This speech was given at the farewell by our Head of Security Ernest. It was too beautiful not to share!“Thank you everyone for attending to say goodbye to OHF Lesvos, before we meet again in Athens. Today is a special day for me, and very important for me to stand in front of you. Since …
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Meet Fotini! Our Greek teacher, our allrounder, coordinator of Sporos garden project at OHF, and as one of our community volunteers says, “one of the pillars of OHF”! Fotini, from Athens, has been with us for two years now. She met with OHF as she was continuing her university studies on the island. She started …
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People should never have to flee! Not anywhere in the world, not in Europe!We absolutely condemn this new war in Ukraine and we fully stand by all those affected!Peace and freedom are human rights, which most people in Europe were able to enjoy for decades.We have to continue to uphold this by all means and …
read moreArrivals and Departures in LesvosFrom the 1st till the 23rd January, there have been 116 arrivals via sea to Lesvos. In that same time period, 53 people departed to the mainland. There are currently 2,325 refugees and asylum seekers that still reside on Lesvos. 87% of the 2,325 are living in Moria 2.0. Men account …
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Big News! We have some exciting updates for you about our projects in Greece. We recently made the decision to rent a property in Athens for at least one year with the goal to provide an open community centre to the asylum seeker and refugee population living in Athens. The place is located close to …
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As you could read under “News from the community centre”, we have decided to move to Athens. Of course, such a change of location brings some logistical work. In order to be able to use as many things as possible from our centre in Lesbos in Athens, many things are already being packed into boxes. …
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Meet one of our long term partners: The Lava Project! It is a medical laundry facility which started out working with the medical actors working inside the camp, supporting them in their efforts to get rid of scabies. Currently they are washing the bedding and clothing during bed bug outbreaks at the camp as well …
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Meet Gustavo! Gustavo is our fantastic and funny volunteer from Spain, who has been with us at OHF for 3 months now. Here, people call him Moustafa, because it is a Farsi name. Before volunteering, Gustavo was a visitor at OHF, and since those days, one of his favourite things to do at OHF is …
read moreTo start and run our new center in Athens and keep our free shop on Lesvos running, we need your support! Find information on how you can donate on our website https://ohf-lesvos.org/en/donate/ Or if you would like to support the important work of our partner “The Lava Project”, you can donate online under https://thelavaproject.org/donate-now/Also directly …
read more2021 on Lesvos in a nutshell 2021 started with a stronger attempt from the Greek authorities to censor NGOs and make working with asylum seekers, migrants and refugees more difficult. OHF had to handle this hurdle and re-register in Greece, but luckily thanks to the hard and detailed work of our volunteers in Switzerland and …
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Update Shuttle Bus As announced in the last newsletter, we owe you an update regarding the shuttle bus. We are happy to announce that there is now a bus from the camp to OHF and back twice a day from Monday to Friday. This should enable our visitors to reach the Community Centre dry during …
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The International School of Peace (ISOP) has made some understandable and difficult decisions over these past months. Since March 2020, when the school burnt down and the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, many things changed and shifted from what we knew and how we worked. Their ability to fulfil their role in people’s lives they way …
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Running a community centre on Lesvos and supporting people on the move is not possible without you. Not only are the people engaging with people on the move on the ground important, but all our supporters around the world play a very central role. Without all of you reading this newsletter and all the other …
read moreMeet our OHF babies! 👶🏻👶🏼 After long months of waiting, our extended family has grown! We finally got to meet Selin and Hussein. The two beautiful babies of our community volunteers Mohammed and Hosein. Hosein has left Lesvos with his family and the newborn Selin to continue his journey to a better life. We’ll give …
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Meet Arturo and June Our new amazing social media guys from Italy and Spain have been here with us since October. Arturo is a very smiling and charismatic guy. He is very creative and always shows it by coming up with new ideas for the community. Arturo likes to be at the registration or at …
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As you read in the section “News from the Community Centre”, we unfortunately had to make the decision to offer a more limited selection at OHF. But to be able to do even that, we need your help. We have designed wonderful postcards which you can now buy in Switzerland and Germany. With each card …
read more“People still missing despite major rescue effort as smugglers switch to more perilous route from Turkey” reports The Guardian. Five years of migration crisis in pictures by POLITICO. The Council of Europe announces New Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees: Leyla Kayacik
read moreNot enough food Up to 60% of current residents of Greek refugee camps do not have access to enough food because of a halt to cash assistance for asylum seekers and denial of food support to both rejected asylum seekers and recognized refugees. A law that was passed last year came into effect this month …
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Low visitor numbers The number of visitors is dropping- especially because the weather has changed and is getting worse. For the people who live in the camp, opportunities to leave are still unfortunately quite limited. The idea of organising a shuttle bus from the camp to One Happy Family has been proposed. This would enable …
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Manroof supports us with 500 reusable bags per month. Those bags are made out of recycled banners. At OHF, we use those bags at the free online shop. They are packed with the ordered hygiene products and the people come and can pick up their individual orders. Fifie, our coordination team member who is responsible …
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