A BEACON OF HOPE28 | June• 2019PHOTO: COURTESY MOHAMED HAJIRAordinary residents at different stages
of t he journey from Syria or Iraq all
the way across Europe. She set up a
WhatsApp group chat to send mes-
sages to a long list of contacts who
could see each other’s replies.Over the following weeks, Ange-
les heard horror stories: 200 people
going without food for three days, a
refugee child with leukaemia need-
ing a marrow transplant, a woman
needing advice how to flee Syria. She
set up WhatsApp groups
for eight categories of
cases, such as medical
help and legal advice.
Sometimes she provid-
ed the funds, searching
on Facebook for some-
one who lived near the
refugee to deliver the
assistance. “You don’t
know me,” she’d tell the
person, “you might think
I’m crazy but I need your
help.” And, sometimes,
they would.
One helper was Bert Van Vossole,
33, a graphic designer from Antwerp,
Belgium. One day in 2016 he received
a message from Angeles about a
Kurdish couple with a sick two-year-
old daughter needing supplies. They
were in a refugee reception centre in
the Belgian city of Mouscron where
they knew nobody and couldn’t
speak the language. Would Bert take
them some essentials?
He was initially unconvinced but
Angeles won him round. “They could
send the funds right away,” he says.
“And because they already wanted
to help, it made it easier to go the
extra mile – literally.” That Saturday,
he travelled two hours to Mouscron
to track down the family. He drove
them to the shops where they bought
food and clothes, communicating
in broken English. The family was
so grateful that they visited him in
Antwerp a few weeks later. Angeles
added them and Bert to
her WhatsApp groups
and they became part
of her growing network
of eyes, ears and hands
on the ground across
Europe.
These humanitarian
cases quickly became
the bread and butter
of Red Alert’s informal
programme. Mean-
while, another side of
their operation was also
gaining momentum.“THERE’S A STRONG
STORM, NOBODY
CROSS, YOU WILL
DIE,” WE WARNED
MIGRANTS. THE
SMUGGLERS HATED USMohamed Hajira,
The Captain