17 September 2021
Meeting Yoga and Sport with Refugees
Welcome to a very special gym! Tucked in a side street off Patision in central Athens sits a gym – open for all, free, and especially welcoming to refugees. At Yoga and Sport with Refugees everyone young and old is finding their inner physical and mental strength surrounded by encouragement and friendship. What more could you ask?
Co-ordinator Nina and I have chatted online so much we already felt like we knew each other! Our conversations so far centred on our London Marathon #TheRefugeeTeam as well as grants we’ve supported like the “unstoppable gym” (what a great way to talk about a van packed to the rafters with fitness equipment!) for their mobile Lesvos project.
A highlight of today’s visit was a glimpse at Aref’s class where he was teaching martial arts to kids in the basement space. Wow! Twelve kids of all ages, and (slightly) more girls than boys, this was serious stuff. The dedication from Aref was powerful, the concentration of the kids nothing short of inspiring! They were really good!
We swapped notes and ideas and Nina proposed an online yoga class – led by their very able refugee instructors in Athens and joined online by anyone who wants to. Ssshh… because it’s just an idea for now… A seed planted. But I love it, don’t you? Watch this space!
18 September 2021
Hip Hop 4 Hope in the shadows of the acropolis
The Drop Project was set up by refugees for refugees, so naturally a project we love! Today I had the great pleasure of chatting over coffee with co-founder, and Syrian refugee, Ehab.
The reality is that their volunteers need to work to pay rent and to eat and so Ehab and the team are only able to do a big food distribution every two months or so. But, inspired by a community centre In Thessaloniki, the story from Drop Project could well have more chapters to come. We’ll keep you posted!
Next for a reunion! So wonderful to spend quality time with Omar this afternoon after far too long! We walked a LOT and I saw parts of Athens I’d never seen before…. The tourist bits! Who new?!
Our afternoon included dropping in on Christian and the Hip Hop 4 Hope “BBQ but no BBQ” in the shadows of the Acropolis! Here locals and refugees danced as the sun set united by hip hop! I’ve been a big fan of this project since first hearing about it and am delighted to have been able to support them with a grant to secure their weekly dance class space a few months back. I’ll be back with HH4H on Monday. There’s more to come!
20 September 2021
Victoria Square
This morning’s Victoria Square outreach with Lighthouse Relief was postponed for tests following a COVID scare within the team. So Comms Lead Alex and I caught up over coffee instead and somehow three hours whizzed past! I learned all about their great work in Athens, and their four projects in Ritsona Camp too. Not yet registered with Donate4Refugees, it seems they’ll be a new local partner very soon.
Next stop was One Human Race’s Shower Project ably run by Shukria and Mina. Sitting just off Victoria Square it offers women and young children the chance to wash and collect much needed dignity items in a safe and welcoming all-female place.
By evening it was time to find Ale from FORGE for humanity and go to watch tonight’s open practice with Hip Hop 4 Hope in the space we funded. Here Ale and I especially loved the energy, individuality and moves of the HH4H Athens Crew! “Alone we can go fast. But together we can go far”. Who can argue with that?
(Maybe if I was 20 years’ younger, and if Athens was 20 degrees cooler right now, then I’d have joined in!!!)
21 September 2021
Street Outreach with Lighthouse Relief
Despite our cheery demeanours in these photos the Lighthouse Relief outreach is through some seriously troubled streets of Athens. Here many of the homeless are Greek and too many look near death they’re so thin from drug abuse. It’s truly awful to see yet seems normalised to unconcerned passers-by. Men and women of all ages in the most shocking condition living in dirty, stinking streets.
It made me think of the quote “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
For the refugees we saw, we handed out juice and croissants and got a man a new sleeping bag and other essentials, as he had his things stolen the night before. But, the sad truth is, for the people we saw today, there’s precious little we could do for them. The outreach team hope to find people – asylum seekers and refugees – before they’re lost to these streets… whilst it’s still possible to help.
Two days a week they are present in Victoria Square ready to answer questions and signpost people for help. And two days’ a week they’re a mobile outreach team walking these streets to find those most in need.
Thank you Lourdes, Nasreen & Alex for having me along today on your street outreach project.
Finding Refuge’s housing project, Duniya House
I had such a warm welcome back to Duniya House; the three floor terrace house in Athens rented by Finding Refuge. It’s what I’ve come to recognise at this inspiring housing project providing more than 30 people, who would otherwise be homeless, with a warm welcome home within an extended multi-national family!
Whilst living here people are on-track to independent living; Duniya is there to support people’s life paths at a time when Government support is non-existent. (It feels very like my hosting refugees in my home here in the U.K., but on a bigger scale!) COVID has, naturally, made that more of a challenge in the last 18 months and so on-site co-ordinator, Suhel, has adapted to the changing times.
Unfortunately Duniya House needs some major repairs, largely ignored by the landlord and too much for a tenant to take on. So the search is on for new premises in Athens to continue to support refugees, and grow to support more people if at all possible.
Shukran, Tashakor, Merci for inviting me into the Duniya Family for an evening, manager Suhel, and all. The food was delicious and your company like a big warm hug!
22 September 2021
Spending time with better life with refugees
The Better Life with Refugees “Van of Hope” was funded in loving memory of our dear friend Brian Donnelly. Helping to share the van-love in Athens are proud van owners Simon and Lulu, Negia and John from Pampiraiki Warehouse, and Trish and John from Farnham Help for Refugees.
To everyone who made a donation in Brian’s memory, or gave so kindly for what would have been his 75th Birthday, thank you! The legacy you helped make happen is helping vulnerable people in Athens every day thanks to Simon and Lulu’s determination and hard work.
23 September 2021
A Day on Distribution with FoodKIND
After my 5am start in Athens and a one hour train journey (where it wasn’t clear I was going the right way), foodKIND co-ordinator Paddy was at Oinofyta Station to collect me, as promised. We ran an errand straight away to collect the days’ fresh veggies and fruit. At the volunteer house I was warmly met by the rest of the team starting with Paddy’s mum Sally and sister Becky (it’s a family affair this week!). And as it was unexpectedly cold and rainy, a bright yellow hoodie that I was sooo grateful for!
First shift I was with Paddy and Sally on Food Pack Distro at Malakasa II where the team give weekly dry food packs to everyone without Government support (that’s undocumented, second refusals and everyone granted refugee status).
Throughout the day we went to Malakasa I & II camps with hot food and the ever popular fruit salad! Dry food packs and also mum and baby packs. Then at the end of the day we took the mum and baby packs to Oinofyta Camp too.
At Malakasa II we were ably assisted by camp resident Maria, age 12 (or so!) and everywhere we were escorted by LOTS of kids. There’s just nothing for the children to do on these camps. No schools, no play clubs, not even tv or a movie. We (Europe) should be doing so much better than this. And, of course, it means the foodKIND team are like celebrities!
It turns out Paddy’s mum has been quite a hit with camp residents (she is very lovely!), and several of the women had presented her with a gift to say thank you and goodbye as it was her last day. She was genuinely speechless. Humbled by such kindness from people going through such hard times themselves. There were tears…
Since I was last here Malakasa I has been closed to NGO’s with food distro done from the car park. Malakasa II is new. And Oinofyta, which is a disused factory site, was still a shock to see as a camp, but had a friendly community feel to it that had been missing last time. Now there’s a coffee shop, restaurant and shop. So funny to see the coffee shop fully decorated with christmas lights and tinsel to brighten its makeshift counter!
The ageing, foodKIND van is on its last legs and we’re delighted to be giving them a grant for their new van whenever they’re able to find one! Watch this space!
24 September 2021
catch-Up with Echo Refugee Library
Great to meet up with Echo Refugee Library coordinators Giulio and Azim.
I was really touched to hear that teenage girls at the camps of Malakasa, Oinofyta and more are completely devouring the books! Borrowing, reading, sharing, returning and eagerly awaiting the next arrival of the mobile library! There’s so very little to do in Camp so you can imagine how precious reading is to these young people?
It was great to hear they’d recently had a generous donation of books in Farsi and Dari too! With so many Afghans in Greece, and texts in these languages quite a challenge to find, this was brilliant news!
As always, the Echo team are busy taking their mobile library bus to Refugee Camps in and around Athens and planning to expand their services to more camps.
We’re, of course, delighted to keep supporting this lifeline service.
