Observation! Team two

The activity of the fifth day of our training was to observe the situation of refugees in Athens. We agreed to find possible places where refugees might be. We faced some challenges as hot weather, Ramadan time, as Muslims usually stay at home till afternoon, and of course our own perceptions and expectations. We tried...

Mission: Observation! Team One

Although the training is over and everyone has reached their homes by now we kept some of our articles in store for this week. On the day before last, the participants were given the task of going on an observation mission in the neighbourhood of Exarchia to be confronted to the reality of the refugee...

Instead of a closure…. a birth

Symbols can have their own meaning and strength. Our stay in the scout camp, surrounded by forest and the sea has reminded us how connected we all are; human beings, animals, the nature no matter our height, our strengths and weaknesses, our tastes, our needs and colors. We are now leaving our camp but we...

Visiting Khora

This afternoon we all met up in the well known neighborhood of Exarcheia to visit Khora, a Nonprofit Organization that focuses on responding to the needs of the migrants and refugees of Athens. These services run from the basement to the roof top of the 8 story building providing on each floor services for the...

Summary of Day 4 by Jana, Kate and Marjan

It was a long day of productive group work. Actually it was interesting to share our ideas, to plan a new project together and to find the best solution to make it real. We started with gathering ideas for potential projects. Every participant had an opportunity to present his or her idea and after we...

Summary from day 3, putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes

We started the third day with an exercise which helped us to put ourselves in the shoes of other people and to raise our consciousness about the importance of human rights protection and imagining how could it feel, when these are violated. Then we changed roles and we examined the process of asylum seeking from...

Youtube Night

Last night we all met in the activity room to watch inspiring or interesting videos that in some way we believed had some relation to the topics of the training. After each video the person that proposed it, explained why they selected it and then we had short discussions on everyone's thoughts and personal interpretation...

Kostas, one of the trainers, shares his thoughts on day 2.

Study visits in Athens, and the team had the chance to visit different actors within the community intervening on the refugee crisis. A new youth center operated by British youth workers, a UNHCR funded local NGO and a squat. Three different approach, working towards the same aim with different philosophies and approaches but all with...

First day back, reconnecting

Now that we are all reunited and that we have added three new additions to our group of participants, we spent the day discovering and rediscovering each other. After a walk around the area and a quick look at the beach we were able to catch up with one another lives' and recapture the bond...