Lars and I (Christiane) spent the first two weeks of July as volunteers in Kara Tepe. We had signed up with Latra, because the organisation was looking for people who would be able to do child activities and help with easy construction work, that needed no special skills - also if only for the 2 weeks we had available.

During our time at Kara Tepe Lars assisted an other Organisation (Moving on the Ground) putting up shading for the living containers of the refugees. This work was valued and supported by Latra.

I organized child activities on the Kara Tepe premises. This needed some organising and creativity skills in the beginning, but we managed to get activities going and reached out to quite a few children in the camp, especially those, who were not involved in other activities yet. I was happy to hear later, that the project we started is growing and also led to the improvement of the playground on the premises. This was also organized by Latra volunteers.

Latra as an organisaton is and has been working in Kara Tepe for quite a while, finding ways to support the people staying there and improving their time spent there. In order to do this, they invite - and are trying to use - ideas and creativity of the volunteers. For the - mostly very young - volunteers this is a wonderful chance to connect to the Refugees and bring in their very own ideas. However, the developement of new ideas may sometimes need time and discussion, so this organisation might not be suited best for people, who just want to get work done. While we were there. I watched a writing workshop for girls, a playground project, a recycling project grow an new ideas developed. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication in the group, when we arrived, but this was addressed and solved. We recommend Latra for people, who are open for knew ideas and bring in their creativity.

We can understand that some people are not completely happy with the process and do get frustrated, but this is also part of allowing new ideas and inviting everybody to contribute. The process is sometimes cumbersome and slow as it also involved attaining permission from Latra management as well as from camp management.

We have not experienced discriminating and abusive behaviour of Latra managment, which other persons have claimed to have occurred at the same time we were part of the Latra volunteer group. We have discussed a number of the personal conflicts in the entire group and have experienced Latra (and Aris specifically) to be sensitive and professional in this context.

We also enjoyed some positive group activities, organized by Latra (Aris) going to a beach or having a mutual lunch together.

Christiane Wiegels, Director of a preschool

Lars Hendrik Wiegels, Insurance Manager, both in Frankfurt, Germany