
“What are all these people becoming?”
Valia Savvidou, Communications Manager
The people whom we see on the street are helpless, those we hear about who are burdened, others whose stories make us say “but can this happen?”, “how many misfortunes in one person”?
But then we go on with our own life, which also has its difficulties, even if it is much better and we are much more privileged than our fellow man. Are we apathetic? Seconds we show a safe compassion and then forget, or is life smarter, in its speed and violence, that we are forced into this behavior?
All, probably. Life happens, is fast and each person tries their best, as they mean it. But there are also the inherent oddities, the apparent deviations of a world that moves but at varying speeds, not the same for everyone, and certainly not such as to drive everyone forward. On the contrary, in too many cases speed translates into an ever-worsening situation, a situation that holds people back, or at best stagnant.
Where one is born, whether one is brought up in democratic or non-democratic conditions – family and social -, whether where one grows up has access to basic goods for human existence, whether one has access to human fundamentals, is decisive.
And yet, the man always fights it, even if he scores zero in all the above. He thinks, he dreams, he leaves, he emigrates, he looks for a better life. And what else can he do? It is up to inconceivable to the human mind that man can pause – give up any effort to exist, improve and evolve. He cannot stop. I wonder if he stopped, how would things be? There would probably be no things to wonder about. There would be nothing. This article would not be written either, there would be no object of reflection, no need to make sense of a non-existent life.
So, what are all these people doing in a world that is running at breakneck speed and in an age that does not seem to accept quiet, healthy reflection, attention, concentration, focus and almost demands that we be mostly happy, content and show it?
Our fellow human beings in need are left behind by this world and its times. It seems as if they are not part of them, but they are, and importantly so. And it is evident that the increase in the number of vulnerable people is very large and inversely proportional to the hysterical intensity of the climate of euphoria that is socially sought.
And this is where the human being comes in again. The one who is in a more advantageous position than the other but cares.
Perhaps it is one’s duty to ensure that no one is left behind; for our position in the world is not fixed and given. That is why caring and practical solidarity with our fellow human beings is the right way, the central avenue for moving from the individual to the collective, from our small world to the big one, to the one that includes everyone, cares for them, accepts them, stands by them. This is also the world of the so-called Civil Society – some people who, on their own initiative, have created groups and organized communities to support their fellow human beings in need.
The above, possibly utopian, one might say (but why not after all?!), is what drives SolidarityNow’s work, which has found a way to make it tangible through the Solidarity Centers it created a few years ago, precisely for this purpose. To stand by people and their needs, to listen to them, to give them a voice, hope, perspective and solutions. To leave no one behind.
The work of the Centers is enormous compared to the years of their operation. Admittedly difficult years for Greece and the whole world, but still the work is extremely important. And just as behind the work of any important Civil Society organisation there are not only impressive numbers, so too at SolidarityNow the lives of our fellow human beings that are being changed are impressive.
And now, as this article is being written at the Athens Solidarity Center, we find the files of the last 20 days of the Social Service, and we read the stories of seven people and the things that make you wonder “how many more misfortunes”. And yet in the results section of the stories things are promising for all seven people! Their lives have changed within the Center, they have found the support they needed, “they were not left behind”.
Greeks, migrants, refugees were supported, and they are succeeding! Their lives seem not to end, obstacles seem not to halt them, but to be a new beginning.
Maybe something can finally be done for all the people in need, if we work and care about it. And maybe that’s because we all need the concern of others, especially in our time of need. So, let’s not leave anyone behind, let’s find our common ground, which is far more numerous than our differences. Let’s try.