MOBILE KITCHEN
JUMPY MOBILE KITCHEN: Direct action initiative: to provide immediate relief in locations of activity that are difficult to reach or have been previously unaddressed.
The new EU-Turkey agreement has altered this situation significantly. We built our van and set up our project initially as a form of immediate relief for people arriving on the shores of Europe, but now everything is different.
The new EU-Turkey agreement aims at stoping the flow of migrants and refugees across the sea and into europe. Those who manage to successfully reach EU shores, are immediately put into detention centers and starting from April 4th, will be deported back to Turkey. Most independent volunteers and organizations have been kicked out of all major camps and have been replaced with strict military control.
For this reason, we at team Philoxenia have taken the decision to re-route our relief course and go to Turkey instead of Greece. The situation here is very different to what we are used to in Greece. Instead of immediate temporary relief, the migrants and refugees here are in need of more long term integration projects and a sustainable survival plan.
We are now currently working in the Torbali region of Izmir. There are about 2000 people living in informal camps around the farms and factories of the region. Unlike the people who make it to Greece, these people are not in a state of transit and are here for the long term. There is no structure and only a few independent volunteers and doctors who come to the camps every few days to asses the situation. What we are working with now is complete different to what the situation is like in Europe.
We are busy creating a new food relief plan where we heavily involve the long term residents of the camps in preparing and distributing what we cook all together.