All Else Failed: The Unlikely Volunteers at the Heart of the Migrant Aid Crisis

by Dana Sachs

As hundreds of thousands of displaced people sought refuge in Europe, the global relief system failed. This is the story of the volunteers who stepped forward to help.
In 2015, increasing numbers of refugees and migrants, most of them fleeing war-torn homelands, arrived by boat on the shores of Greece, setting off the greatest human displacement in Europe since WWII. As journalists reported horrific mass drownings, an ill-prepared and seemingly indifferent world looked on. Those who reached Europe needed food, clothing, medicine, and shelter, but the international aid system broke down completely.

All Else Failed is Dana Sachs’s compelling eyewitness account of the successes—and failures—of the volunteer relief network that emerged to meet the enormous need. Closely following the odysseys of seven individual men and women, and their families, it tells a story of despair and resilience, revealing the humanity within an immense humanitarian disaster.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 21, 2023

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye-opening and very readable account of the refugee crisis in Greece and how volunteers from all over the world stepped in, rolled up their sleeves, and helped alleviate suffering while Greece, the rest of the EU and the big NGOs were slow or sluggish to help. The title said it all. The author followed two Syrian families, several grassroots volunteers, and several migrants themselves from their flight from their home countries and the horrific conditions they endured in Greece. The author even went to Greece, helped, and met some of the people whose stories she told in her book. Some DPs were successful in reaching Europe in spite of both border closings and a cruel Turkish/Greek agreement restricting the inflow of migrants to Greece. I assume the crisis is still with us although not "newsworthy" anymore. I consider this book a "must-read." I thank LibraryThing and the publisher for an ARC.

[Laura Barbieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reveals the effect of the volunteers who were not bound by politics to "Get S**t Done" (the name of one of the volunteer organizations whose efforts were described in this book). It is clear that the author is detailing the efforts of the volunteer workforce and contrasting them with the profound ways in which the governments and larger agencies are so bound up with politics and bureaucracy that they became ineffectual while the volunteers, not bound by such things, could just "get it done." However, the author, who was also a volunteer during this crises, compellingly informs us using another volunteer's words: "when someone is in need, you can't just say 'Oh, it's not my responsibility.'" For example, when the government did not remove trash, the volunteers raised money and removed the trash simply because people were suffering and they had the power to help. That sentiment resounds throughout the book, even when their efforts were bound by choices by the government such as improving a campsite only to have the government shut it down and move refugees to another site which also then needed improvements. And, after raising funds and starting a school for refugee children, the government shut the school down.

Volunteers kept going, kept finding ways - because "someone was in need" - and the fact someone was in need is what propelled some of these volunteers to continue, in the face of overwhelming need to each day, try to improve life for these refugees.
The author points out that although the larger agencies can make a political impact yet are simultaneously strapped by politics in order to ship and distribute goods in a meaningful way and wind up asking the volunteer agencies to fill those gaps: even, surprisingly, to create networks of water, sanitation, and electricity....somehow, even those larger systems were more easily handled by volunteer agencies!

The book is filled with horrors of living in a refugee camp beyond which I've ever heard on a news cast, and just in case that wasn't moving enough, the narrative of several refugee families is woven throughout, allowing us to understand that many of these refugees are escaping horrors of war in their homes, seeking safety for their families. Their frustration, their inhuman living conditions, their inability to protect their children at home or in the refugee camps is unyielding.
The volunteers are not immune to what they have seen occur in these camps. One volunteer who suffered from an acute fear of insects found that her time volunteering "seemed to change her brain chemistry": "I felt like I saw what evil is, and what the things to be scared of are, and it's not insects."

There is so much in this book I want to share: the inhumane conditions haunt me, the volunteer agencies amaze me. Biggest take away - we can make a difference - we volunteers can "Get S**t Done" - if we are willing.

[Kim Fay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book when it came out, but I didn’t read it right away. It’s a difficult subject, and I had to be ready for it. When I saw that it was nominated for a Dayton Literary Peace Prize, I decided I might never be ready for the pain of the migrant crisis in Greece in the late 2010’s, so I opened it and started reading. I’ve long been a fan of Dana’s books, and this is her best yet. Her talent as a novelist comes through as she weaves together the stories of migrant families (mostly from war-torn Syria) and “freelance” aid workers in various refugee camps in Greece. I read All Else Failed in about a week, which says a lot. I’m a very slow reader. To humanize the masses that we all saw in news accounts takes great skill. It also takes compassion and tenderness, which comes through despite Dana rarely inserting herself into the story to make sure we feel what we’re support to feel. She is the cofounder of Humanity Now: Direct Refugee Relief, and as she does with her on-the-ground humanitarian work, she found the delicate, healthy balance of intimacy and distance. Each person she writes about is a multi-layered, sympathetic, singular and yet relatable human being.

[Zora O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this situation from the inside, and I'm grateful to Sachs for documenting it, and for showing so many facets of it in a very concise narrative. The official response really was (and is) a colossal failure, and reading this book enraged me all over again. But the unofficial, grassroots response is amazing and inspiring, and that comes through well in this book also -- without glossing over the real difficulties and traumas, not to mention the moral and ethical quandaries that come with inexperienced people filling gaps during emergencies.

The trap of writing about volunteers is that it can wind up making refugees into colorful background characters. Sachs weaves in the stories of two Syrian families, and this helps keep the balance -- and, more important, she highlights how refugees have become volunteers as well.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in 2000, Andrea Camilleri and other fiction writers wrote of the desperate problems of those who came by leaky boats to the island of Sicily. Today's news continues in this vein, but in 2015 it was Greece that was overcome with the same problems. But the various Red Cross agencies and the UN were oblivious. Not-so-ordinary individuals, however came to Greece to do what they could and then some. Skills learned in other venues were put to the use of saving lives and more in superhuman ways by foreigners and locals alike. This is their story, and all of it is true. Read it if you dare.

[Karren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I have been aware of the migrant and refugee crisis in Greece, I have never thought about the human toll and those brave volunteers who met this crisis on their own. The grassroots efforts of numerous people who placed themselves in this place of enormous need in the 2015 and subsequent years is a book I won't forget.