LAST week hundreds of women refugees descended on Lesbos’s main town of Mytilene with a single message to the Greek authorities - let us leave Moria, it is not safe for us! The notorious camp, which has now surpassed its official capacity of 3,000 by 1,000 per cent, is rife with violence, disease and a growing sense of helplessness.

Many residents suffer from trauma, medical conditions or a combination of both. But the small medical NGOs in the camp are not equipped to deal with the huge demand, while the local hospital is overwhelmed without the staff or medical facilities to cope with a 20 per cent increase in the island’s population. 

After volunteering for over a year in medical NGOs in the sprawling camp, Canadian Katie Muirhead decided to do something to tackle the health crisis on the island. This month, the project she co-founded, Healthbridge Medical Organisation, will open its doors for the first time, providing on-site urgent care in the camp. Once open the centre will offer primary and secondary care as well as long-term psychological support. By treating minor illnesses early on and catching emergencies before they become “full-blown” emergencies, Maurhead hopes the centre will also alleviate some of the burden on the local hospital. 

“The camp is in an explosive state, and I can say that no one is happy - locals or refugees,” she tells me. “There is no easy solution, and the blame doesn't fall squarely on anyone. With the camp 1,000 per cent over capacity, it is no wonder that tensions are high, medical cases get missed...people are trying as much as they can, but what can they do with a lack of financial support, limited resources and difficult policies?”

Muirhead believes that the new facility will not only benefit the camp’s residents but also the locals of Lesbos. 

“If a Greek person is having a heart attack but the ambulance is in Moria, the Greek person now has to wait longer,” she explains. “We're hoping that by helping refugees through primary and secondary care on-site, we're allowing locals better access to existing health services.”

The hospital is a huge source of contention between locals and refugees. Long waits for appointments, delayed surgeries and slow ambulance arrivals are often blamed on asylum seekers and used as ammunition by the Greek right to whip up anti-refugee sentiment. By alleviating the burden on the local hospital, Muirhead hopes the centre will smooth out some of these tensions.

Muirhead came to Lesbos in 2018 and has volunteered for a number of medical NGOs in the camp since. Although these organisations “have wonderful qualities,”  she says, they simply couldn’t meet the needs of 30,000 people. So she decided to embark on the monumental task of setting up Healthbridge Medical Organisation to fill the camp’s gaping healthcare need. Thanks to her experience setting up a mobile medical clinic in Uganda and her work with NGOs on the ground in Moria, she was able to overcome the logistical nightmare, securing the funding, doctors and volunteers to open the centre’s doors in under six months. 

But the project still needs support to keep it going, hence why HealthBridge Medical Organisation is our campaign of the week. 

The centre is in need of medicines, healthcare professionals with spare time and the means to volunteer as well as donations to keep the vital centre running. 

To learn more, volunteer or donate to Health Bridge Medical Organisation please check out their website at healthbridgemedical.org.