“Back in November I left Offene Arme on Chios, and started a new job working for Distribute Aid, in Belgrade, Serbia. Distribute Aid is a charity that’s specifically focussed on the supply of aid to the frontline groups, helping to move containers of aid across the continent, completely at cost, thereby freeing up money to be spent on helping those that need it.
The main thing I’ve learnt from working at DA is just the monumental effort across Europe – UK and Germany are the 2 biggest senders of aid, and containers are constantly being shipped to Calais or to Greece. We’ve also been running a few other interesting shipments for example we’re currently moving 10,000 reusable masks from LA to Calais.
In my short time of working here, I’ve been able to work not just on running shipments, but also on some projects to really help improve the wider community. This includes figuring out how to move aid into the EU, post-Brexit, developing a needs assessment, and a new guide on sorting donations that we hope will be implemented across the continent.
Having worked in each of the regions across Europe, and seen the results of the European-wide policy, I’m now just not surprised any more. I know how dehumanising, humiliating, and illegal the policy is – whether it’s the evictions in Calais, the pushbacks in Greece, or the beatings by police officers in Croatia and Romania. I don’t really respect European governments any more, and the only thing that’s keeping my going is the small, grassroots organisations, whose combined efforts really help to make a difference. Imagine how many donations can fit into a shipping container – and it all relies on one person donating their jacket.”
We have just heard that since Dom sent us this update, he has successfully navigated all the post-Brexit tangles and red-tape and enabled a huge truck-full of aid to make it from the UK to Calais where it is so desperately needed – great news, and well done Dom!
If you’d like to hear more from Dom, he also sent us a video update available here https://youtu.be/b0nstrce0SQ
