Local Young Woman Plans To Bring Medical Skills to Greece, Help Refugees

A local young woman who has spent her lifetime giving back is headed to Greece to bring her medical skills and help refugees.

According to a YouCaring fundraising effort by Meigan Yuen, 22, who studies pharmacology at Regis University in Denver, but spent years giving back while growing up in the Westhampton Beach area, “The refugee crisis in Europe has increased significantly in 2015, with thousands of refugees entering in through Turkey and Greece. There is a constant need for medical volunteers to help refugees coming in through the coast. We need to avoid seeing any more children washed up lifeless on the beach. Healthcare students at Regis University are not willing to stand idly by while these refugees need emergency assistance. We believe we can make a difference and offer our services to those refugees in need. We want to give our spring break to help them; now, help us get there.”

So far, the page has raised $1,100 of its $2,500 goal. Yuen plans to travel to Greece February 26 to March 7.

According to a fellow volunteer, Crystallyn Brown, who is currently in Greece — Yuen and other students will travel with the Mercy Worldwide Trust group, a team that helps victims of conflict or natural disaster worldwide — the situation in Greece is ever-shifting.

“Right now we need people to help in the very labor intensive task of running the accommodations,” Brown said.

Duties usually range from locating and identifying vulnerable cases, bringing people inside to their rooms, dispensing food, water, blankets, and medical care, making bottles, offering comfort, cleaning the rooms, and treating and preventing hypothermia by finding clothes for wet people to change into.

Volunteers typically bring in approximately 800 people each night, including the most vulnerable — babies, young children, and the very ill. Many nights, only a few volunteers have been onhand to run the entire operation, Brown said.

“We do whatever needs to be done, or at least try. Often we don’t have enough of anything, and it’s really difficult emotionally to feel like you are always turning desperate people , and even children, away. It’s not for the faint hearted,” Brown said.

But Yuen said she feels called to help. ”After years of volunteering through my church, Westhampton Presbyterian Church, I’ve found a calling for service events.”

Her father, Denis Yuen, who himself has given back to the East End’s homeless, through work with both Maureen’s Haven and Johns’ Place, said his daughter has lived a lifetime of caring for others.

“Meigan’s path to serving others first began with her helping out at Rotary Club fundraisers, especially the Westhampton Club’s annual spaghetti dinner, and The Spooky Walk to benefit Camp Paquatuck,” he said. “As a longtime volunteer myself, Meigan and her older brother and sister would always help out at any fundraiser I was involved with. She would always be there to follow the lead of her older siblings.”

Next, he said, his daughter’s volunteerism was then nurtured as a Daisy/Brownie “under the tutelage of two caring and loving Scout leaders, Cathy O’Brien and Sheila Colombi.”

But perhaps most rewarding, both father and daughter said, was when she traveled every summer with the Westhampton Presbyterian Church youth group to different parts of the United States to assist in rehabilitating homes through a program called REACH.

“Along the way, she honed her carpentry and painting skills, but more importantly, connected with other youth she served with and those they served. Of course as a parent, I’ve always been proud of the volunteer work that Meigan has been involved in, and hopefully this Greece mission trip is just a continuation in her lifelong journey,” he said.

Yuen, who attended Eastport-South Manor High School, said she’s changing her focus from rehabilitation of homes to utilizing her medical knowledge to help those in need. “I’m a current second year pharmacy student and I want to apply what I’ve learned so far to the real world. Helping the Syrian refugees will allow me to use this knowledge and give them a better quality of life.”

Patch photo courtesy of Meigan and Denis Yuen.