Athens in the Autumn
In October 2018, CRIBS International workers Sally Hyman and Fred Cairns spent a total of three weeks in Athens. It was a very busy but rewarding time. They visited all the CRIBS family and were greeted with delicious food and lots of news. Fred worked hard to get our storage area into some sort of order and two major distributions took place of household goods, clothing and nappies. He was helped by Cribs beneficiary Nasar. Nasar has continued to manage the store distributing to Cribs families and other organisations such as the Clandestina Community.
One day, by chance, we met a family facing homelessness with a 12-day old baby, There situation was precarious and dad also appeared to be suffering from PTSD. We managed to house them and are trying to support them as best as we can.
We successfully got school places for four children, not without some struggle (more to follow). We also began links with the wonderful The Unmentionables. Through this many of the Cribs women have started women’s classes (still more to follow). Some less pleasant work involved fumigation of a flat, but the result was well worthwhile when we bumped into the family living there a day or so later. Something as simple as this had a huge impact to their self-worth.
Sally says,”As I have got to know family members better, they have developed enough confidence to feel that they can confide in me. During the visit I hope we managed to help them find the path to recovery from some mental health problems.”
None of this work would have been possible without the support of you, our donors.
Thank you all!
Published by