The container with the donations for refugees collected by the “Algarve pela Vida” campaign has already arrived on February 27 at the port of Mitilene, on the island of Lesbos, confirmed the local partners of the Algarve group, the organizations RefuGEN and PIKPA.
“By chance, it arrived on the same day that, in 157 countries and 28 cities around the world, we participated in the European March for Refugees. The “Algarve pela Vida” campaign participated with a small group in Lagos», said Michaela Preiss, one of the organizers, to Sul Informação.
“Our little help has come at a very good time, as refugees continue to arrive in Lesbos and there are still thousands stranded in Greece. The volunteers on site are full of work…», he added.
Michaela also insists on highlighting the help of the Greek shipping company ARKAS Hellas SA, since not only “it saved us almost 1600 euros”, by not charging for transport between the Greek ports of Piraeus and Mitilene, “but it did an extraordinary job and very professional. Only last Thursday, in the afternoon, they received all the documents for customs and on Saturday the container was already at its destination. I've never seen it so fast».
The company itself insisted on taking pictures of the transport and arrival of the container sent by the Algarve.
Meanwhile, Fernando Ildefonso, Philosophy Professor at Escola Secundária Gil Eanes, in Lagos, and one of the campaign's activists, will give his testimony tomorrow, the 3rd, at 17 pm, during the seminar «Algarve pela Vida», promoted by the University of Algarve at the Teresa Gamito auditorium, on the Campus de Gambelas, Faro.
In addition to this teacher, two volunteers who were working in a refugee camp in Lesbos will give their testimony, as well as the Syrian student Mohamed Tarek Saied, who the Sul Informação already interviewed exclusively.
Os promoters of the «Algarve for Life» campaign recall that, «during January, the Lagos Volunteer Fire Brigade, the Lagos Red Cross and the São Gonçalo Parish Council were important strategic partners in this challenge. In the various work sessions of sorting and packaging the donations, we had the energetic participation of about forty volunteers».
This campaign was born out of the initiative to raise awareness of the German community in Aljezur to welcome refugees, launched by Raban von Mentzingen last September.
This intention did not materialize and “the desire to receive families was transformed into raising clothes”.
As the platform explains, “the German community and the International School of Aljezur then mobilized many families and collected a large volume of donations. Then, the Youth Volunteer Bank of the Gil Eanes de Lagos Secondary School joined this movement and intensified the collection of donations».
In December, “several attempts were made to find a local partner who was available and able to receive and channel product donations. We also make contacts in the Balkans and even in refugee camps in Lebanon», adds “Algarve pela Vida”.
However, «everything proved difficult, expensive and uncertain, until it was possible to locate, on the island of Lesbos, Greece, RefuGEN and PIKPA/“All Together” Village».
For its part, the Lagos Red Cross provided the bank account to raise monetary donations, which allowed “to raise sufficient funds to pay for the container's maritime transport”.
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