Here is an update on the life-saving work you’ve already done. Please come back tomorrow, 5/3 at 10AM to be part of the biggest miracle yet!
Friends, it’s time to update you on The Compassion Collective and our work to care for refugees in Europe. All the stories you are about to read — stories about the lives saved, the people fed, the shelter given—they can only be told because of you. You are the ones doing this. The gratitude that everyone connected with this work has for you is without measure.
The situation for our refugees is worse now than it was in the fall. Borders have closed. Food is running out. Babies are dying. Parents are desperate. The evil the refugees are running from is real and it remains. When you look at the videos and the pictures you are about to see, please remember that these are people like us who once had homes and jobs, whose children went to school, who had dreams of the future and who desperately want to go home. This is what the refugees are saying—The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was leave my country. I wish more than anything I had a home to bring my children back to.
We are strong enough to handle this. Let us remember what we know: We Can Do Hard Things and There is No Such Thing as Other People’s Children. We can look straight at this crisis and not look away, because bringing light into darkness is what we were made to do. We were born for this.
Ok, here we go. Here is your report about what you are doing:
A few weeks ago, we received the second proposal for funding from Help Refugees. Along with the detailed proposal was a note from Dani saying she knew the amount requested was incredibly high and we wouldn’t have the whole amount. Regardless, this is what was needed to save lives for the next few months. Amy and I read the proposal and then forwarded it on to the Together Rising team, along with a link the video below.
Sister watched the video, looked into the faces of the little ones, saw herself reflected in the eyes of these parents, and, within minutes, wrote back to the team with this prayer:
Oh lord God, be with those families and babies being beaten back in the rain like cattle. Give them strength and peace and relief and please work a miracle to let them find compassion and mercy. Thank you for giving us a way to serve them. Magnify in us the fire and resolve to not forget them and the connections we need to help them in bigger and bigger ways. Bless Dani and her team and give them courage and resolve and protect the tenderness of their hearts while they walk through this evil.
Liz Book, brilliant board member and a lawyer with a keen eye for details and a constant carefulness about numbers, also responded within the hour. “Nothing in this proposal is optional. This is about saving lives. We need to fund all of it.”
We sent this information on to the team that makes up The Compassion Collective—Brené Brown, Cheryl Strayed, Rob Bell and Elizabeth Gilbert. Every single one of them—every single one of this blindingly brilliant crew—stopped what they were doing to respond within hours. It wasn’t even a question. Yes. We will send this money. Of course this is what we must do.
Then Allison, our steady, strong treasurer, a woman with a heart two miles deep who keeps everything running, sent us this message:
Help Refugees wrote to us that they needed $714,108.00 for their most pressing needs and additional projects. By the end of yesterday, the exact amount The Compassion Collective had available was $713,002.98. Just shy of exactly what is needed at this time. By the end of the week, we’ll be right there. We will have enough. EXACTLY enough.
We funded all of it. YOU funded all of it. It is loaves and fishes up in here.
When we called Dani to tell her that we wanted to fully fund their proposal, we asked her— How did you know what to ask for? Did you know how much we had in the account? Dani just started to cry. No, she said, of course not. We know how much you’re doing…we never dreamed you would have the funds for all of this. You don’t understand, you just don’t understand what this means. You’ll never know how many lives you will save, how many people you are keeping alive.
Our little offerings are being turned into enough. We had a hunch that small things with great love could save lives. We were right.
Here is your proof:
SMALL THINGS WITH GREAT LOVE ARE FEEDING THE HUNGRY
This is a moving crisis, and we are moving with it. In France and on the Greek islands and in Athens and Idomeni, we are keeping people alive. There are thousands of people trapped on the closed border of Macedonia. The Greek Interior Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis said conditions in Idomeni, where more than 12,000 refugees currently live, are comparable to concentration camps. (Source) Greece is trying to help by opening more camps and asking grassroots organizations like the ones we’re funding to step in and provide life-saving care.
Our contacts on the ground tell us that as you walk around the camps in Greece, you can’t help but be struck by two things: One, the number of refugees with limbs missing or in wheelchairs—evidence that people are running from the atrocities of war. And two, the sheer number of women and children. They report kids running everywhere, using sticks or rocks as toys because that’s all they have.
In these hard to reach areas, we, through Help Refugees, are providing life-saving, critical assistance. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, says this, “Help Refugees is on the ground in Europe providing much needed support for refugees…In a time when the need is stark UNHCR commends their great efforts.” The Compassion Collective (YOU) have become a crucial part of this worldwide web of love warriors responding to one of the worst humanitarian crises the world has ever seen. The world is changed and healed not by the wise or the rich or the righteous – but by those who SHOW UP.
Skipchen, the mobile food kitchen we’ve been supporting, sent a team to Idomeni to set up a food program there, and the amazing team at Hot Food Idomeni are continuing this operation. WE ARE CURRENTLY FEEDING 6,500 PEOPLE A DAY. We’re providing people with meals, hot tea, fresh fruit, and soon, monthly family food parcels.
There are no materials for cooking in the camps — people are using plastic bottles to heat water over a fire. Through another partner, Lighthouse, we’ll be distributing Kitchen Kits so that people can cook safely at their tents.
Photo: Hot Food Idomeni
Photo: Skipchen
Photo: Help Refugees
SMALL THINGS WITH GREAT LOVE ARE SHELTERING THE HOMELESS
There are approximately 10,000 missing children in Europe right now, and 26,000 unaccompanied refugee minors — these are young children and teens who have been orphaned or separated from their parents. We’re continuing to support the organization called Skipchen as they expand into Athens and work to house these lost, afraid, parentless babies of ours.
In Indomeni, 65% of the refugee population are women and children. Our teams are reporting their utter shock at the number of pregnant women, babies and teenage girls. There, we’re supporting a man named Aslam Obaid. Help Refugees tells us that Aslam is one of the most awe-inspiring people they’ve ever met. A former aid worker with the Red Crescent (the Red Cross), he arrived in Lesvos as a Syrian refugee himself last September. Rather than get to safety, he decided to stay and assist his fellow refugees. In Greece, he assessed the situation and saw that the border would be the place most likely to have the greatest needs, so he traveled there and begin to set up operations. Now living and working out of a run-down hotel lobby, he coordinates the entire independent volunteer movement across Idomeni. We’re providing Aslam and his volunteers with tents and blankets, pallets to raise tents out of the mud, hygiene kits, diapers, and baby carriers.
A field of tents in Idomeni:
Photo: Aslam Obaid
A shelter team, working with children to put up tents:
Photo: Martin Trabalik
A raised tent platform, built to keep this little family off the ground:
SMALL THINGS WITH GREAT LOVE ARE CARING FOR THE SICK AND IN DANGER
Greece’s Ministry of Migration has asked the medical organization Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) to be the medical provider in the newly opened camps. Médecins du Monde has asked us to partner with them to make this happen. They requested a highly specified mobile clinic, so that is exactly what we have provided for them.
Our official mobile clinic – you did this.
A team of 10 clinicians is now driving between camps to care for people. In additional to caring for the sick, we’re also providing care for pregnant women and new moms. This mobile clinic will move across the camps and serve more than half of the refugees there with essential and vital services. Women are giving birth in tents, and right now we are the only ones there providing reproductive health services and prenatal care.
Here’s a picture of a little one they delivered, the first baby known to be born in Idomeni.
That’s our baby. Wrapped up, warm, safe. This is what hope looks like.
Photo: Medecin du Monde
In addition to Médecins du Monde, Lighthouse’s trained volunteers are providing care for the sick and injured in camps in Idomeni. In January we purchase a portable medical tent for them, one they could set up exactly where they needed it most and they have moved it to the border.
On Sunday, April 10, we got an emergency text from Dani. Refugees at the border were being tear-gassed. Families couldn’t escape the gas and babies couldn’t breathe. Contacts on the ground were sending Help Refugees minute-by-minute reports as Lighthouse treated children for tear gas related injuries.
Photo: Associated Foreign Press
I know. But let us not say: I can’t look at this. It’s just too much. That is not true. It is not too much for us. It is too much to be them, but it is not too much to look at them. Please look and remember that if that was our little girl (and it is) we would want good-hearted people to draw close and help—not to look away. We will not look away. We will not protect our own hearts: we will work to protect our human family. 
And we will remember that we were there with them that day, just as we are there with them now. We are helping those babies breathe.
You may remember that our last round of funding focused on Lesvos, and the people coming in on the boats. As the situation worsens, people are still attempting to cross the water and the arriving refugees are more desperate. Their boats are flimsy and overfilled. In a three-day period, our partners assisted 25 boats and helped get 1200 people safely to land. We are continuing to work in Lesvos. We will continue to support Starfish by funding their volunteer program, and we are providing the funds to operate a rescue boat run by Refugee Rescue.
Photo: Refugee Rescue
SMALL THINGS WITH GREAT LOVE BRING THE LIGHT
There are so, so many mamas and babies in these camps, you guys. So many little families. So many vulnerable boys and girls. We are working to reach them.
“This is a group of children that Lighthouse assisted at the informal camp at BP station, a few kilometers away from Idomeni. The small camp is relatively forgotten, and Lighthouse Relief partnered with two doctors who specialise in infant feeding and psychology to support them in feeding and caring for their babies in this emergency context. We went tent by tent to individually consult with each mother, and provide her with feminine hygiene products, breastfeeding support, baby products and cups safe for feeding their little ones. In addition to this initial support, we followed up on each child to ensure that they had all the care that they needed.” —Lighthouse Relief
Through Lighthouse, we’re funding a Mother and Baby Space. We’re providing midwifery care, nutrition counseling and family planning. We’re also funding their Child Friendly Spaces and Safety Committees—places where children can play and do educational activities. This is similar to the Youth Center and Women’s and Children’s Center we continue to fund in Calais—places for children to go to play and be children again, for women to go to rest and receive care and treatment in a restful, loving environment.
Remember Ahmed, our little friend from the Women and Children’s Center who used his smart brain and small phone save himself and his companions in a container truck?
“I need help driver no stop car no oxygen in the car…I am not joking.”
Without your funds: Ahmed would not have had that little phone. Without that phone, Ahmed and the rest of the people in that truck with have died. He would never have been reunited with his Mama Liz. YOU DID THAT. That 7-year-old little boy is alive because of you.
Finally — and I think this may be my favorite project — we’re supporting a volunteer named Alison Thompson and her campaign called #IGIVELIGHT. Alison runs a network called Third Wave Volunteers, and she is working to bringing solar lights to refugees living in tents. This project is incredibly important, especially for the vulnerable women and children who are in complete darkness in the nighttime. She tells us that with the lights the children do not feel so scared anymore.
We’ve provided them with 1000 lights, and this is what Alison has to tell us:
“The camp has over 20,000 people in it and is pitch black at night so these solar lights have been a number one need. I wish I could transport you there to show you the refugees faces lighting up in hope as we pass them out along with a big hug of love. The 1000 solar lights were given to one per a family of 5 and over 5000 refugees were helped. Your donation directly brought light and love to our fellow humans.”
This is a time lapse video of our lights being given out in the camp. Here we are.
We are light bearers, my friends. It is so very dark, but we are showing up, and
we are bringing the light for our sisters and brothers and babies. What else are we here for, but to bring each other light?
Please, gather your people and get ready for next Tuesday, May 3. We are not done. We will not rest until they can rest. We are going to need a whole Love Warrior Army to stand with us next week.
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all the lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien
Author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller LOVE WARRIOR — ORDER HERE
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51 Comments
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Your blog post was such a delightful read. You have a way of presenting even the most mundane topics with a spark that makes them feel important.
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This narrative showcases how dedicated individuals can come together to make a significant impact in times of crisis.
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Thank you for sharing the information.
The blog post on Momastery speaks to the power of collective compassion and the impact it can have on the world, reminding us that together, we can make a difference in the lives of others.
In a similar way, the Slope game brings people together through shared challenges and the joy of overcoming them. It’s a game that not only tests your skills but also offers a sense of community as players strive to beat their high scores and support each other in the pursuit of excellence. It’s a beautiful blend of competition and camaraderie.
Keep your children mental health safe, it is crucial nowadays.
Thank you for this powerful update on The Compassion Collective’s work. My heart aches for the refugees, facing such unimaginable hardship and loss. It’s easy to lose sight of the individual human stories amidst the overwhelming statistics, but you bring their plight to life with heartbreaking clarity.
The camp has over 20,000 people in it and is pitch black at night so these solar lights have been a number one need. I wish I could transport you there to show you the refugees faces lighting up
Heardle is a website that lets you play a musical guessing game. It is based on Wordle, the viral word-guessing game, but with songs instead of words. You have to listen to a short snippet of a song and try to guess its title and artist. You only get one second of the song at first, but you get more seconds with each guess. You have six tries to get it right, and the faster you guess, the better your score.
I think what you did here is amazing. Saving lives and spreading inspiration to the average folk at the same time. Keep it up!
This post was so difficult for me to write that I nearly kneeled. So many hurting individuals. So many young people in need. So many hearts that are brittle. Nevertheless, I find so much hope in your efforts and in your sincere nature. You manage to cut through the clutter and share these people’s hearts. What an advantage!
Your blog material is excellent; thank you. This post made me happy to read, so thank you for sharing it. Reading the shorter essays and discussing the writers’ intentions is something I do frequently.
Having participated in similar projects, I can assure you that the logistics make material donations—no matter how well-intended they may be—really taxing on the volunteer effort. Money is the finest donation since it is used the most effectively for emergency/foreign help. BUT! Find out where the local free store, homeless outreach center, and crisis pregnancy center are. Your warmth and kindness will be such a blessing to the mamas and babies around.
I have been begun a journey of seeking what’s in my heart and allowing me to follow it. Marie Foleo has been a huge help for me. I simply haven’t seen good being done until I actively seeked it out. It has lead me to now here wanting to learn here and allow my heart to continue to decide and I faithfully follow
Well, my comment will be “thank you” for your offers and prayers. I live in Greece, very very close to Eidomeni. I haven’t really helped the refugees but some close friends of mine, my sister including have and I’m sure thay have met some of your people. It’s an unbelievable ministry for people who are suffering and have been suffering for a very long time now. Some of the refugees have been taken to some houses. Of course, that can’t solve the problem but every little helps, right? Your prayers for a solution to be found is priceless.
So, once again, “thank you” on behalf of all those people….
I really like what you said about “it is too much to be them, but not to look at them.” I lost my job two months ago and was the primary breadwinner for our family. I have been trying to save money but will absolutely find something to go without this week/month so we can donate to this worthy cause. Thank you for bringing it to us.
#714 is brother and my number. It started out as a reminder of our youth when the Quaalude was a popular drug. Oh, the grace! If by chance the number came up on the clock, etc. we say a Hail Mary in gratitude for new life in Christ and as a prayer for others. Same number, from darkness to light… Satan is not original. He can only take what God has created and twist it.
Then, one day, I noticed Isaiah Ch. 7:14.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign;* the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son, shall name him Emmanuel.” Of course, I thought.
I’ll be here on May 3rd! This ministry is so Mother Theresa. She is up for canonization in September! That is saint with a capital “S”, not like I with a small s. But I can and do aspire. Consider her as an intercessor as well as the Blessed Mother who cares very deeply for all mothers and families and does not cease to intercede on our behalf.
God bless and strengthen you all. Love, Michelle
Glennon,
I could barely make it through this post without falling on my knees. So many hurting people. So many desperate children. So many hardened hearts. And yet, I find so much hope in your work and in your open heart. You find a way to cut through the noise and share the heart of these people. What a blessing!!!
As I was sitting in my warm home this morning I realized that although I don’t have much to give, there is something that I do have. I have tons of baby clothes – slightly used but warm and clean and dry. And every mom I know has bags of the same thing, clothes our kiddo’s have outgrown that have no real place to go. So here is what I want to know – is there a way to make these bags of clothing matter? Can we donate? Would it help?
Thank you for your open heart.
Having worked in similar efforts, I assure you that the logistics involved make goods donations, no matter how lovingly intentioned, really burdensome to the volunteer effort. Money is the best donation for emergency/foreign relief because it is the most efficiently used. BUT! Find out where the crisis pregnancy center/homeless outreach/free store in your town is. Mamas and babies near you will be so blessed by your love and kindness.
There have been times in my life where I have just cried and prayed that I was sorry; sorry to God that I was alive and these terrible things were happening as part of my history…and then there is this…people helping people…the love revolution, people helping other people, one at a time…TOGETHER… Beautiful. Today my prayer is not only thankful for my beautiful family and home, but thankful that part of my history is this love revolution… Thank you, Glennon, for getting it rolling…
As always, Glennon, thank you. I shared this post on my FB wall asking everyone to please read it, contribute $5, and ask all of their friends and loved ones to do the same…read, contribute, share, and keep it going. I’m hoping for tiny ripples that eventually create a tsunami of giving.
Today has been a day of many feels, both good and bad. Thank you thank you for sharing this good. My heart has been hurting and reading about my worldly family getting help is a balm on my soul.
Every month when I get the reoccurring PayPal notice of our donation for Together Rising, I smile. It’s not much but it’s more than we gave last year. Baby steps, right?
God bless you all, my sisters and families of this earth. I am humbled to belong to you.
May 3rd is my 42nd birthday Glennon…the first day of my 43rd year hear on this brutiful Earth. I can not think of a better way to spend it than this. Thank you. love. peace. grace. amen.
Can’t wait to see what WE (and GOD) do(es) on May 3! I have to stop reading Momastery during my lunch at work. Crying at my desk is frowned upon!
My heart hurts so much watching the first video and reading about all of the need. I know we are helping, and I will keep donating. I so often just wish I could do more. More, more, more. Why do those poor babies and families have to experience so much pain? I will be there (here) next Tuesday with you, G, and I will be inviting all of my family and friends.
Your work is incredible and inspiring but you should be careful what you write for your ignorance of history is astonishing in comparing these refugee camps to nazi concentration camps. Unless there are soldiers systematically murdering tens of thousands of people daily by gassing and burning them, as terrible as the conditions are in these camps they are not like Nazi concentration camps. The comparison is offensive and ignorant.
Shira, Just a friendly heads up that Glennon was quoting an official from Greece. He made the comparison, not Glennon.
Well said
Hi Shira,
I totally hear the spirit of what you’re saying because nonchalant comparisons to Nazi concentration camps should certainly be avoided. (And, oh my goodness, they are way to common on the internet. I respect that you call that out when you see it.) However, I just want to point out that the comparison was not Glennon’s. It was a Greek government official (Panagiotis Kouroublis) who has argued that they are similar, and his quote has been picked up by media outlets in general (The Guardian, for instance). That’s why she says, “The Greek Interior Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis said conditions in Idomeni, where more than 12,000 refugees currently live, are comparable to Nazi concentration camps.” I think her point is not to create a historical parallel but rather to point out that when *government officials* go on record with such hyperbolic statements, we should probably accept that conditions are desperately bad. It sounds like you really want to be making the case that the Greek Interior Minister Panagiotis is the “ignorant” one.
Well said!
Glennon didn’t say that. She quoted someone on the ground in the affected areas who said it.
Yes to all of it. This is why we are born human. To love, to assist, to care for one another.
Looking forward to crying again next week.
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
This is my favorite prayer… this is you. This is US. It is the most beautiful example of prayer in action. Thank you for showing us what people don’t want to see… what they want to look away from. You make me want to do MORE. You make me want to be MORE INVOLVED. You make me want to move to Florida and join your team! I feel like I belong there….. in a sea of uncertainty and questions and fear, you always remind me of what is real — what is important. There are no words to adequately say thank you. I am here, with all the rest of these amazing warriors, ready to console, understand, sow love, bring faith, hope, light and joy. I am here. And I am ready. Show us how.
Beautifully stated, Jamie. The St. Francis prayer perfectly sums up the selfless work required to tend to needs of these innocent victims of war and hatred. I believe that Glennon & the others are helping us all to do God’s work as we contribute to this vital work.
Happy to have a chance to give again!
Perfect example of giving that really matters. There was a segment on CBS Sunday Morning about giving that is waste, not because of the heart felt givers but the not knowing what is really needed or helpful. With the people on the ground who know what is needed, contributions can have the impact intended. (Example of not helpful was over 60,000 teddy bears sent to Sandy Hook) and shipping bottled water costing over $300,000 when funding of a purification system producing the same amount of pure water would cost $300. Nothing wrong with the hearts, just not knowing how best to proceed.
Thank you so so much for working so hard and sharing this with us all. The crisis is so huge and yet you/ we can do something to help which makes such a real difference. I will share and share this, and look forward to May 3rd to see how we can help. Much love xxx
every time I see what you are doing, what we are doing, I share it with my world and then I see them sharing it with theirs. you have cracked my heart open so many times. thank you for reminding me of what is possible.
I said it to you when you bravely spoke out against gun violence on FB and I’ll keep saying it to you because it is true… You were born for this.
You have broken my heart today again – it needed to be (more) broken today.
I will show up, and I will drag as many along with me as is possible.
This is what I am supposed to be doing – if you have a place for me, a task for me, please – ask ANYTHING of me. If it is within my power I will do it!
I will never forget the Somali baby fully wrapped in white cloth that had died in the night who was now in my arms with her father pleading to me that she must be buried by the afternoon but the vehicle in Kakuma refugee camp was out of petrol and could I help? I am glad I can still help, even by providing the small financial assistance my own family can now afford. We can do hard things…
Oh. With the tears and the smiling and the freaking hope. Thanks for that big ol’ feeling tsunami, getting me ready to roll up my sleeves and get my love on next Tuesday.
I read this and a little part of me dies inside. This world can be so cruel and it is beyond heartbreaking to imagine what these children, (and yes they are OUR children) are enduring. And their Mamas, oh their poor, scared, helpless Mamas, what it must be like to watch your babies suffer?!
I want to get on the next plane. I want to stand on the shores and pull the little ones off of boats. I want to have warm soup waiting and hand out lights. I want to set up the tents and pass out the blankets and HOLD those babies that wander the street with no parents. I want to do more.
Until I can find a way to make that happen I will continue to give all I can to you and The Compassion Collective and I will be thankful for the opportunity to do so. Thank you Glennon for including us. Thank you for helping us reach those we can’t reach ourselves. Thank you for believing that we can do hard things and for waking up every.single.day and doing them. Thank you for shedding light where there is only darkness and love where there is so much hate. You are a warrior and I am so proud to stand by your side while you fight. Love wins.
Yes, to all of this. Exactly this. With all the love across the miles.
Thank you, Lisa, for putting into words what my heart was feeling but my head wasn’t able to do. I want to leave work and go hug my children right now. It’s so easy to get lost in our day-to-day routines, to forget that situations like these exist, and what a slap in the face to see them on my computer screen this morning. I’m proud to be a part of this amazing group, and while Glennon has no idea who I am, and neither do you, I’m proud to call each of you my friend.
Likewise Sister, we are all in this together.
Lisa, exactly this. I want to help these precious, innocent families. Until I can, I will pray for them.
YES!
This. Me, too.