Sometimes it’s the little things in life that have the biggest impact on the world. This past week, we’ve experienced these small acts firsthand; not only through our own service, but through learning about the roles that various organizations play in aiding refugees. Today, we visited one such organization, called Praksis. An NGO, Praksis receives no funding for its programs, but seeks to provide medical, social, career, and psychological services for those in the Athens area who are unable to provide for themselves. After a long ride into the city from Glyfada, we finally arrived at an unmarked, well-loved building. Naturally, there was a spiral staircase we had to ascend in order to reach the offices—the Greeks have a strange love of spiral staircases that I don’t quite understand. We piled into a room with a few desks and sat for about and hour and listened to Maria, Praksis’ resident psychologist, tell us about the main purposes of the organization. She surprised many of us with her extensive knowledge about the refugee application process and problems facing both the EU and the asylum seekers. Later today, we had a surprise service project working with a sea turtle rehabilitation center. It. Was. Great. And it was exactly the kind of mellow service we needed after a long and tiring week.
-McCauley Williams
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