Cultural mediator Myriam has been working for MSF / Doctors Without Borders on Lesbos, where people who have made the crossing to Greece from Turkey are forced to live in crowded camps. She explains how offering healthcare allows people living in extremely tough circumstances to once again "feel human"...

"After surviving war, violence and the dangerous crossing from Turkey, many refugees and migrants find themselves trapped on the Greek islands. On Lesbos, where I am working as a cultural mediator with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), most people are sent to an EU-funded camp called Moria.

"More and more people arrive in Lesbos every day and are sent to register at Moria. Forty percent of new arrivals are children and 23% are women.

"As the winter months were rolling in, children were more vulnerable to catching illnesses and infections due to the combination of worsening weather and bad living conditions. In advance, MSF established a specialized clinic for children.

"Many parents tell me the only reason they left their countries behind was to provide a better life for their children; they are terribly concerned for their health.

"From my conversations with parents I feel that the future of their children is one of the few hopes they have. They haven’t had control over a lot of what has happened to them over the past few years but being able to come to our clinic and get healthcare for their children allows them to regain some sense of control.

"One Afghani woman told us, 'I finally felt treated as a human again.'"

Read the full article about caring for refugee children in Greece by Myriam Abdel-Basit at Doctors Without Borders.