I have just spent over 3 weeks in the Greek island of
Lesvos, offering acupuncture treatments to refugees. I wanted to do this for a
long time and had planned to go in the Spring 2020. The pandemic changed my
plans, and when the Moria refugee camp got destroyed in a fire last September,
I donated most of the funds I had collected for my trip to help refugees who
had to sleep rough and had no access to food or medicines during this time. I
started fundraising for my trip again this year and finally managed to get
enough money to cover my flight and my stay for a few weeks.
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| Me and the wonderful Earth Medicine team |
As it happened, the Kare Tepe camp where Earth Medicine was
previously based, had recently been shut down without warning and none of the
organisations that had been offering services within that camp for years were
given a space in the larger camp – which people call Moria 2.0. I visited the
camp a few times and found it desolate and the conditions inhumane. There is
blatant disregard to human rights here. There are many elderly and disabled
people and small children living here in containers and tents in 40o heat, with
no running water, on a ground that is made of dust and gravel and which is
difficult to negotiate even when you are able-bodied. The toilets are dirty and
all of them seem to be up a hill, the camp is next to the sea which rather than
an asset is a risk for children and a source of freezing cold gusts in winter; and there is a stinky canal running alongside people’s
tents. In here, there are no communal spaces at all, no school, no playground,
basically nowhere to feel human again and definitely no place where I could have given the
group acupuncture treatments.
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| Camp Moria 2.0 |
I spent my first three days breaking the ice talking to
people, listening to their stories, and giving some treatments. Most people
where surprised to be offered needles as treatment and the translators were
working hard to help me explain the benefits. Fortunately, Earth medicine had
already printed out some information about acupuncture in Farsi and Arabic so I
wasn’t starting from zero. In many cases, I negotiated putting one needle in
and only use more if there was no discomfort. Everyone who tried it became a
convert and, as the weeks went by, there were more and more people coming from
the camp asking to receive acupuncture as they had heard how good it was from
someone who had benefited from treatment. I decided not to receive anyone new
in the last week so that I would have time to get some completion with the
people I was already treating. Many people received daily treatments to begin
with but as they felt better, we were able to spread out their sessions. In the
three weeks I was there, I gave a total of 145 treatments to 35 people.
- Lower back pain – mostly in young men and older women- usually caused by hard work and cold. Many young men I met had been victims of slavery and exploitation in Iran, Turkey, and Greece, made to work long hours on building sites and factories for hardly any pay. There were some victims of torture too experiencing a variety of painful conditions.
- Shoulder and neck pain- mostly in young women – usually caused by stress and in many cases by having worked for years as slaves in Iranian sweatshops
- Neurological symptoms – motor and sensory impairment in some cases due to diabetes, in others from injuries, and one from stroke.
- Anxiety and insomnia- typical PTSD symptoms caused by the lived traumas of war/violence/loss, this is exacerbated by sleeping in a tent and feeling totally vulnerable at night and by the uncertainty and the difficulty of the asylum process people have to go through
- Digestive problems- abdominal pain, lack of appetite, and constipation were the most common
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| Some happy pain-free faces! |
There were two neurological cases that needed a lot more treatment and a lot more attention than others and which made it very hard for me to leave. Treating neurological conditions is one of my passions and I have seen how scalp and body acupuncture can make a difference to people over a period of time. One of them was a 61-year-old woman from Afghanistan who had a stroke before fleeing her country and was carried by her son the whole way across the different countries until they got to Lesvos. Apart from the stroke, she was in complete shock. She responded well to treatment and became increasingly alert and present. As well as treatment, she needed a lot of attention and kindness which she will continue to receive in the Earth Medicine clinic.
The other case was this 33-year-old man:
Mr K, from Syria. Back in 2013, he worked for the Syrian
government. When he refused to collaborate in the war, his house was bombed
with him inside. The roof fell on his head and he had an injury that rendered
him unable to use his R arm and both his legs. He lost the ability to speak too.
Mr K had to flee his country in this condition with his wife or they would have
been killed. He has lived in Lesvos for several years and has been coming to
Earth medicine for massage and physio exercises every day for over a year. His cousin
comes with him every time to help him with his exercises.
His hard work has
helped him recover his speech and he can now transfer and give steps on the
remedial parallel bars, with help. When I arrived, his movements were very
forceful and disorganised, he would tense his whole face and body to move one
limb.
I started giving him scalp and body acupuncture from my second
day in Lesvos. I used the motor lines and the foot sensory and motor lines on
the scalp; and treated the Shaoyang and Yangming channels on the R arm and both
legs. After 5 treatments, we started to do exercises with the legs and arm
while still having the scalp needles in. As the days went, these exercises
became easier and he started to disassociate the movement of his toes, feet,
knees, and even his fingers. At this point, we started walking on the bars with
the scalp needles, really focusing on sending the messages to the right part of
the body to be moved before attempting the actual movement. We were all
watching him every day and saw how his movement became much more controlled
each day. He was very happy with his progress and so was I!! I gave him
instructions to massage the motor and foot lines on the scalp and to continue
working in the way we were doing. I am hoping that he will continue getting
better. Mr K has a wife and two small children, they all live in the refugee camp and face
the difficulties that this involves every day. According to different human
rights conventions, vulnerable people with disabilities need to be prioritised
for asylum. Nevertheless, this family has been refused asylum 3 times by the
Greek government. This is a massive source of stress that curtails Mr K’s progress
as well as making you think, what is happening to our humanity?
I am planning on returning to Lesvos before the end of this
year so I will start fundraising again in the next week or so. I would also like to invite other acupuncturists to volunteer in the New
Year. Earth Medicine will be delighted to host more volunteers and I have been
asked by them to interview potential candidates. If you are interested, please
contact me directly.
With love and in hope for a better world for all,
Sandra
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