I had meant to write about my latest visit to Votanikos ages ago. Apologies to those who have been waiting for it. I mean that. So why has it been so hard to write about this time round ? To be completely honest with you, I don’t know what to say. I had wanted to be able to at least bring some positive news or some small change in the situation for the people living in this camp. But nothing has changed. It’s still filthy, disgusting, appalling and unthinkable. There is still no water. Eviction still looms. No alternatives have been found or offered by the state. Nothing has changed.

I gave the children their photographs as I had promised them (they were not there on our previous visit). They were thrilled. This tiny gesture brought more smiles and laughs than I have ever seen in some of the rather-spoilt children I know when they are given expensive games and toys.

It is so hard to deal with the feelings that are stirred up when I see this inequality and injustice up close. Especially when it is happening to children. When I looked at the new pictures I took, again I saw my own child in their faces. How can I describe how it feels to see such deprivation and then go home to my privilege ? To walk through the filth and rubbish that is their home and then walk through town with the its lights, decorations and people everywhere shopping (it was just before Christmas) ? To know that there is nothing I can do. Not really. A small gesture here and there. A post on this blog. And to be totally honest, I don’t want to think about it. It’s too hard. But then, I have the luxury to be able to switch off. These kids do not.

Today it’s freezing. There is snow on the mountain and it’s raining on and off. As I am writing this, there are hundreds of cold, hungry children who will be out on the streets selling tissues, collecting rubbish, begging. The settlement will be muddy and life must be that much more miserable. I am imagining that after work has finished, families will be huddled around their very dangerous makeshift wood-burning stoves. Trying to keep warm in a place like this as difficult as trying to keep clean with no running water.

I really cannot find the words to descibe how this community lives. I have tried to put it across in my posts but this is totally inadequate. I have been a visitor, an observer. Able to go home and take a hot shower, to wash of the dirt of this rubbish dump. What I cannot know or imagine is how people can live in this desperate situation and still find it in themselves to smile with a stranger. A stranger who can offer them nothing except a photograph. A stranger who would like them to have what I have but knowing that’s not going to happen.

I cannot know what it is like to live a life like this. And again have to say I am ashamed of us as human beings that we allow this inbalance to exist. We could eliminate poverty. We have the means to do that but not the will. So I have no good news to bring you about the community at Votanikos. No heartwarming anecdotes. It was worse because nothing has changed.

Panayote Dimitras of the Greek Helsinki Monitor informs me that the Mayor visited Votanikos and he is translating what he had to say about it. Perhaps, if more officials do go and see for themselves, they will be moved to do something. I wish I felt more positive about that but I don’t.

Update: The Prefect of Athens (my mistake. I thought it was the Mayor) visited Votanikos and here is what he said:

One picture is worth a thousand words. We are only one kilometer away from the heart of the capital, in the area of Votanikos, and this wretched situation honors no one. On the occasion of today’s visit, I would like to raise awareness of this problem, since the correspondence between various agencies seems to lead nowhere. I take the initiative to brief on this very day the Prefectural Council and then the competent Ministers of Health-Welfare and Interior, since the Prefecture cannot on its own address this problem. In addition, I intend to ask the Mayor of Athens, with whom I believe we will have a good working relationship, to take any necessary action. In other words, to remove tones of garbage from the settlements and to find suitable space for relocating these people to more humane living conditions, with the necessary water and sanitation facilities. We must do what has already been done in the case of other Roma and Kurdish refugee settlements and not allow the perpetuation of this situation.

“and this wretched situation honors no one”

Thank you, Panayote.

I hope something will be done….