Day 4 – Waste management
Every human being deserves to live in a clean, safe, and dignified environment.
On Day 4 of our 5 Days of Giving, we invite you to read about the impact our waste management program has had on Chios and support our work on the ground.
At the beginning of the year, we were asked to work in the Vial Camp on Chios. At the time, 1200 residents were living in appalling and inhumane conditions where waste was never collected and very few services were available to residents.
To tackle this enormous issue, MOTG kick started a joint effort between coordinators, community volunteers, and visiting volunteers who worked together, at times standing knee-high in waste, to clean the camp. MOTG engaged the local community to work together to clear 20,000 kgs of waste a week at the start, and the community has kept the camp clean since then.
To highlight the severity of the situation before we entered, here is a quote from the “Chios Diaries” written by MOTG workers in the early months on Chios:
“It is disgusting. Never in my life [have] I had to deal with so much pee, poop, waste, rats and spoiled food. I start picking up empty bottles, it feels a little less disgusting if there is no pee inside. After [a] few bottles, I raise my head and I see the guys picking up everything they come across, whether it is empty bottles or still warm yellow bottles. I immediately think that they were not the ones that created this waste in the same way that neither had I. But yet, they were picking it up with no questions. I take a deep breath (big mistake amidst all this garbage), change my gloves, and start picking up everything I find on my way. We were few people, ten in total including me, Noah and Ali. But we were strong, committed and united.”
Additionally, the health impact of starting a waste management program has exceeded all expectations. Before MOTG entered, the NGO Salvamiento Maritimo Humanitario in Vial reported on “the sheer volume of people coming to them seeking medical aid, the infected rat bites which they don’t have antibiotics for anymore, the advanced scabies, and the severity of some of the cases that quite clearly should not be treated in a camp clinic”. After MOTG cleaned the entire camp, the number of people having to be treated in the clinic due to hygiene issues (such as rat bites and scabies) reduced enormously.
Today, the waste problem in the camp is much better controlled with daily collections and frequent larger clean ups.
In order to run the waste program in Chios for a month, it costs us €2643. With an end of year donation, you can support the community members on the ground who work hard every day to provide a cleaner, safer, and more dignified environment for everyone in Vial Camp.