All else failed: the unlikely volunteers at the heart of the migrant aid crisis

Abstract

"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 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, All Else Failed tells a story of despair and resilience, revealing the humanity within an immense humanitarian disaster"--