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EXODUS: A WOULD YOU BELIEVE? SPECIAL

Valerie Cox in Leros, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special Image Name: Valerie Cox in Leros, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special Description: Valerie Cox in Leros, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special
Valerie Cox and her son Eoin,  Exodus: Would You Believe? Special Image Name: Valerie Cox and her son Eoin, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special Description: Valerie Cox and her son Eoin, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special
Valerie Cox, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special Image Name: Valerie Cox, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special Description: Valerie Cox, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special
Valerie Cox in Leros, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special Image Name: Valerie Cox in Leros, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special Description: Valerie Cox in Leros, Exodus: Would You Believe? Special

 

EXODUS: A WOULD YOU BELIEVE? SPECIAL

 

It’s one of the biggest news stories of our time, and the worst humanitarian crisis in the history of the world – Refugees fleeing war and poverty in Syria, crossing the sea in tiny boats, looking for the safety of Europe, many losing their lives on the way.
Valerie Cox saw the news reports like everyone else and was frustrated with the lack of leadership and moved by the plight of the refugees. Like so many, she was heartbroken at the sight of the body of a small boy washed up on a Turkish beach. That was the moment that Valerie, her husband Brian and their adult son Eoin, couldn’t sit back and do nothing, they had to do something to help.

 

In January of this year they traveled to the Greek Island of Kos to help the refugees who arrive in their hundreds – cold, hungry and wet, on tiny dinghies, across the Aegean Sea.

 

In this documentary, we follow Valerie Cox and her family as they spend a week helping refugees. We see them sit up all night on the beach, waiting for the refugees to arrive. In the darkness the boats appear, Valerie welcomes them in, gives them blankets, gives them food and shelter.

 

Then Valerie heads to Leros, a hot spot for arrivals and gains access to the refugee camp there. A disused abattoir houses the refugees. They sleep in make-shift tents, multiple families – twenty or thirty at a time. She meets families who have fled war and poverty in Syria and hears their stories.

 

Valerie says of the experience:

“This experience is probably the most worthwhile thing I have ever done in my life.  We, in Europe, sometimes do not realise how desperately basic the needs of the refugees are.  Whilst it is crucial that long-term solutions are reached at government level, right now there is a desperate human crisis – we need to literally pull people out of the sea, feed them, clothe them and provide them with basic shelter from the elements.”

 

” In 50 years’ time, we in Europe will be erecting memorials to those very people who are dying now.  We need ordinary individuals to do their small bit, whether that is volunteering, supporting the volunteers or getting involved in the process on some level.”

Valerie Cox is a reporter with RTÉ Radio 1