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One Happy Family

May 2022

The number of people on the move across the islands continues to decline, which means more people are stuck on the Greek mainland. This makes the Victoria Community Centre, which opened in April 2022, even more important!

New arrivals and those pushed back

Situation on Lesvos and in Greece

Arrivals of refugees from Ukraine to Greece Over 19’000 people from Ukraine have arrived in Greece in mid April 2022. The majority arrived through the Greek-Bulgarian land border but some arrived as well via flights to the airports of Athens and Thessaloniki. The government of Greece is very welcoming to them and has guaranteed reception capacity and support. All while the …

May we introduce: The Victoria Community Centre

News from the Community Centre

VICTORIA COMMUNITY CENTRE Victoria Communiy Centre is openAt the end of February OHF bid farewell to the community centre on Lesvos. And now, on the 4th of April, we as OHF and Drop In The Ocean (Dråpen i Havet) were happy to announce the official opening of the Victoria Community Centre that we run together with partners by organising a …

Wonderful atmosphere

Pictures of the month

As said in our part about News from One Happy Family: The Victoria Community Center is open! After months of preparing and organising it is finally happening and we’re more than happy to welcome everyone in Filis 68! The opening ceremony was accompanied by musicians and so the atmosphere of One Happy Family on Lesvos already got a bit into …

The always active yet quiet author

#MeetTheFamily

Meet the Family: Helge Educator, psychologist, published author, co-founder of a museum, dance enthusiast… Helge has so many hats; but today we will focus on her as a beloved, long-term OHF volunteer. Helge first came to OHF in 2019 and stayed for 10 months. Sitting at one corner in the busy main hall, she started crocheting. One woman joined, then …

Financial support needed now

What can you do?

As mentioned several times in this newsletter, we are currently very dependent on your donations so that we can continue our existing projects and implement our new ideas. At the moment we still have some money left with which we can continue the existing projects for only 2 more months, but unfortunately there is not enough for more and we …

Summary and further reading

Media Updates

Read a good roundup of events and developments over the last few years on Lesvos:“A desaster waiting to happen: who was really responsible for the fire at Moria camp?” Differences of treatment by the Greek state, article from ECRE: https://ecre.org/greece-guarantees-of-capacity-for-ukrainian-refugees-while-the-situation-remains-dire-in-camps-across-the-country-government-body-finds-no-evidence-of-pushbacks/ Struggle to integrate: https://www.dw.com/en/greece-refugees-asylum-seekers-struggle-to-integrate/a-60687733 Article form Human Rights Watch: https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/07/greece-using-other-migrants-expel-asylum-seekers