I am delighted to share that Dentons won the LawWorks Pro Bono Award for
our pro bono initiative supporting a refugee legal clinic at Moria Refugee
Camp, in Lesvos, Greece. Since I volunteered at the legal clinic in its early
days in 2017, it has grown to an award-winning collaboration encompassing seven
law firms—Dentons; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; White & Case;
Ashurst; Allen & Overy; Charles Russell Speechlys—and the NGO, European
Lawyers in Lesvos (ELIL).
My experience of working with refugees, who toiled for weeks
or even months to reach the gateway to Europe from Syria, Iraq and other
war-torn countries, was moving on many fronts. These refugees landed on the
shores of Lesvos after fleeing from the most atrocious crimes of the
twenty-first century, including genocide, torture, sexual slavery and other war
crimes.
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| I am joined in this photo by ELIL project lawyers and translators. |
Read more about this award-winning project at: https://www.dentons.com/en/whats-different-about-dentons/connecting-you-to-talented-lawyers-around-the-globe/news/2020/december/dentons-wins-lawworks-pro-bono-award-for-the-greece-pro-bono-collaborative#:~:text=London%E2%80%94Dentons%20has%20won%20%22Best,NGO%2C%20European%20Lawyers%20in%20Lesvos%20(
After returning from the legal clinic run by ELIL, I drafted
a dispatch reflecting on the challenges that refugees fleeing conflict face
upon their arrival to the shores of Europe and outlining ways to assist them
and the humanitarian community, which is overwhelmed by the needs of refugees on the island of Lesvos.
There are not enough doctors, lawyers, protection officers, search and rescue
teams and first aid volunteers to address the needs of refugees that land on the
island every day. There is no shortage of organizations that seek staff and
volunteers to assist with their ever-growing caseloads. To learn more about how
to get involved, read my dispatch at http://www.zambakari.org/middle-east/dispatch-from-moria-refugee-camp-a-crisis-within-a-crisis.
Let us not turn a blind eye to the suffering of refugees. Let
us instead reaffirm our common humanity. In joining refugees in rebuilding
their lives and reclaiming their dreams, we restore their hope and revive their
faith in the future. Let us work together towards a world where hope overcomes
all things.
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