Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Monday, February 1, 2016

News: Greek Island Volunteers & Nobel Nomination

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35460012?SThisFB By Joel Gunter. BBC News. 1 February 2016. The leader of a volunteer group on the Greek island of Kos has welcomed news that islanders have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. George Chertofilis, the president of the Kos Solidarity Group, said a win would "give meaning to the work we do". Kos Solidarity is one of 16 volunteer groups from the Aegean Islands nominated on Sunday for the award. It adds: "Despite persistent constraints and the continuous institutional inability to respond to this challenge in a respectful and efficient way, the nominees provide an example of possibility for action in the darkest of times and with the most limited of means." Mr Chertofilis, a physics teacher on Kos, said the prize would be "a nice thing for individuals of course, but more importantly for the ideal of peace and solidarity". "Ultimately we are not doing this for a prize, we are doing it because we are human beings and we must do everything we can to help each other," he said. According to the nomination letter, the prize money in the event of a win would be used to fund healthcare on the islands. Three unnamed volunteers have been chosen who would travel to Norway to collect the award. In order to make the volunteer groups eligible for the prize, which states that only individuals or organisations can be nominated, they were joined in an umbrella network called the Aegean Solidarity Movement. The network was pieced together by Avaaz, a grassroots campaign group that coordinated the nomination. More than 630,000 people have signed a petition on the Avaaz website to show their support. Sam Barratt, a spokesman for Avaaz, said the campaign group worked closely with the Nobel committee to ensure that the network complied with the prize rules. He was keen to stress that the 16 groups included in the nomination represent many smaller groups and individuals who have given up their time to offer support to refugees and migrants. Mr Chertofilis continues to volunteer several days a week, patrolling the beaches at night in shifts, armed with warm clothes, shoes, and snacks. "The prize would be a nice thing for the people of these islands, many of whom have helped," he said. "But we are doing this because we don't like to see people suffer."