On Tuesday evening we flew to Athens, Greece with Coraline, our dear Humanitarian Coordinator. We met with eight NGO’s in Athens during a two-day period. The Palmers, our Greece in-field couple who are waiting for visas, joined us virtually for these meetings. Since they are still at home in Utah it meant that they literally stayed up all night! We are thankful for the opportunity to meet these wonderful people in Greece who spend their lives serving others. We did some follow up evaluations on past projects but mostly we got to know each other, found out what their long-term goals are and discussed ways we can collaborate. We have some exciting projects in the making for 2026.
JRS-Jesuit Refugee Service
JRS promotes refugee rights and social inclusion in the high needs area of central Athens. They offer emergency assistance in the form of food baskets and clothing, language classes, psychosocial support, employability training, after school programs for children, and they connect refugees to available social services.
Caritas Athens
Caritas is the faith-inspired social welfare network of the Catholic church. At this location they provide 200 people with a daily meal service, with access to clothing, and Greek and English lessons. Social workers serve refugees, the elderly, and the homeless in their neighborhood.
CRS/Caritas Greece
CRS (Catholic Relief Services) serves people in need worldwide. They have been in Athens for eight years helping with the refugee crisis. Because of recent cuts in funding, CRS is transitioning out of Greece by the end of the year. Caritas Greece will carry on the wonderful work they have collaborated on. The Adama Center in Athens assists asylum seekers, refugees and other beneficiaries with integration into Greek society. They offer housing for 80 people and connect them with job opportunities.
GivMed
GivMed has developed a software program to connect donors (individual & organizations) with social pharmacies, nursing homes and other public benefit entities so that surplus medicine and health products can be redistributed. They currently serve more than 50,000 people who would otherwise not have access to medicine. During the last project the church funded, 35,745 boxes of essential health products worth 454,122 Euros, were delivered to 50 organizations.
Saffron Kitchen
Culinary school graduate, Evelina Eskenazi made her dream a reality by starting an NGO that provides culinary training for refugees and a gourmet soup kitchen that prepares 200 meals each day for local vulnerable neighbors. After serving low quality meals as a volunteer in refugee camps, she was determined to demonstrate the power food has to nourish the body and soul. We had the privilege of interviewing three beneficiaries.
Sophia graduated in the last culinary training class and is now an employee at Saffron Kitchen. She has lived in Greece for 5 years. She shares her enthusiasm and skills with her peers inside and outside of the workplace. She is thankful for this positive, no pressure work atmosphere that feels like family.
Omer is from Sudan. He lived in Germany for a year but was deported back to Greece. When he first arrived, Saffron Kitchen provided a meal for him daily and offered him the support he needed to get settled in the community. He is now a regular weekly volunteer at the kitchen. He finds joy in giving back and serving. He is employed at a nearby bakery because of the skills he learned at Saffron Kitchen.
A Greek widow in her 60’s shared that she relies on the daily meal she receives here. She is too old for the job market and does not receive benefits from her husband’s pension. She has made ends meet by having a meal here each day for the last 1 1/2 years. She is an example that vulnerability comes in all forms. There are many elderly people whose budget does not stretch to cover life’s basic necessities.
Since the inception of the Saffron Kitchen Project, 153 refugees have graduated with culinary certificates and 80% of them are now employed.
LHI-Lifting Hands International
LHI’s refugee community center in Serres offers a wide variety of services for refugees at two nearby camps. They supplement food and clothing needs, offer classes in English, computer basics, professional development, job skills classes (barber, hair cutting, carpentry, bike repair, and tailoring), and provide yoga, art, music and sports engagement.
Emfasis
Emfasis does street work with the homeless. They go out in teams of 5-6 to assess needs and offer assistance to those living on the street and in homes without water or electricity. They also offer emergency aid during natural disasters.
A Drop in the Ocean
Our humanitarian manager, Christian Ottiker joined us for one day to fly to the island of Lesvos to visit a refugee camp. During the peak of the refugee crisis the Moria camp designed for 2,500 housed 23,000 refugees.
The camp we visited has capacity for 8,000 with 1,000 currently living there. Refugees arrive by boat, and the average stay is 2 months. Here asylum seekers receive a medical exam, are interviewed, apply for asylum, and await clearance to move to the mainland.
A Drop in the Ocean is an NGO with expertise in WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene). In this camp, they monitor access to hot water and have organized the laundry system. Their team on the ground includes 3 employees, 2 interns and 5 international volunteers (young people 23 years and older who come for a few months at a time at their own expense to serve)
In the laundry room one employee is assisted by volunteers to wash camp blankets and to do laundry for individuals living at the camp. An ID card follows each load through the washing and drying process. Residents drop off their dirty laundry and it is ready to pick up within 12 hours.
Hand crank machines are also available for individuals to use on their own. Elder Lamb repaired one of the machines during our visit.
Our time at the camp was a sobering experience. We thought of Elder Kearon’s words in April 2016, “This moment does not define the refugees, but our response will help define us”
When we arrived in Greece the taxies were on strike for two days. Our tender mercy was that the four NGO’s we visited during that time were all within walking distance of our hotel and each other. Ed did not know that when he planned the order of the itinerary. On the last day when taxis were running again our appointments were far apart and it would have been impossible to walk to our appointments.
Great Greek Gastronomy
Moussaka two ways
German Weekend Adventures
Offenbach branch barbeque
Elder Lamb practicing the organ
Kassel
For over 300 years this Wasserspiel has flowed from the foot of the Hercules statue to the palace pond. The Landgraves of Kassel underlined their absolute claim to power with this spectacle. It is quite the backyard water feature. The beautiful mountain park surrounding it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Electors and Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel spent their summer holidays in the Wilhelmshohe Palace. It was built as the centerpiece of Landgrave Wilhelm IX’s mountain park. Today it houses art collections.
FHE
Once a month we gather virtually with our children and grandchildren for Family Home Evening. We tell a story of an ancestor each month. We are grateful for those that came before us, for the courage they had that gives us strength to do hard things. We are so thankful that many of them kept journals so we can know something about their lives. We are also so grateful for those that come after us, our children and grandchildren. They are the joy of our lives. We miss them so and deeply appreciate their support. We are thankful for technology and look forward to our weekend phone calls and our monthly FHE.
With love, Elder & Sister Lamb (aka Ed & Debbie, Mom & Dad, Pop Pop & Tu Tu)
Lambs in Central Europe 