PHOTOGRAPHED BY GETTY IMAGES; ALETHEA GOLD. TEXT BY JODY ROGOFF MOSES.*“REFUGEES/MIGRANTS EMERGENCY RESPONSE – MEDITERRANEAN”, DATA.UNHCR.ORG
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GREECE
Alethea Gold, a
grandmother from
Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs,
stood on the beach on
the Greek island of
Lesbos, having just
arrived as a volunteer for
charity IsraAID. Gold
was moved to make the
journey after hearing the
Israeli aid agency was
joining forces with Arab
volunteers to rescue
Syrian refugees, despite
the historic tension
between the two cultures.
But within hours of
arriving in Lesbos, Gold was
standing on a 20-kilometre
stretch of beach in cold,
blustering winds, frantically
pulling shivering Syrian
refugees off a rubber dinghy
that had miraculously made- and survived – the
treacherous overnight
journey from Turkey.
“When I saw the first
boat come in, it was surreal,
like a scene from a horror
movie,” recalls Gold. “People
drenched up to their necks,
literally freezing and some
in almost catatonic shock.
Then out of the chaos
emerges this ‘factory line’
of volunteers, all working
together to attend to the
refugees’ immediate needs.”
IsraAID is just one
of many international aid
agencies on the ground –
and in the waters – around
Greece, which as the closest
European destination to
Turkey and hence Syria,
Iraq and Afghanistan, has
seen an influx of more than
one million refugees and
migrants since 2015.
IsraAID team members
are on permanent alert for
boats, working first to rescue
refugees from the water asAN UNLIKELY PARTNERSHIP
An Israeli aid agency is dismantling decades of cultural animosity by
rescuing Syrian asylum seekers. One Australian woman bears witness to it allMC FACT This year, almost^3200 refugees have been reported missing or dead after attempting sea crossings to Europe.*
the boats come in, and
then provide medical
attention from the safety
of the shore, past the “life
jacket graveyard” spanning
hundreds of metres on the
beach. “Many of the life
jackets are fake,” explains
Gold. “They’re stuffed with
newspaper instead
of foam, leaving no chance
for survival if a passenger
falls in the water or the
boat capsizes.”
Leading the ‘factory
line’ of IsraAID workers is
Manal Shehade, an Israeli
Palestinian who typifies the
organisation’s non-political
philosophy. She originally
volunteered for two weeks,
but after witnessing the
horrors in Lesbos, she quit
her job and returned to
Greece full-time. Her small
team is made up of Arab
nurses and paramedics,Jewish doctors, and Muslim
and Jewish psychologists- plus a raft of volunteers.
“We’re all here for one cause
and politics back home is
not our focus. Our focus is
the refugees,” she says.
One of the refugees
saved from drowning off
Lesbos is 17-year-old Tayeba,
who fled from Afghanistan.
Gold discovered her on the
beach “completely drenched,
and as I tried to help her
remove her wet clothes she
fell to her knees crying. I put
my arms around her and she
held me tightly and sobbed,
and I cried with her.”
marieclaire.com.au 107TROUBLED WATERS
Clockwise from
above: Refugees
arrive on Lesbos after
crossing the Aegean
Sea; IsraAID
volunteer Alethea
Gold (on left) with
17-year-old Afghan
refugee Tayeba; the
“life jacket graveyard”
on the shore is piled
five-metres high.