2020, was the fourth consecutive year of operation for the “Child and Family Support Hubs”* (CFSH) program by SolidarityNow. Despite the challenges 2020 presented for all of us, the CFSH program continued to provide services in 14 refugee camps in mainland Greece, reaching more than 12,000 refugees and asylum seekers. The program caters to children, women and families, supporting them to find their footing in refugee camps and to start looking towards their future.
4th phase of the program: January-December 2020
The whole year was marked by the Covid-19 pandemic that swept the entire world, as well as by the ever-changing local developments across the camps of the mainland. Despite the challenging circumstances, field teams maintained their focus to the program’s service pillars, child protection and non-formal education, combining field presence with remote modalities to ensure beneficiaries have access to services even when the pandemic reached its crux.
The CFSH program’s achievements:
- 12,527 total beneficiaries: 6,242 children and 6,285 adults
For the CFSH program’s field teams each case is unique, hence the approach adapts to the specific needs of each beneficiary, always towards their best interest. Depending on the nature of each case, the teams respond to emergency incidents, but are also present on site to provide day-to-day support. The new challenge this year presented had, of course, to do with Covid-19. However, field teams rose to the occasion, supporting vulnerable beneficiaries even when in quarantine.
- 3134 children accessed child protection services
- 330 unaccompanied children and 90 people with disabilities were supported
- 214 survivors of sexual and gender-based violence were identified and received specialized support and care
- 3052 children and 1599 adultsparticipated in non-formal education lessons
- 2241 women and girlsaccessed the Female Friendly Spaces
- 2201 adults and children received legal support
- 3337 adults and children received psychosocial support
Education cannot wait.
During the challenging times of the global pandemic, our presence (virtual or physical) has been key in maintaining touch with the refugee communities and combatting the feeling of isolation caused by the restrictions of movement. In a year where school access was problematic at best, the non-formal education component of the project innovated methods to continue to reach children and enable them to continue their educational pathway. In-person lessons were supplemented with online educational platforms and physical distribution of learning materials; no matter the gravity of the pandemic, teachers found a way to continue to be on their students’ side.
The 2021 target: Child Protection and Education in 14 sites across the country
SolidarityNow continues the CFSH program into 2021. 2020 has taught us to expect the unexpected – in 2021, our teams will carry that insight and continue to devote their best efforts to providing holistic child protection and non-formal education services through the Hubs.
* The “Child and Family Support Hubs” program is jointly supported by UNICEF Greece and IOM Greece with funding by the European Union.