Allied Aid brings American volunteers looking to work in Greece

In March last year thousands of refugees had arrived at the port of Piraeus after being ferried over from the eastern Aegean islands. The "Balkan route" had just closed and they were looking for a plan B. Among the volunteers helping them at the port were Natalie, Rita, Lily, James and Haley. They were rookies when it came to volunteering, who'd found themselves far from their homes on the other side of the Atlantic. "We did not know each other and all worked for different NGOs at the time," says Natalie Feulner, who is from the US and is one of the five co-founders of Allied Aid, which works as a bridge for American volunteers wanting to come to Greece.

"Until then, I'd never volunteered in Greece," says Rita Continakis, the spokesperson for the organization in Athens, where she relocated in 1987 from Canada. "I'd first gone to Piraeus in 2015 after being convinced by my...