“One Happy Family is a safe bubble”

Jojo, 23, Student in Educational Studies in History, Politics and Sports

My most memorable moment is… 

When we organised the first football tournament and saw that everybody was so happy afterwards.

What struck me the most is… 

How the whole situation is setting up refugees for failure. People lack access to the most basic things they need in their daily life (reliable information, medical help, healthy food, money, English and Greek lessons…). They have to overcome so many obstacles in order to have a safe life.

One Happy Family is…

A safe bubble where people can forget the situation they are in for a moment and relax, learn English or guitar, get a haircut or just chat and learn from each other.

This is what I would like to tell other people:

The situation for many people here is terrible. The idea behind it is that if refugees suffer, they will stop coming. It is not a problem of money as European governments pay billions of euros for military purposes.

My tasks in One Happy Family are…

Organizing the football events, teaching English classes and helping with the daily tasks at our community centre.

What do you think makes One Happy Family different from other organisations?

The work of One Happy Family is special because the centre is mostly run by volunteer refugees. They run the place and international volunteers simply support them.