By now most people are aware of how treacherous the journey to safety is for refugees trying to get to Europe.
Oftentimes, refugees squeeze onto frail boats with hundreds of other refugees without food or water. Many of these boats capsize, get captured or have to turn around. Last year, more than 3,695 refugees died during this journey.
One of the main destinations for these sea vessels is Greece, specifically the island of Lesbos. More than 500,000 refugees arrived on the island in 2015 alone, and most of them then traveled north toward other European countries.
There are countless stories of refugees flailing for the rocky shore, gasping for air and collapsing from fatigue as they arrive. Most of them have worn the bright orange life jacket that has become a quintessentially mixed symbol of the refugee crisis. On the one hand, it represents security and the possibility of rescue. On the other, it represents a futile attempt at survival in a sometimes hostile world.
On New Year's day, volunteers from Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders and other local aid groups tried to remove any ambivalence from the jackets, turning them into an unequivocal symbol of hope.
The volunteers gathered more than 3,000 discarded lifejackets and created an enormous symbol of peace, resting on the face of a hill overlooking the shores of Lesbos.
The @MSF@Greenpeace team & the #Lesvos volunteers are using the 1000s of discarded lifejackets to send a message pic.twitter.com/QClYy78BSf
— MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) January 1, 2016Upon arriving, refugees see the bright orange peace sign and are invited to hope for a better future.
The volunteers intend for the gesture to go beyond the shores.
By creating an enormous peace sign, they hope to get the attention of broader Europe, reminding leaders both of the plight of the refugees and the duty of peaceful countries to protect those victimized around the world.
This is an ingenious example of hope triumphing over despair.
The life jackets had been piling up in a nearby dump, just wasting away. And now they're on full display for the world, outliving their original purpose and projecting the ultimate global citizen ideal of peace. But this hope and peace can only be fulfilled if countries step up to bring the refugees to safety.
You can show your support of refugees by making Global Goal 16: Peace and Justice, your New Year's resolution in TAKE ACTION NOW.