Fighting off the specter of barbarism
MdM-Greece’s Elli Xenou talks about working in war zones where ‘there are no rules’
For more than two years, Doctors of the World Greece (MdM-Greece) have been working relentlessly in Ukraine to help rebuild hospitals and shelters, and provide medical, psychological and material support to locals forced to flee occupied territories amid mines and shelling and the sorrowful sound of sirens.
“The destruction is so massive that one wonders even if the war were to stop tomorrow how long it would take and how much time it would require to rebuild all this,” Elli Xenou, head of MdM-Greece’s international programs, told Kathimerni English Edition, after her return from the northeastern border of Ukraine, in Sumy.
She describes the dire situation experienced by the residents of Sumy and the surrounding areas of Ukraine, about 400 kilometers from Kyiv and just 40 km from the border with Russia.
MdM is currently reconstructing one hospital in the south in Chernivtsi and two hospitals in the north in Sumy. The reconstruction of one of them is in the final stage, but unfortunately the work has frozen because the area is being bombed mercilessly. Fears also linger that they could also be targeted by bombings.
“Unfortunately, we have seen hospitals and schools being targeted, there is no respect for the rules of international humanitarian law,” Xenou said. “The conditions of the war have become brutal, the rules are not being respected and at a time when things are becoming politically polarized, we are worried that we could get dragged back to barbarism.”
At the same time, medical equipment is being provided by MdM to the city’s main hospital, while for places where there are mainly elderly people who cannot move, the organization operates a mobile unit.
But as Xenou stressed, the damage is mainly psychological.
‘You have to deal with a threat that comes from the sky. You never know if the bomb will fall near or far’
“We deal with people who are war veterans, because Ukrainians put the beginning of the war at 2014; they see this only as the latest escalation. Ten years of insecurity, displacement, pressure of an uncertain future have taken a serious toll on their mental health,” she said. “The feeling you get when the siren goes off, many times a day. You have to deal with a threat that comes from the sky. You never know if the bomb will fall near or far.”
One of the communities Xenou visited was bombed five minutes after the team left. MdM is investing in the training of locals as health professionals, as most of the cases they deal with are people reacting to abnormal situations, rather than people that need serious medical assistance.
Forgotten crisis
This is MdM-Greece’s first long-term mission abroad since 2010 and the Greek financial crisis.
“Since 2010 Greece’s position in the world and the situation internally has changed,” said Xenou. “So the priority of the organization during this period has been focused on the needs created internally both because of the financial crisis and the refugee crisis that still plagues us.”
The effects of the war in Ukraine have been ongoing for two years even though the cameras tend to forget. Xenou says that the response of the Greeks has been overwhelming at the beginning of every crisis, but unfortunately, when the cameras are turned off, the crisis tends to be forgotten. “Ukraine is not in the spotlight at the moment and we also recognize that in Greece things are still difficult and support from people cannot continue nonstop,” she said, adding that MdM is working on building partnerships with other international organizations to carry on funding its operations.
Gaza
MdM is active in the area and provides some humanitarian aid in Gaza, but the space left to international organizations for access is very narrow and the situation is alarming. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC scale) used to measure the phenomenon, there has never been a record of such a large percentage of the population in such an extreme state of hunger.
“In Gaza, the situation has overtaken us. There is minimum humanitarian space,” said Xenou.
“Today’s conflicts are out of control. I was already involved in projects during the war in Iraq, which was a very bloody one, but what we are facing now is way more complex, the technology is more complex and there are no rules.”
