A Day with Charlie
One day with CHEERing, my coworker Chika and I were walking around a small town, searching for the perfect spot. We needed a café or restaurant with a table for eight. Not such a big ask…unless you’re in a town that isn’t too fond of the refugee camp on its outskirts. Eventually we found a coffee shop willing to host us. We bought coffee for the adults, ice cream for the children, and gathered around the table in the midday sun.
Our Associate Director, Farzana, opened our conversation in Farsi. She explained to the women gathered that we were conducting a focus group and would be asking questions about their access to healthcare. For the next hour and a half, Farzana, Chika, and I listened. We heard stories of long journeys, followed by even longer wait times in the camps. Stories of minimal access to basic healthcare, filled with stigma and isolation. Stories of strength, perseverance, and hope for a better future.I sat beside a woman my own age. At the end of our conversation, she squeezed my hand and said
“I want you to be my voice.”
That moment stayed with me. I realized I didn’t just want to speak on her behalf—I wanted to help build a world where she didn’t need anyone to speak for her. A world where you don’t need privilege to be heard. A world where being human is enough.
The work that the CHEERing team is doing lays the foundation for that future. It was an honor to work alongside a team that came from all over the world, many refugees themselves. After that long, emotional day, we returned to the volunteer apartment. Our team cooked dinner together and sat outside, sweating in the Athenian summer heat as the sun went down.
We planned the next day’s health screenings and the water balloon fight we had promised the kids.
Charlie playing with the kids
water balloon fight
Between packing up vitamins and balloons, I knew I was surrounded by the people who will build that better world.
It may have been just one day with CHEERing, but it will stay with me for a whole lifetime.
A Day with Tanya
I volunteered with CHEERing for four and a half months. I remember my first days—not knowing what to do and just thinking: Wow, the other volunteers know exactly what they’re doing. They must be so smart. After a few weeks or months, I realized: yes, you gain experience and learn how to deal with challenges—but in the end, you’re always improvising in some way, just trying to help and doing your best. And that, for me, sums up my experience with CHEERing: it’s about helping, trying your best, and sometimes improvising—because of language barriers or other difficulties—but also about meeting so many different and kind people. At the end of my time with CHEERing, I was lucky to travel to Lesbos with a teammate to distribute vitamins for children in the large refugee camp there. The new Moria—though I learned it’s no longer called Moria, but now has a Turkish name—is located right by the sea, after the original camp burned down. We went for one weekend in February. We arrived on a sunny, but freezing cold and very windy Friday. We had to wait some time before we could check into our accommodation, which gave us a chance to explore the island. Then we went directly to the camp. When we arrived, we tried to get a table inside the camp to distribute the vitamins, but the authorities wouldn’t let us in. So we had to stay outside, preparing the vitamins on our luggage, placed on the ground. Later, people living in the camp told us about the conditions there: only cold water for showering, big rats, and lots of trash. We could understand why the authorities didn’t want us to see all of that
Fortunately, my teammate knew someone inside the camp, and he helped us inform the families that we were waiting outside to hand out vitamins for the children. Many came, with their little ones wrapped in all the clothes and blankets they had, because the wind by the sea was freezing. Despite everything, most families were so happy and grateful to receive the vitamins. We were participating in a program called Vitamin Angels, which includes giving Vitamin A to children and deworming to help prevent malnutrition. Even though I could barely speak to most of the people—since many didn’t speak English—I could see the gratitude in their faces. My teammate, who spoke Farsi, translated many thankful words for me. I remember one little girl, probably not even five years old, who spoke English and thanked me personally
After three hours of distributing vitamins, we left, promising to return the next day. We were freezing. That evening, as I tried to warm up, I kept thinking about the families in the camp—how they didn’t even have warm showers to help them stay warm. Some were even sleeping in tents. The next day we came back. It was a bit less windy, and again, many families came to receive the vitamins. It was a weekend full of contrasts—Lesbos as a tourist destination, and at the same time the first place of arrival for many refugees. Mytilini, where we stayed, was a really sweet little town. But at the port, we saw boats from Frontex, the border security agency. I can imagine many tourists visiting Lesbos in summer to enjoy the beautiful sea. But I also learned that the camp is cleared out during the tourist season—so that visitors don’t have to see this cruel reality.
I can say I learned a lot while volunteering with CHEERing. I learned about the harsh reality faced by people fleeing their countries, and the challenges they encounter. I also met many friendly and kind people. I picked up a few words in Arabic and Farsi and communicated through gestures and expressions. And I worked with a multi-professional and multicultural team, which was a truly valuable and unique experience.
A Day with Kirsten
At the Malakasa refugee camp, the Grow Clinic is in full swing. Families gather around speaking languages from all over the middle east and Africa. Plastic folding tables are lined up in a dusty parking lot outside the concrete and barbed wire enclosure of the camp. My scale is sitting precariously on a chunk of concrete at the edge of the dusty parking lot while the wind tries to topple the plastic height board that sits next to it. I can’t find my pen because a precarious child has taken it and is using it to scribble on the growth chart I’m supposed to be plotting his weight on (actually, that must be a universal kid shenanigan). A day at a Grow Clinic in Greece reminds me a little of the US program WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children). It has some striking similarities – weighing and measuring babies, testing hemoglobins on mothers, providing basic breastfeeding and nutrition education. It is basic and essential public health work for these vulnerable families.
During the Grow Clinics, many of the women liked to weigh themselves – for the same reason that all weight conscious American women I know want to weigh themselves – to see how much weight they’ve gained. I very clearly remember one woman, dressed in a full burka, but with her face exposed, after stepping on the scale, looked at me with a scandalized expression and declared “Fat!” as she motioned her arms around her in a wide arch. My surprised laugh burst out as I assured her that she was just right for breastfeeding her baby.
In that moment, despite the differences in our language and dress, we connected on a level that transcended culture. We both breastfed our babies. We both are feeling fat-shamed by our cultures. It reminded me of what my friend, an Indigenous educator, calls the ‘two-eyed seeing’ approach. This is when you use one eye from the culture that shaped you and the other eye you use to try to see with the culture that shaped the other person. She invites people to find the places where those two eyes, those two ways of seeing the world, intersect for us to connect in our shared humanity.
During our time volunteering with CHEER, I found myself coming back to the question of where I shared overlapping humanity with the people we were serving in the Greek camps- and had a beautiful experience enjoying so many shared human experiences with people who were living a very different course of life from myself.
One man made me think of my own father. He was tall, with a strong frame and a sly smile under a short trimmed beard. This man had the same calm sturdiness and alert readiness to take action that I see in my own father. His daughters laughed as they chased around him and he draped a protective arm over them. They used him as a post to dodge around to keep away from one another. He would playfully smack at them and send them running off again – just as my father used to do to me and my brother. That man could have so easily been my father, had my father been born in Syria instead of Wyoming. I don’t doubt that my own father would have risked beatings and drowning to afford me a life where I could be educated and live without oversight of the Taliban. It made me remember that these refugees are some of the bravest people in the entire world to leave everything for a shot at something better. I wonder if I would be among the bravest in the world had I not been born one of the luckiest?
The kids were kids. Even in America I’ve always been under the impression that kids are unpredictable nonsensical beings who exist to rub off our rough edges. The kids we took from the camps to football were no exception. They were not like the demure, quiet refugees that we see in our stereotypical fund raising ads for far off places. These were kids – being kids- flinging bread at each other across the aisles of the train and then glancing at me with guilty grins to see if I’d make them pick it up. (I am a mother, so yes, PICK IT UP NOW.) I wonder if my daughter would still have so much child-appropriate joy from pushing my buttons if she’d had to walk across a continent to escape a home that wasn’t safe?
Seeing through my own lens and attempting sight through someone else’s gave me a beautiful opportunity to connect and reflect. Finding shared humanity was easy to find when I remembered to look. It was not hard to see where we overlap in our essence, in our human-ness. It made me wonder if I would walk from Sudan to Greece with my child? Would I leave my broken home to brave a better life in a walled-off Greek camp to live in a shipping container until I could see a way to a better future? I don’t honestly know. But, I do know that if I was brave enough to do what these people have done, I’d be grateful for the folks at CHEERing who show up day after day to let people be seen. I’d be grateful for swapping football play recaps, commiserating about how hard the English language is to learn, and just knowing that there are people all over the world who care about making this world safer and more CHEERful.
If you’re looking for a way to make a difference, I urge you to support CHEERing. Your donation, no matter the size, will directly impact the lives of refugee families.
A Day with Chika
Summer 2024 by/ Chika
It’s 8:30 am and a few of us are in the CHEERing center preparing for today’s Grow Clinic and distribution at Corinthos refugee camp on the Peloponnese. Corinth days are one of my favorites because CHEERing’s regular presence there started after holding a focus group discussion with refugee mothers from the camp to understand their direct needs. We learned of the dire situation – total isolation from health and social services and an ongoing nutrition crisis – so CHEERing’s work is filling a critical gap.
We’re putting together the last of the Mother’s Packs (specially prepared packs for pregnant and breastfeeding women with nutritious, calorie-dense foods) and then we’re ready to go. The van is teeming with clothing, shoes, diapers, food, strollers, and hygiene supplies for distribution – not a nook of space is left open as Feraydon (the car-packing tetris-master) finally slams the door closed. I never expect everything to fit. It always does.
The van ride to the camp zooms past, punctuated with Farsi music, chatter, and laughter. We park in a big lot that is a short distance from the camp and start setting up. We set up the tent and tables next to the van because, alongside distribution, we are delivering the Vitamin Angels program at Corinth and will give high-dose vitamin A and deworming medication to eligible children under five. The grant from US-based non-profit Vitamin Angels was the first I worked on when I joined CHEERing. It has been exciting seeing it reach the implementation stage!
Things are quiet when we first arrive, but this doesn’t last for long. A queue of both new and familiar faces from the camp starts to form. We are greeted warmly in French, Farsi, and Arabic by those we know. Some curious newcomers engage us to find out what’s going on. Little ones point with excitement at the rainbow of backpacks that are sprawled in front of the van, a donation from one of our partners, each one filled with toys and school supplies for various ages. Today, I shuttle between registering new French-speaking families, screening eligible children for the Vitamin Angels program, and delivering the Vitamin Angels program alongside Martina. One of our first visitors at the Vitamin Angels table is a young Congolese family with 2-year-old twin boys. They serve as role models for the other kids in line, happily gulping down the cup of juice after taking the deworming powder. A few hours go by in this way, some kids squirm more than others, but most are quickly appeased with the promise of a dinosaur sticker of their choice. Supplies in the van start to dwindle alongside the queue. We get to the last of the families for Vitamin Angels – Martina is beaming because we saw a record number of children. At 13:00, we start to pack-up. A few Farsi-speaking young men without children stop by and ask for soap – we offer them anything that we still have left in the van. The drive back to Athens is filled with quiet contentment.
Back in Athens, later that afternoon, Peer Counselor Pierette and I have a call to follow up about one of the pregnant mothers we visit weekly at a local shelter as part of CHEERing’s Community Mothers program. The mother had been admitted to the hospital for 2-weeks due to complications with her pregnancy. Pierette tells me that the mother gave birth to a baby boy the day before! We agreed to meet at the hospital – such hospital visits are typically beyond the scope of CHEERing’s work, but a request for our additional support was made by the shelter as this was a special case. Before leaving, I stop by the office to get one of the many breast pumps CHEERing has in stock to give to the new mother. At Greek public hospitals, mothers are not given any sort of breastfeeding support, but are immediately given formula – as confirmed by the small branded plastic bottle that sat next to the hospital bed. The mother said the baby wouldn’t drink it and she was worried. It was a joy to watch Pierette’s expertise in action as she counseled the young mother on breastfeeding. My day ended the day in the best way – meeting a 1-day old healthy baby.
I was lucky enough to have a year filled with such varied and enriching days with CHEERing – I will treasure the experiences!
A Day with Willow
9 October 2023 / by Willow Appleby
It is safe to say that no two days are the same at CHEERing, but two of my favorite days are cheerleading days and camp days.
Every Monday, we run our new cheerleading program, and it makes me so happy to bring the fun that I had while coaching cheerleading at university to the kids in CHEERing’s Sportnet program. We meet the kids at the camp and after being greeted by dozens of excited voices shouting my name, running and almost toppling me over with hugs, we get the train together to the football field. When we arrive at the field, we make sure any new kids get the full Barca kit and football shoes so that everyone feels properly included and part of the team.
After a fun, yoga-inspired, warm-up to shake off some of the pent-up energy from the train journey, we start the cheerleading. Our cheerleading sessions are split into chanting, tumbling, stunting, and dance. Although, at first, some of the keener football players were hesitant, all of the kids get involved and I don’t know who enjoys it more … me or the kids!
After an afternoon of cheering, chanting, and cartwheeling, we all work up an appetite and we share our meals, which are cooked and given to us by the local NGO Project Armonia. While some can wait until they get home, others dig in straight away.
My other favorite kind of day is when CHEERing goes to the camps for our Grow Clinics. Even though these days can sometimes be emotionally, mentally, or physically exhausting, they are still so incredibly rewarding that I find myself looking forward to them every week. At the moment, CHEERing goes to two camps: Malakasa and Thiva. We set up in the car park and then we start the Grow Clinic. When I first arrived in Greece, we saw around 70 people during our clinics, now we see up to 150!
The CHEERing team focuses on seeing families, particularly families with babies or pregnant mothers. We weigh and measure the children, make sure they are growing, and offer nutrition advice. Importantly, we are a reassuring voice that everything will be fine, and their child is healthy!
Sometimes we help by giving simple things like diaper rash cream and multivitamins, or by referring people to doctors, dentists, or other specialists. Other times, it’s clear that just being consistent friendly faces who listen is the most important thing. We also distribute essential items such as soap, shampoo, diapers, food, toothbrushes, and more. Once CHEERing finishes our long day at the camp, we pile back into our van, and, after a quick pit-stop at our favorite coffee shop to recharge our batteries, we head back to Athens.
Recently, in a CHEERing focus group, one of the women said that talking to us had helped her more than any medication. It’s moments like these that make me realize how lucky I am to be doing this job and how much I love doing this work.
I came to CHEERing to complete an internship as part of my Master’s program at the University of Padua. I initially came for five months for my internship, and eight months later I’m still here! I’m so happy to be a part of such an incredible team and I’m excited to see what CHEERing will accomplish next.
A Day with Mariah
24 May 2023 / by Mariah Banks
My ideal workday: caring for babies and supporting mothers. Lucky for me, that was an average Monday at CHEERing!
My day began at the bustling Victoria Square in Athens, where I met CHEERing’s Grow Clinic Counsellor and Community Health Worker Pierrette. Despite the crowds, we quickly found each other thanks to our vibrant blue CHEERing sweaters. Carrying Grow Clinic gear, including a scale, measuring tape, patient charts, diapers, wipes, medicine, and vitamins, we were ready for our first home visit.
Pierrette and I spent the next few hours together, visiting refugee mothers, infants, and children at their apartments for CHEERing’s Community Mothers program. During each visit, we would weigh and measure infants and children and track their growth, discuss the health status of the mothers and children and address any concerns, and distribute supplies as needed. We also offered breastfeeding counseling to pregnant and nursing mothers.
Community Mothers is just one program that I was involved with while working at CHEERing. I arrived in Athens in January as a graduate student from Boston University, earning a Master of Public Health with special interests in maternal-child and refugee health. I was given the opportunity to serve as a CHEERing Fellow for three months, supporting various aspects of the organization’s preventive health services in Athens.
In addition to Community Mothers, I worked in Grow Clinics in refugee camps, assessed the growth and nutrition status of children, distributed vitamins and other supplies, and coordinated breastfeeding and preventive health care initiatives. I also supported CHEERing’s youth football program, cooking classes, and educational workshops – and even led a class about our planet! Lastly, I coordinated a research project on the health needs, barriers, and perceptions of health interventions among refugees in greater Athens, Greece. I recently presented this project at Boston University Center on Forced Displacement’s annual conference.
My time at CHEERing was truly rewarding and memorable. I will never forget the joy on a mother’s face when she learned that her baby is doing well – and I will always remember the pain on a mother’s face when she struggled to access much-needed care. My experiences in Athens fueled my passion for global health and health equity. I will carry them with me as I embark on my public health career, having graduated in May.
I had many impactful experiences while working at CHEERing, but my favorite part was the people: the babies I cared for, the parents and children I interacted with, CHEERing’s passionate staff. I am inspired by their resilience, hope, and dedication. I feel lucky to have spent the past few months learning from and working with them.
A Day with Camilla
5 October 2022 / by Camilla Bratland
I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work with the CHEERing team for four weeks during my summer break through my university’s civic engagement program.
While volunteering at CHEERing, I took part in a variety of activities. In the Grow Clinic, we weighed and measured children of all ages to keep track of their growth. On Wednesdays, we picked up the children from the Malakasa camp at the train station and ensured they arrived safely at the Athens football field. My favorite memory from this experience was when I was in charge of organizing activities and playing football with the youngest children.
In the Malakasa camp, we led many activities, from cooking sessions, painting sessions, beading sessions, English conversation sessions, workouts, and dancing for the children. We organized the painting sessions and beading sessions for the children in the refugee camp to be creative and have fun together. This art project also incentivized the children to practice their English, which was one of our goals. Being able to connect with the children and put a smile on their faces is one of the most amazing things I have experienced.
While at CHEERing, I learned so much about the people I met and their stories, as well as more about the refugee situation in Greece. I will be forever grateful for this experience! It was incredibly inspiring to see the team’s dedication and to be a part of the community the team has built.
A Day with Jana
12 September 2022 / by Jana May
I worked with CHEERing for 6 weeks during Summer 2022. As a medical student I mainly worked at the Grow Clinics in the camps and shelters around Athens. My responsibilities included weighing and measuring babies and children, supporting mothers with breastfeeding, checking vaccination statuses, and addressing any concerns the mothers had about their children. I saw a wide variety of medical problems whilst I was there including constipation, diarrhoea, malnutrition, dental problems, urinary tract and worm infections. I really enjoyed working at the Grow Clinics as it was fun to interact with the children and a good opportunity to put the skills and knowledge I have developed whilst being at medical school into practice.
Even though my main responsibility was to attend the grow clinics, I also had the opportunity to attend some of the evening cooking sessions, which were run at Camp Malakasa for some of the children. Here the children participated in an activity or listened to a talk and then we cooked a meal with them, which was a lot of fun, and the children loved it. I gave a talk on puberty to the girls, and it was great to see them so engaged and asking so many questions about their health.
My 6 weeks at CHEERing flew by but it is an experience I will never forget. I met so many kind and interesting people, I experienced a different country and culture, and helped this great organisation make a small difference to people’s lives.
A Day with Maria
17 August 2022 | by Maria Inês Silva
I had the opportunity to work with the CHEERing team for six months helping out with cooking sessions and nutrition classes for kids, supporting a school lunch box program, and providing counseling to the mothers at the clinics.
As a Nutrition Intern, I led talks for children (e.g., talks on sports drinks, the sugar content of cereal, vitamins and minerals, etc.) and for parents (e.g., food introduction for kids over six months). I developed creative ways of communicating science and health through these talks, games, and worksheets. Additionally, I created tools and materials for beneficiaries and the CHEERing team.
At the camp’s clinics, I performed nutrition counseling for women and children and helped treat constipation, diarrhea, picky eating, and anemia.
Interacting effectively in a multisectorial team with dietitians, pharmacists, medical students, doctors, directors, administrative staff, coaches, and social workers was crucial to providing adequate quality of care to all CHEERing’s beneficiaries.
I’ve learned a lot while working with CHEERing. The people here at CHEERing have been one of the best parts of working here! I will never forget this experience and everyone who I’ve had the chance to work with.
Now, I feel like I’m ready to take on new challenges!
A Day with Rana
17 May 2022 | by Rana Sabreen
As part of my Erasmus Mundus master’s program, I began my internship at CHEERing in November 2020. With the second Corona wave and the resulting travel and movement constraints, joining the organization was challenging at that time.
After a one-week quarantine, I started my training with Alexandra, a passionate volunteer who explained to me the activities and tasks and the NGOs with whom we are collaborating. Even though I have a broad background in disaster response and health promotion, working at CHEERing exposed me to entirely new dimensions of the sector. Working with children and newborns daily brought me unexpected pleasure, and within a short time, those babies became a part of my world. Not to mention the new knowledge I gained about reproduction, lactation, and sexual health.
As a pharmacist, I was able to assist in the management of medical stock at the ELNA Maternity Center, including attempting to identify medical needs, separating expired products, coordinating donations, and developing a system to ensure that the medical stock was correctly managed by the different volunteers.
The greatest part of joining CHEERing was the organization’s international atmosphere, the people I met and their various stories, and the new friends I gained. I’m thankful for the chance to work with CHEERing and the modest differences we were able to make in people’s lives.
A Day with Mike
2 February 2022 | by Mike Madoff
We pulled up to an empty Orthodox summer camp. I got out of the car with our head coach and approached the groundskeeper, who was sweeping in front of a locked gate—just beyond it, we could see a perfect, lush soccer field. Equipped with one week of Duolingo Greek, I attempted to translate, “football, koritsi” pointing through the gate at the field. The groundskeeper stared blankly as we mimed kicking a ball, then shook his head and turned away. No luck here. We laughed it off and got back in the car to scout the next field on the map.
I joined CHEERing in fall 2021 with the goal to understand the realities of the refugee crisis. My main duty was to be a driver, ferrying volunteers to Malakasa and Eleonas refugee camps, as well as to deliver supplies, from baby scales to soccer nets. I also filled in in an assortment of other roles, including memorable days as a junior soccer coach. Despite a couple of decades separating me from my own soccer career, it was a delight to get involved in coaching the girls. It was incredible to see in just the span of a few weeks how much they learned, not just about soccer, but also about how to communicate and work together as a team.
The highlight of my experience was the CHEERing community, a mix of local and international volunteers alongside refugee families. Over dinner, we heard stories about the treacherous crossing to Europe, and shared in the celebration of birthdays and graduations. The global refugee crisis is set to accelerate in the coming decade, driven by climate change, political instability, and other forces that can feel far beyond our control. I am grateful to have had the opportunity through CHEERing to be able to make a small difference in a few lives, and also to take these real human stories forward into my own.
A Day at Football
10 January 2022 | by Athená Davis
I spent 3 months volunteering with CHEERing beginning in August of 2021. I arrived while forest fires were still raging outside of Athens which meant there was a lot of work to be done.
Working mostly at our Grow Clinics, I was excited to do hands-on work and interact with our beneficiaries every day. Everyone we met was so kind and welcoming and I will never forget the joy on a mother’s face when she learned how well her baby was doing. I was absolutely in awe of the incredible amount of dedication and support the peer counselors gave to CHEERing and the volunteers. Their kindness and generosity were fundamental to my time in Athens.
While I was initially drawn in by CHEERing’s work doing Grow Clinics at refugee camps and shelters, I was also given the opportunity to work with the CHEERing girls’ football team in Malakasa camp which turned out to be one of my favorite parts of working at CHEERing. Each week we’d host 2-3 training sessions with over 30 girls whose excitement seemed to grow bigger each week. Lucky for me, my birthday happened to fall on a day where we had a football session. When the girls found out it was my birthday, they sang to me in 3 different languages and a few of the girls even made up a special birthday dance for me.
A day with CHEERing is a day full of generosity and care, and if you’re lucky, maybe even a special dance.
A Day with Marina
3 January 2022 | by Marina Menchini
I started my internship with CHEERing in February 2021. Athens was in full lockdown and I was quarantined for a week, during which the storm Medea raged through the city, bringing some unexpected snow on the balcony of the sixth-floor office.
Our work was mainly divided between Eleonas Camp and Elna Maternity Center. After almost a year of social distancing, I remember being momentarily shocked by the liveliness of the camp. So many people living together and going on with their everyday lives. There was work to be done, problems to be solved, children to be fed. A reminder that life must be protected and cherished as it is unstoppable, no matter the circumstances.
My job as a nutritionist intern involved direct counselling to the mothers, as well as creating tools and materials for nutritional evaluation. I also managed the office and supplies with my collegue Rana, an incredible pharmacist who taught me how just about anything can be solved with the correct use of an Excel sheet.
My favourite part of working with CHEERing was the people. Every person I met had a story to tell, had lived a unique journey I felt so incredibly priviliged to be a small part of.
Working with CHEERing means making an immediate difference in the lives of refugee mothers and children living in Athens.
A Day at Malakasa Camp
7 December 2021 | by Charlie Fisher
I came to Athens, Greece to work with CHEERing for the summer. Originally from northern Wisconsin, the 40+ Celsius/100+ Fahrenheit heat wave was enough for some of the older children in the refugee camp to nickname me “ice cream cone” when they came to visit our CHEERing table each week… because each week, I was consistently melting under the Athenian sun.
Despite all the jokes about my red face in the heat, I remember those hot days with only a smile now. I remember how the peer counselors would sneakily fill my water bottle up with ice-cold water that they had frozen overnight, after I had told them to keep it for themselves. But instead, these amazing women always chose to share, to take care of every member of the CHEERing team, even with limited resources themselves.
I remember how one day in the refugee camp, we saw an Arabic baby and did the best we could to communicate with the family without an Arabic translator present. After the family left, they returned with a plate full of falafel for us. A family living in these conditions, with no food to spare, would not take no for an answer when they found a way to share what they had with us.
I will never forget that generosity, and the hope it filled me with. To spend one day with CHEERing is to spend one day learning from the most resilient and inspiring people from across the world.
CHEERinGreece 