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Four students from the University of New England’s College of Osteopathic Medicine and Westbrook College of Health Professions spent their spring break providing aid to refugees fleeing violence in the Middle East.

Tyler Haddad (COM ’19), Emma Mason (COM ’20), Samantha Grela ’19 and Meghan Dahlquist ‘19 traveled to Greece with Jennifer Gunderman, M.P.H., ɫ����Ƶ assistant lecturer, who has been an active volunteer staff member for the organization Carry the Future for more than a year.  

Since the start of the crisis, Carry the Future has been providing support to refugees arriving in Greece. Since countries’ borders have closed and thousands of refugees have been forced to settle in Greece rather than other parts of Europe where they were originally going, the work of Carry the Future has been focused on supporting on-the-ground organizations working in the Greek refugee camps.

While in Greece, the students provided and distributed aid and supplies as well as assisting in the camps. They taught classes for children, renovated classrooms and worked in the gardens. Grela says she wishes more people could understand the perspective she and her fellow students have on the crisis.

“They’re just looking for a better life, and I don’t understand how we can be not humane enough to understand that and care about them. I just wish people cared more.”

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