Call for solidarity and farewell to our friend S.: Help sending her body back home!

http://infomobile.w2eu.net/2017/07/13/urgent-call-for-solidarity-with-our-dear-friend-s/


Farewell sister!

We first met S. in December 2015, an 41-year-old woman from Uganda
victim of torture in her country. She was waiting in the cold with
hundreds of other refugees in the informal tent camp in Idomeni at the
border to FYROM, the time when the borders started to gradually close,
beginning with refugees who were not from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan
(non-SIA countries). Along with many others, she had the hope that the
Balkan corridor would re-open for all and she could move forward and
later re-unite with her family in a better place. We met her while she
was cooking in a big casserole for the group of African refugees she was
staying with. We remember her tired and sad smile of those days. Full of
stress, she asked us what would happen to her and all the other people
if the borders would not re-open. Who would help her if she had to stay
in Greece, she asked. Who could support her two children, which got
separated from their mother and who had at that time remained back alone
in Turkey.

When S. gave up trying to leave Greece and came back to Athens, we
offered her a safe place to stay in the Welcome Island, a solidarity
flat run by private donations as a grassroots project. She stayed for
more than one year in the apartment, co-living first with people from
Somalia and later from Afghanistan and Uganda. Sharing a room with women
from another culture, who had their own problems and suffering, was not
always easy, but S. was a strong, honest and faithful partner in this
flat-sharing project and she has never hesitated to help others or to
give us a smile. She brought to the flat her friend who was in advanced
pregnancy and alone and supported her to stay in the house and get help.

For months she tried hard to find a job in order to support her family.
During the whole period of stay S. suffered not only from her very
serious health problems and trauma as a victim of torture, but
specifically from the separation from her children. She was supported by
friends and volunteers, as well as the Greek Refugee Council (GCR),
Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), and Babel Day Care Centre until her very
last days – even until today.

Tragically, S. finally lost her courageous struggle and died in the
early morning of 12th July in a hospital in Athens. Now, we want to say
goodbye in dignity and help her on her last journey back to Uganda,
where her children have returned to. Her beloved ones, as a last wish
for their mother, asked her body to be transferred and buried close to
them in Uganda.

GCR made a solidarity call to collect the amount of 2,100 Euro for the
purpose of the transfer of the corpse back home to Uganda. We would like
to call for solidarity also from our side and ask you to support the
family of S. on these last steps. She never reached her destiny; she
could not fulfill her dreams. We want her to be in the arms of her
family finally, that this personal fight against the monster Fortress
Europe ended for her in Greece.

Stand by the side of this family now so that S. can reach her children
and they can say a last goodbye. Her corpse needs to be transferred
soon, so any solidarity is urgent.

"Dear S.,

You will be our good friend always and in our hearts forever!

With all our love,

Your room-mates and your support family from infomobile / w2eu"

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For solidarity donations please use the following GCR account:

National Bank of Greece: GR5301101160000011629606464
Piraeus Bank: GR8001720320005032016706911