support services and are creating a hunger crisis, aid groups say.

Just under 18,000 refugees live in camps on the Greek mainland. More than half – 60 percent according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations body – have no access to food services or cash handouts. Almost half are children.

That is because last September, the government restricted services to those who are in the process of applying for asylum. Most camp residents do not fit that description.

Some have been granted asylum, and they are entitled to benefits for only 30 days after that decision.

Benefits used to be extended for six months, to support people navigating employment prospects and premises. The government cut that period down in March last year.

Asadullah Sadighi and his 16-year-old daughter, Afghans living in Ritsona camp, a former air force radar base 90km north of Athens, are in this category.

Sadighi told Al Jazeera: “When they give us asylum they don’t give us food or cash any more, and leave us to fend for ourselves. They take away our protection completely.

[michael-svetbird]

: • AMAZONS Preparing for Battle: Hi-res Closeups of Attic Black-figured Epinetron by the Sappho Painter [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho_Painter ] 500-490 BC. From Boeotia [Ritsona] . National Archaeological Museum of Athens www.namuseum.gr/en . NAMA | MSP | 07|19 5500X4000 300 The photographed object is property of NAMA and subject to the Museum copyright. All tags & descriptions ©NAMA. No commercial use. . . #athens #greece #nationalarchaeologicalmuseumathens #archaeologicalmuseumofathens #archaeologicalmuseum #attica #epinetron #vasepainting #blackfigure #ancientpottery #ancientceramics #ancientart #historyofart #archaeology #antiquity #museology #ancienthistory #mythology #classicalmythology #ancient #ancientgreece #amazons #amazones #amazzoni #амазонки #αμαζόνες #oiorpata #museumphotography #archaeologyphotography #michaelsvetbird nama 07|19 ph.©msp @michael_svetbird | sorry for the watermarks (at National Archaeological Museum, Athens) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRlYhEFnNzI/?utm_medium=tumblr

[cutieotter]

B3537

The First “Maidan Tent” is Built to Aid Refugees in Greece https://ift.tt/2z7JWVd

[heister]

Interview with Daphne Morgen and Hannah Brumbaum of Youth UnMuted

As I reflected upon in my last post, it’s been one year since I began volunteering in Ritsona refugee camp with Lighthouse Relief. As I struggle to reconcile my desire to still be in Greece doing the work on the ground, with my reality of needing to stay in the U.S. right now, I am finding new ways to stay involved and further the amazing work of my peers, even from afar. This is the first in a series of interviews with such peers, catching up with them a year after we met to discuss how they are continuing to work with and on behalf of refugees around the world. For this first installment, I chatted with my supervisors in Lighthouse’s Youth Engagement Space (YES), Daphne Morgen and Hannah Brumbaum, about their path from YES to their newest initiative, Youth UnMuted.

Megan Heise: I want to start with where we all were a year ago and bring things up to the present. Could you talk a little about what this time last year looked like for you, particularly in terms of the work you were doing in Ritsona?

Hannah Brumbaum: Almost one year ago to date, Megan you had just joined us in the YES and we were preparing to launch the 3rd edition of the Ritsona Kingdom Journal.

Daphne Morgen: We had also been in our new space for a couple of months, so we were settling in and decorating and creating the space.

MH: I think I knew at the time how relatively new everything was, but as a (nervous) outsider coming in, it felt so warm and established already to me.

DM: That was definitely our goal -- we had just had a landscape architect volunteer assist us in designing the garden which we felt really helped to make the space feel more welcoming. Even the small act of caring for the plants and bringing them in and out every day was a part of our programming.

MH: I know you've talked in other outlets before about this, but I’m wondering if you can give a brief review of what inspired you to start YES in Ritsona?

HB: Truly, it was the lack of programming in Ritsona for young people. and as we began to engage with small numbers of that population, we realized how much the youth needed and wanted a space that was just for them.

The YES began with Daphne, and the tree of hope project, but quickly evolved into a drop-in space that was open daily, and we began to increase the programming in response to whatever the youth expressed an interest in.

Especially in the beginning days, our constant question is "How are you, do you want to chai, what do you feel like doing today?"

MH: I'm thinking of a conversation we all had at one of our meetings, about how people in our lives would sort of be like, "Oh, wow I could never do what you're doing," as a way to appreciate the work but also as a way to sort of absolve themselves from responsibility of doing the same.

HB: Yes, I remember that meeting. we were talking about power dynamics, and our power and ability to leave and go back home, and the response that our families and friends had to our experiences here.

MH: Yeah. And when you talk about YES, and the simplicity of “How are you, do you want tea, what do you want to do,” it makes me think about that. Because obviously you two especially put a lot of really special work and energy into making YES a reality, and also I think there are people out there who might want to get involved but think they, I don't know, can't for some reason. So I'm wondering what thoughts you have, or what you would say, to someone who might want to get involved some way but has that initial attitude of “Wow, I couldn't do that.”

HB: In all of our time working in Greece, a common theme is that youth engagement really is so simple when you break it down.

DM: We approach it in what we feel is a very "common sense" type of approach -- it's basic humanity to ask ppl how they're doing and what they need. And asking them what they need (knowing that this might continually evolve), is how we approached every aspect of creating the programme.

HB: While yes, this is a very vulnerable population, and everyone needs to take care about protection issues and appropriate interactions, I think that many people are just intimidated by the labels attached to the youth that we work with.

This is also really what inspired the youth magazines we have created

MH: Yes! Tell me more about those!

HB: This idea that if everyone could see what we see on a daily basis, they would have their perspectives on these youth completely change.

DM: We know that "refugee" is a highly stigmatized label...as are young Arab men. Many people make an assumption that they are A. Muslim, B. Religious, C. Radicalized. When we know that the truth is -- they're just youth who need to be nurtured and engaged with.

HB: So the Ritsona Kingdom Journal came from this place of youth wanting to share their voices, and have a place to express themselves and show their work with more people than just us and their peers. And also as a way of reframing the conversation and perceptions around these young people.

And this is really an aspect that we chose to dive deeper into with Youth UnMuted

MH: I'd love to know when the idea for Youth UnMuted began, and the journey to manifesting that idea, making it a reality.

DM: Well we began to roll out Storytelling without Borders (StWB) in January 2018, where we used stop motion film making to engage with young people all over Greece.

We were given the overall goal, but left to design the actual workshops and mode of engagement.

So Youth UnMuted really stemmed from wanting to delve deeper into this  style of pop-up workshopping, and storytelling by melding our experience in creating a physical space in the YES and all the best practices we learned there, with continuing to engage with young people in a variety of settings, and aid in giving them a place to create their own narratives.

MH: One thing I'd like to talk more about is something you and I know, but maybe others who aren't steeped in this work perhaps don't, which is how vastly under-resourced (and that feels like a gross understatement) the majority of refugee camps are. You two created the YES space in Ritsona from the ground up, and that lives on and exists still, but maybe other refugee camps do not have an NGO there or someone there to make a YES space, so my understanding is that Youth UnMuted is this, as you describe it, “pop-up” workshop model, and I'm wondering if you can contextualize a little bit the need for that in Greece and globally.

DM: Yes -- when I first was finally given a physical space to begin programming, it was an empty isobox. So we upcycled and built everything from recycled materials, my family and friends made personal donation of art supplies and basic necessities.

The framework of Youth UnMuted, while pop-up, can definitely be replicated and expanded upon by existing programmes and we are happy to aid in this in any way we can.

We've developed a document of best practices that we believe can be utilized by people who want to set up a similar space, or are doing similar pop up workshops.

Because again -- we think that it's very common sense, and you do not need a lot of money or resources to create a simple space for young people to feel safe and engaged.

MH: It's hard to wrap up, because I feel there are so many other things I want to talk with y'all about! But I guess where to end for today would be: if someone is reading this and is really interested and wants to learn more and get involved with Youth UnMuted or this work in general, what are some avenues they could take?

DM: Cough Cough...$$

Haha. Ok but seriously...Promoting and helping us to get a larger readership for the magazine. To further get the voices of these youth shared. Ultimately, that is how people can help -- to think of networks and people within their own lives who may be interested (ie, universities, school curriculum, libraries, etc.)

HB: I will absolutely just second Daphne in what people can do specifically for us. Share the magazine. Read the magazine. Send it to your family and friends. There are thousands of people still arriving in Greece every year and mainstream media has stopped covering the crisis that is still occurring there. People can do so much by simply not forgetting that these youth are even there.

MH: So, for the record, where can people go to donate, and to read and share the magazine?

HB: We currently are able to accept donations in the form of checks made out to St John’s Episcopal in Oakland, and cite Youth UnMuted in the memo line. Checks can be mailed to St John’s Episcopal in Oakland 1707 Gouldin Rd Oakland, CA 94611

DM: And we see youth unmuted expanding beyond Greece, perhaps to those who are resettled in Europe and beyond...and then beyond just displaced populations...but for now...

HB: We want to put together a Youth UnMuted advocates group, if people are interested in joining, that encourages people to hold fundraisers, raise awareness, and stay involved in their communities. This is what we see as so beautiful about Youth UnMuted - we work with the youth on the ground, but our mission of 'elevating youth voices' is only accomplished when people are hearing them. So we see Youth UnMuted and the magazine as a bridge, connecting communities of our peers and larger audiences with the youth.

MH: Y’all are such rockstars! I respect and appreciate so much your relentless commitment to the work and always evolving and nurturing youth (and volunteers like me!) and connecting folks through these pathways.

To learn more about Youth UnMuted, read the magazine, and/or donate, visit https://www.youthunmuted.org/