By EMS1 Staff
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A retired paramedic has continued to help others after starting a nonprofit relief organization to help refugees.
Teresa Gray told KTUU she decided to become involved in refugee relief after seeing a photo of a 3-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a beach in Greece a year ago.
Since then, Gray volunteered with an Irish refugee relief organization that offered medical care to refugees traveling to Greece.
“I’ve been a paramedic for 25 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that,” Gray said. “The boat would just land onshore and disgorge this huge amount of humanity that was cold, and wet, and hungry and sometime not alive — terrified people.”
Gray founded her own nonprofit, Mobile Medics International, to provide refugees and communities from around the world relief. The nonprofit has completed missions in Haiti and the Philippines.
Gray plans to make another mission to Greece or France to help Syrian refugees in March.
“Nobody is born a refugee. They become a refugee through circumstance,” Gray said.