Reflections and Observations


(Webster Groves students and Dr. Goedereis, just before their climb to "Great Meteoron", the largest and arguably most famous of the monasteries in Meteora, Greece)

We'll use this page to offer observations, reflections, and other thoughts about our time in Greece.



Volunteering with the Refugee Program at Caritas Athens 

We had the opportunity to spend some time volunteering at the Caritas Athens Refugee Program. 


The sheer amount of people served, not to mention the breadth of services provided to these individuals, was truly impressive. Check out some of the stats on how many individuals are served daily and annually at this single center. 



Caritas Athens' Refugee Program offers several meaningful programs aimed at helping refugees integrate into the community. 



In talking with some of the staff, and then in volunteering where we were needed, it quickly became apparent that the notion of "refugees" that we see presented in the United States is quite different than the reality we experienced. We worked with both young and old, and with both families and individuals, from across the socioeconomic and sociodemographic spectrum. The vast majority are simply people trying to make better lives for themselves. And if circumstances were different, any one of us could be on the other side, receiving the meals instead of serving them. 







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is Your Education Affecting Your Social Life?

Image
Author: Emilia Triola             Equal access to education is a basic human right. Every human being on earth should be provided the same opportunity and access to education. However this is not the case as there is marked inequality in access to education worldwide. Lack of access to education can impact the life of an individual in several ways.             Globally there are education gaps in both developed and developing countries. In the United States of America, the education gap is growing larger with a disparity in education levels between the rich and the poor (Kelly, 2005). Less and less of the poor are represented as each stage of education furthers due to affordability being a barrier. In Africa gaps in education are continually reducing as more and more people are having access to education and the notion of only educating the boy child is dying away. However the disparity in those who are educated and have access to education is still wide. We can see
Read more

Are You Sick, or are You Just Poor? A Peer Into the Interconnectedness of Health and Poverty

Image
Author: Rachel Downey Upon arriving in Athens on July 6th, one of the program coordinators, Tom, took myself and my fellow classmates on a short tour of the immediate area of the city, called Plaka. On our way through town, a frantic, greasy-haired woman scurried past us on the street, with her breasts hanging free and a young child to her nipple. She was distressed, and even began speaking to passerby in Greek, but we couldn’t understand. I didn’t think too much of it, because the #FreeTheNipple movement has made it’s impact in the states, but I also realize that we are in a different culture on the other side of the world. Shortly after this encounter, Tom informs us of what is going on. These women panhandle, at these children’s expense, exploited for their innocence by their own mothers and handed off to beggars on the street. This experience got me thinking about the lengths people will go, simply in order to live a comfortable life. In 2014, 14.8% of the U.S. population wa
Read more

Psychology of Inequality: Explaining Irrational Thoughts and Behaviors

Author: Lily Davis Income inequality is the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner within a population. In the United States, the gap between the rich and the rest of the population has been continuously growing for the past several decades. For example, in 1979 the top 10% of the U.S. population made a weekly wage of $1,479, while the bottom 10% made a weekly wage of $414. As of 2016, the top 10% of the US population had experienced a steady increase in weekly wages, making an average of around $2,000 per week. Despite this steady increase in the top 10% of the US population, the bottom 10% of the population remained fairly stable and even slightly decreased, making an average weekly income of $397 in 2016 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). Not only does there remain a gap between the highest earners of the U.S. population and the lowest earners, but the gap is continuing to grow. The way our population thinks about inequality has a much larger impact on the i
Read more