VICTORIA COMMUNITY CENTRE
Highlight of the Month
Monday, 20th June was the start of World Refugee Week. The idea behind this year’s theme “healing” is to promote and support healing through education, art, conversation and sport and coming together as a welcoming society.
OHF held an open house event to celebrate the day. We had a table tennis tournament, sewing workshops and a beauty salon for women, arts and crafts activities for the kids, beverages and desserts at the cafe, zumba and concert on the rooftop (No Border Band), and a photo exhibition. We held this event in collaboration with Drop in the Ocean, Lighthouse Relief, Glocal Roots, European Lawyers in Lesvos, Yoga and Sports, and IRC. We hosted around 250 visitors for 4 hours. It was an incredible day, and wonderful to host so many people back on site.
Visitor Numbers and Volunteer Updates
When visitors check in at the Victoria Community Centre, we like to ask what organisation they are visiting while here. As of the morning of the 29th June, we have had 2167 visitors to the building, with 1347 stating they have come to visit OHF specifically. It is great to see many visitors coming to use the space for whatever they would like to. As always, our orange juice is one of our most popular items. It is so nice in this hot weather to have fresh orange juice to cool down!
This month, we reopened our visiting volunteer program! We now have our first visiting volunteers at Victoria Community Centre. Our recruitment process is ongoing, we are still looking for volunteers who have social media experience, IT skills, experience working with children and graphic design.
Training and Certifications
We have been working hard behind the scenes to renew our ISO 9001:2015 Certification. It is a quality management certificate which each NGO is obliged to have for their registration. Each year, you need to complete an audit for it to be renewed. We recently passed our audit, so our certification is now renewed!
Thank you to IRC who have provided us with 3 different training sessions, looking at mental health awareness and gender-based violence. The training was designed for all our team members working at the Community Centre. The sessions were extremely useful and insightful. Thank you again IRC!
Nico is leaving
Our dearest Nicolas is leaving us after 4 years on the ground at OHF. We will share more of our fondest memories of Nico in our next newsletter, keep an eye out for it!
FREE SHOP LESVOS
Summer at the Free Shop
As always, our shop on Lesvos has been extremely busy! This month, we distributed the rest of the left-over food items, which consisted of oil, onions, and potatoes. Unfortunately, due to the limited budget, we can no longer buy dry food. But when in season, we continue to distribute dry herbs and fresh salad items, in collaboration with the Sporos garden based at the Paréa centre.
We received donations this month from Attica Warehouse in Athens, UNHCR warehouse and Leave No One Behind. The donations received included many hygiene items – such as shampoo, conditioner, razors, and deodorants, as well as sanitizer, tissues, and soap. The donations also included three very important items for the summer – towels, sunscreen and mosquito repellent!
