Feature: Wedding in a Greek refugee camp sends message of determination

A traditional Muslim wedding took place at Pikpa refugee camp here last month, sending a message of hope and determination that life can be rebuilt amidst hardship.

Xinhua talked to the happy couple and the volunteers who brought in an imam and arranged for a big party to follow.

"It was a moment of joy. We remember and gain hope from the fact that despite everything, love prevails," Efi Latsoydi, a volunteer told Xinhua in an interview, wishing a beautiful life to the newlyweds, 26-year-old Kurdish Onur Tce from Turkey and 30-year-old Linda Ohda from Syria.

The two met in February this year at the camp and fell in love, despite speaking different languages and coming from different backgrounds.

Like the nearly one million people who have landed on the island's shores over the past year, Tce's and Odha's journey by boat to Lesvos has been trying.

Odha studied sociology and left Syria following the advice of her parents to seek a better future abroad.

Odha left Syria and went to Lebanon in January and afterwards travelled to Turkey to find her brother who lives there. She decided to continue to Greece and start her new life here, because she speaks Greek fluently.

"I paid 200 euros (228 U.S. dollars) for a seat in the boat. But the Turkish coast guard destroyed our boat. I almost drowned. All my papers, money, etc. are at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. I saw people drowning and dying. I am very thankful to the Greek coast guard who came quickly and saved us," she told Xinhua.

"Syria was a very beautiful and rich place to live. I love my country. But the war destroyed everything; there was no future for me and no safety. My parents advised me to leave my country and begin a new life," she said, inviting us to her temporary house in a shipping container.

Tce left Turkey because he felt threatened there, he told Xinhua.

"At Pikpa camp there is no racism, there is no discrimination among the people from Pakistan, Iran or Syria. We are all like brothers and we live as in a neighborhood," he said.

He still can't believe that a few weeks after leaving Turkey, he would be happily married.

Tce said about his new wife: "I fell in love with her and I wanted to marry her. She is such a kind person who respects everyone."

"Everybody danced Arab, Kurdish and Greek dances at our wedding. We have dreams together. I want to have a house and a family with my wife," he said.

When asked where he wanted to build his new family he answered "anywhere there is no war."

Odha said she was very grateful to the volunteers at Pikpa who host her and her husband. "I never thought there were people who cared so much for our needs. Being in Pikpa is like living in a dream. We have lots of activities to do, we help each other, we cook together. Volunteers are like angels who descended to earth," she told Xinhua.

Dimitra Ippioti, one of the volunteers, does not accept being called an angel, but rather refers to herself and her friends as "people who care" about those in need.

Pikpa camp provides refugees with shelter and hospitality but not registration. The refugees there are some of the most vulnerable: disabled, sick, pregnant, and the families of victims of shipwrecks.

"We offer food, clothes, hygiene kits, medical assistance. We also organize activities for children, language classes and social support," Latsoydi explained.

In response to the growing number of refugees arriving on the Greek island in the Aegean Sea, Lesvos volunteers created the "Village of Altogether" at Pikpa in November 2012, a site near Mytilene airport which previously operated as a children's camp. Endit