The plight of pregnant women living on the streets, relying on sex work and eating from bins as asylum seekers in Greece has been highlighted by Manchester-based volunteers, including former Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh.
CRIBS International is the brainchild of mum Sally Hyman, a language teacher from Saddleworth. Sally launched the charity in 2016 after helping at a camp on the Greek island of Euboea.
They support 22 women and families with seven flats in Athens for single mums and families from Cameroon, Afghanistan, Syria, the Congo, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone. The lifeline charity health workshops, organise food distributions and runs a Free Shop where people can get clothes, sanitary products, nappies and toys.
Sally, 63, said: “We aim to provide housing and social support to women in need, and help for women in childbirth. Otherwise these women would be on the streets, relying on sex work and eating out of bins.
"Just next door to us we have British tourists enjoying so-called idyllic Greece with no idea of what the government is putting these people through.” Rachel Summerscales, from Mossley, Tameside, is a prolific volunteer for CRIBS and joined both Sally and Julie on an emotional trip to Lesbos this week.
Rachel told the Manchester Evening News that the charity operates on a shoestring. She said: "We have one month's rent in the bank at any one time, with increasing bills."
She says the situation for these women is dire. "They are forgotten about and that is in Europe I don't know how it has got to such an inhumane situation. From a humanitarian position we can just help a few people.
"The women we help need to be in last trimester or have a baby and we house women until their baby is 12 months old. Every week we have a new request.
"We are doing IT classes, but the main problem is they don't have the right to work. it is an impossibly bureaucratic system, it is difficult to get refugee status and when they do they get less help from the government. It is a real mix of emotions, meeting with the mums, seven months pregnant and sleeping on the street - that is the toughest thing.
"All the women I met, I was amazed at how resilient they were. One woman called Kerry, who has twins, she was a power house and wanted to be a translator.
She was in a camp on an island and because she was pregnant with twins, you need to leave and go to the mainland, but there was no financial help there. We knew when she was leaving the island and we paid her fare to come to Athens and housed her immediately.
"We provided a case manager who understands the system and could translate. Imagine giving birth in a hospital where you can't speak the language? We fought for their birth rights."
Actor Julie, who played Hayley Cropper in Corrie, told the Sunday Mirror : “This isn’t a refugee crisis – this is a political crisis. And people are victims of it, they are being played like a game of tennis.
"UK and European governments are playing a game with human lives. My daughters turn 18 and 21 this year and the milestones made me take stock of how difficult being a mother can be, even with all the privileges I have had while raising Martha and Lyss.
“I can’t comprehend what pregnancy and motherhood is like in horrendous situations these women have been in. They’re the strongest women I have met. They have a spirit, bravery, resilience and determination I have never seen before.
“They have skills which can contribute to the Greek economy and economies across Europe. But government policies, including our own, are too small-minded and racist to acknowledge that.”
Some of the women seeking help fled hell in their homeland – only to end up in despairing refugee camps where they were beaten, forced to cook in sewer water and eat mouldy food out of bins.
Case manager Daphne Sinani, 44, works tirelessly to ensure women and children are safe and have access to healthcare. She helps translate – and we have changed the names of the women to protect their identity.
In an emotional encounter, Julie met Ivorian Jennifer, who was helped by a fund set up by the actor. Jennifer suffered serious diabetes and could have died while pregnant with daughter Aya, now two months old, but for medical care instigated by CRIBS manager Daphne.
Jennifer’s care was sponsored by Julie’s 500 Acts of Kindness project – one of several in the UK where 500 people donate £1 a week to give £500 to a person in need. Jennifer, who escaped hellish conditions in Lesbos to gain asylum in mainland Greece, says: “I thought I was going to die. I was desperate. All my joy had gone. CRIBS helped me through my pregnancy, you’ve given me hope, and I now have the right to stay in Greece. Daphne is like my mother, my big sister. I now have a healthy baby and hope thanks to CRIBS and your organisation.”
To support CRIBS, you can text FAMILIES followed by your donation amount to 70490, or visit cribsinternational.org/donate.
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