This month there was another OHF event in Switzerland. On Saturday, August 27, a charity day was held at the Lido in Basel. It was possible to register in advance for beach volleyball, paddle tennis and bocce tournaments.The whole day was spent playing and sweating (an OHF team consisting of board members, volunteers and former …
read more
As announced in the last newsletter, we say goodbye here to our coordination team member, Yahia. Yahia has been a valuable team member for several years and we would like to thank him from the bottom of our hearts for everything he’s done for One Happy Family. Yahia, with your calmed, level-headed and reflective nature, …
read more
Meet Fariba, in charge of our café at the Victoria Community Centre! If you ask around about Fariba, you will only hear sweet words.One of her teammates says of her: “She is kind and an excellent team player, always ready to collaborate, very active and involved in the activities of our community”.Our coordinator Akis says …
read moreYour feedback is important to usDo you have any questions or comments about this newsletter? A good idea, an input or a suggestion? We are happy to receive your feedback at newsletter@ohf-lesvos.org Donations for continuationAnd of course we continue to rely on your donations. In order to be able to continue operating the Victoria community …
read moreGreece says it will try to retrieve migrant girl’s body from river islet Greek migration minister: Seasonal work visas to give Bangladeshi migrants ‘dignity’
read moreArrivals and PushbacksAccording to the Aegean boat report, 29 boats with 666 people on board arrived on the Greek islands in July 2022. And the same organisation documented 82 boats and 2183 people affected by pushbacks from the Greek side in the same period. At the same time, the Turkish government reported that during this …
read more
VICTORIA COMMUNITY CENTER In July, we were again pleased to welcome many visitors to our Community Centre. In exact numbers, the Community Centre received 2059 visits and 1115 of these were specifically to OHF. However, we are still working to raise awareness of the Community Centre and continue to distribute vouchers for our welcome packs. …
read more
In typical OHF tradition, we always have something to decorate and paint. This time it was the roof terrace that got an upgrade and was beautified. We repainted the benches, got some extra tables and chairs and got some wonderful plants from Project Elea, which had to leave Eleonas Camp due to its upcoming closure. …
read more
As announced, there is another coordination team member we have to say goodbye to: Nicolas! Nicolas joined our project in Lesvos in 2017 and co-founded the Swiss organisation One Happy Family. After being a board member in Switzerland, he joined the Lesvos coordination team. He was responsible for working with our partner organisations, donors on …
read moreSpread the word about our open job position for a Fundraising Manager! Find more information here.
read moreA climate of fear“I am concerned about the increasing criminalisation of humanitarian assistance in Greece.” said the special rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor about Greece, on her recent visit to the Aegean Islands at the end of June. Human right defenders are facing increasing prosecutions since 2019 when acting in solidarity with refugees …
read more
VICTORIA COMMUNITY CENTRE Highlight of the MonthMonday, 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 …
read more
And it goes on. Table tennis is being played in Athens again.Endless hours of table tennis and table tennis tournaments were played on Lesvos. And despite the limited space in Athens, we have also found space for our table tennis table here and can continue this tradition. And there are even the same duels being …
read more
Many things in Athens are new, but fortunately there are also some familiar constants. One such example is our partner organisation Refocus. We are very happy and consider ourselves lucky to be able to work with them again here on the mainland, because the work with Refocus is always very exciting. For the World Refugee …
read more
Meet Abbas! Even though OHF in Athens is now smaller, we still need important team members to make our community center a safe and beautiful place. One of them is Abbas. He is our new member of the security team. But actually, he has been part of the One Happy Family for several years. In …
read moreWe are looking for volunteersOur recruitment process just restarted and we are looking for volunteers who have social media experience, IT skills, experience working with children and graphic design. Come and join our team in Greece! Find more on our website. DonationsIf you can’t or don’t want to travel to Greece yourself, we are still very …
read moreThe Guardian reveals: Greek police coerce asylum seekers into pushing fellow migrants back to Turkey
read moreLiving in AthensFor the last few years, the transfer from the Aegean islands to Athens was viewed by many as something positive, as they could finally leave the hell of the camps in the islands behind them. However, this transfer, officially organised or independently, did not have a positive effect for many. After the transfer, …
read more
COMMUNITY CENTER VICTORIA Always something newDuring the month of May, the number of visitors to the Victoria Community Centre has increased steadily. More and more drinks are being served in our café and the atmosphere is livelier as people play games and chat.The growing number of visitors is also related to the fact that more …
read more
On the weekend of 14 and 15 May a small miracle happened: the whole coordination team and the board of the Swiss association were together in one place for the first time in 5 years. The event was a two-day workshop led by MAPS to better define our structures in the organisation and align them …
read more