Despite the extreme conditions, People on the Move choose, for different reasons, not to submit to the policy of closure that tries to keep and control people in camps.
Those who dare to spend the winter outside the camps place themselves at the mercy of autonomous organizations. However, it is impossible for us to support people to the extent that would be appropriate, also because we are again dependent on capacities and especially donations. Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your donations, which are essential for us to be able to provide better care.
In spite of everything, we try to provide the most necessary as much as we can, in order not to leave the people alone with the inhumane policy. We as a collective position ourselves against the instrumentalization of the camps for isolation and wish to be able to make possible that the people are helped in the places where it is necessary and they want that themselves, so that they can reach the places they want.
The winter, in addition to circumstances that are now increasingly inhumane for People on the Move, also complicates our working conditions. In Bihać, temperatures are currently dropping below zero every day, so water tanks, which are one of the essential livelihoods, can freeze.
In addition to water and food, firewood is now a vital resource for people to survive on a daily basis. Due to the lack of dry wood, People on the Move often have to choose between cooking meals or heating. The mountain range that looms behind the town of Bihać and represents the border crossing for the game is snowed in. It is life-threatening to go out at this time of year.
Thus, some people retreat to abandoned houses, which we also try to make more habitable through construction work. While in the summer, this work was limited to providing energy through solar panels, now it also consists of creating rooms that can be heated with stoves, so that people can live more sheltered from the winter. Those who do not find refuge in abandoned houses try to make their tents more livable with blankets and tarps. On some cold days we can ensure warm showers, we can always distribute clothes, but above all the coldness of the policy with which people are abandoned, can be combated by us only symptomatically.