Τhe members of SolidarityNow’s Board of Directors unanimously selected Yiannis Boutaris as the new member of the organization’s Board to honor his outstanding and important work and contribution to the Local Government and the strengthening of civil society.

“It is with great joy and excitement we welcome  Yiannis Boutaris, to SolidarityNow’s Board of Directors, a great man, a pillar of civil society”, states SolidarityNow’s Chairman, Stelios Zavvos. Yiannis Boutaris, in his years of office, expanded and strengthened the local government in Thessaloniki while helping the city make an opening to its multicultural heritage in a way that included its citizens and made them reembrace their multinational roots. And as he states, ‘we opened Thessaloniki to the world. We planted the seed of openness’. “And there is no doubt that Yiannis Boutaris is a man who dares to fight for his ideas”, Mr. Zavvos pointed out.

His initiatives have been of great contribution to both the humanitarian field, notably the refugee crisis, but also towards the protection of the environment. SolidarityNow as a whole is very proud that Yiannis Boutaris will contribute to the organization’s mission with his experience and innovative social proposals for an open society.

“I was aware of SolidarityNow’s outstanding work long before my election as Mayor. In my years of office, I have had the opportunity to work with the organization, with which we organized activities for the benefit of the municipality and its citizens. It is an honor for me to join the Board of Directors, a post from which I will continue to offer to the community after my term as Mayor of Thessaloniki”, states Yiannis Boutaris.

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Yiannis Boutaris is a businessman, politician, Chemist graduate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki while also being a successful Oenologist. Since 2011 he is the Mayor of Thessaloniki. His term of office in the Municipality of Thessaloniki has been described as “a positive policy, reforming and refreshing mindset”. During his term of office, important was his contribution to reducing financial costs, rationalizing public services and fighting corruption in the city of Thessaloniki.

The Board of Directors of SolidarityNow consists of:

Stelios Zavvos – Chairman

Alivizatos Nikos – Honorary Professor of Constitutional Law/University of Athens

Vidalis Euthimios -Businessman,

Diamandouros Nikiforos – Honorary Professor of Political Science/University of Athens

Doxiadis Aristos – Partner/Venture Capital Investor

Kavounidi Jenny – Senior Research Fellow, Center of Planning and Economic Research, Visiting Associate Professor/Athens University of Economics and Business

Matsagganis Manos – Associate Professor in the Department of International and European Economic Studies/Athens University of Economics and Business

Nomikou Kalipso – Businesswoman

Christos Rozakis – Professor of International Public Law/University of Athens, Vice President of the European Court of Human Rights

Triantafyllidou Anna – Professor/European University Institute, Florence, Italy.

During the three years, (August 2016-February 2019), of the Child and Family Support Hubs’ operation by SolidarityNow in refugee camps of mainland Greece, more than 14,500 people, adults, and especially women and children, have been supported to regain their lives but also to be empowered for their next big step: their inclusion in our society.

SolidarityNow, with the support of UNICEF, brought to completion the 2^nd phase (November 2017-February 2019) of the innovative Child and Family Support Hubs program (CFSH). “The program has adapted many times to the changing needs of the refugee crisis in Greece. Hence, non-formal education was included as one of the main pillars of the program, alongside child protection and the prevention and treatment of gender violence”, underlines Christiana Kyrkou, SolidarityNow program’s Coordinator.

Focusing on the refugees’ social integration and on strengthening their autonomy, the Child and Family Support Hubs were operational in more than 20 different sites in Attica, Epirus, Central and Northern Greece, with their specialized field teams.

 The CFSH program’s achievements:

• 7,363 the total number of beneficiaries: 3,829 children and 3,534 adults
• 2,774 children benefited from the Child Friendly Spaces
• 2,221 refugees and children received psychosocial support
• 2,133 women and girls had access to the Female Friendly Spaces
• 724 children under the age of 2, accompanied by their mothers, had access to the neonatal and postnatal counseling facilities-Mother Baby Corner.

A further great achievement is that during the program’s implementation children and families of high vulnerability were identified and referred to specialized services in order to receive the necessary support:

• 332 unaccompanied children and 106 people with disabilities were referred to receive additional support
• 286 children, male and female victims of gender violence were identified and received specialized support and care
• 3,017 adults and children in total received legal support
• 3,229 referrals of people with health problems (physical injuries, illness) to health services
• 270 referrals of people with mental health problems to competent services
• 904 children were referred to formal or non-formal educational services.

Two-way education!

The identification and referral of vulnerable beneficiaries were facilitated by the daily contact of teachers with their students. In total:

• 3,562 children and adults attended courses and received school support
• 34 teachers were specialized in the education of refugees and migrants.

“Is there a difference among children growing up in peacetime and children who have experienced displacement? Yes, there is. However, this difference can be soothed with the right support as time goes by. This way childhood is proven to be strong enough to prevail over a dreadful experience. For example, the children’s drawings show us that a more beautiful world is feasible“, says Sofia Tzelepi, one of the program’s lawyers.

The 2019 target: Child Protection and Education in 13 sites across the country

 SolidarityNow, with support from UNICEF, IOM (International Organization for Migration) and funding by the European Union, continues the program’s implementation in 2019 by scaling up to present in 13 locations, providing holistic child protection and non-formal education services through the Hubs. “With the dynamic presence of our teams in 13 sites, we aim to support the interconnection of the local community with the local camp, strengthen the refugees’ openness and build on the local organizations’ capabilities so that they also take an active role since the great challenge now is the inclusion to local communities”, underlines Marietta Provopoulou, Deputy General Manager.

*The program is implemented with the support of UNICEF – until 2018 it was funded by the European Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO). Since March 2019, the program is funded by the European Union with the support of UNICEF and IOM.

“Our constant goal is to continue to be a catalyst for promoting the values of open and just societies”

Just 5 years after SolidarityNow was founded, the organization assesses its accomplishments that sum up to a great number: more than 300,000 vulnerable people have been supported through the organization’s actions and programs. These are people we have met, helped and empowered in many ways through the diversity of free services we provide across the country.

“The end of 2018 comes to reward SolidarityNow for its consistent efforts during its 5-year action. And this reward is more than the 300,000 people, whom we have supported practically and effectively to regain their lives and improve their safety and well-being; whether they were refugees to whom we offered accommodation and thus decent living conditions, mothers and children who needed protection, or unemployed Greeks whom we helped to find a job”,  notes Stelios Zavvos, the Chairman of SolidarityNow and continues: “SolidarityNow’s goal for the future is to continue to be a catalyst for promoting the values of open and just societies and defending the human rights of the most vulnerable”.

“For us, the 300,000 people who benefited directly from our programs are not a number“, says Antigone Lyberaki, SolidarityNow General Manager. “Every day, along with these 300,000 people, we have shared worries and fears but also happiness and excitement – what keeps us together is respect and solidarity. For us, an open society of tolerance and equality, requires the empowerment of all its members. Everyone must be able to make decisions about their lives. That’s what we do in SolidarityNow: we empower people to become independent, defending their own free will”.

Solidarity Centers, Open to All

The organization’s core activity is the operation of the two Solidarity Centers in Athens and Thessaloniki as well as the Blue Refugee Center in Thessaloniki that has expanded SolidarityNow’s actions towards refugees, migrants and asylum seekers from 2016.

• 63,000 people –Greeks, refugees, migrants- benefited from the services provided by the Athens Solidarity Center
• 26,700 people benefited from the services provided by the Thessaloniki Solidarity Center
• 6,100 people -refugees, migrants and asylum seekers- benefited from the Blue Refugee Center in Thessaloniki.

Shelter -and more- for more than 7,000 people in need

From 2016 to today, the organization has provided shelter and support to over 7,000 refugees and asylum seekers. SolidarityNow’s goal is to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers have access to the basic human right of housing and decent living through the implementation of innovative accommodation programs. The long-term goal is to improve their daily lives, empower them, make them strong enough to exercise their rights and take on the responsibilities of a new life. This becomes feasible by designing appropriate activities to empower beneficiaries; activities that contribute to their smooth social integration.

Education Matters | The Lifelong Learning Program

For SolidarityNow, education is a fundamental right for all and the implementation of educational activities is an integral part of the organization’s programs. Educational activities target both children and adults. During the last year (2017-2018), we mention indicatively that 5.900 educational activities were carried out in the framework of the accommodation program and 2,000 lessons were provided to adults and children in the Blue Refugee Center in Thessaloniki.

We give the floor to our beneficiaries!

“My anger suffocated me. Today, I share my story and receive significant help”, Sofia, 51 years old from Greece, beneficiary of the Psychological Counseling Service at the Athens Solidarity Center

“I give my credits to SolidarityNow for its Greek language lessons. I learned many new words!”., Haider, 17 years old from Pakistan, attends the Greek language courses held at Thessaloniki Solidarity Center

“I want my children to go to school; to learn Greek – I want to do more than I did”, Sayeed, 27 years old, member of the Rohingya community from Myanmar, lives in Greece along with his wife and children, as a beneficiary of the accommodation program

“This diploma is my birthday present!”, Sana, 22 years old from Pakistan, beneficiary of the Blue Refugee Center in Thessaloniki, she attended the manicure-pedicure seminar

“I wanted to acquire new skills! I am a professor of Italian, but because my job cannot support my living, I need to do other jobs too”, Theodora, from Greece, beneficiary of the educational programs, graduated from the IT Essentials seminar organized with the CISCO Networking Academy

“Our goal is to ensure all children’s right to have access in education”

 Athens, February 20^th, 2018

Today, November 20^th, on the occasion of the World Children’s Day, SolidarityNow, focuses on the absolute right of all Children in Education and celebrates with thousands of them who are its beneficiaries, in Attica, Epirus and Northern Greece. Children hosted in structures under the accommodation program, children living in refugee camps and benefiting from the services provided by Children’s & Family Support Centers/Blue Dots and children visiting the organization’s Solidarity Centers.

Up to today and across Greece, SolidarityNow has supported approximately 4,000 children to enroll in school and has offered more than 10,000 free non-formal education activities.

“This World Day is for all of us a reminder of the need to protect children and their rights that are threatened and very often not respected”, said Antigone Lyberaki, General Manager of SolidarityNow. “In a world that is constantly tested, children are the vulnerable population group that needs special protection, and this is for us, at SolidarityNow, a top priority in all our programs. Our main concern is to ensure that the thousands of children that our field teams meet every day will be enrolled in school, attend their classes that may have been violently interrupted in their countries and join the free educational and creative activities that we organize. In a few words, we are trying to ensure that these children will gain back a regularity in their everyday life but also, they will have access to the absolute and universal right to education”.

In SolidarityNow, the protection of children’s rights is fundamental and an integral part of the organization’s vision, consistently with the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child*.

For all those children that their family life was disturbed, the school environment was not a given and have been expelled, the organization intervenes -in addition to securing the provision of accommodation to them and their families- focusing on education, aiming at their development, returning to normality, healthier social integration. Because in SolidarityNow, the inherent right of children to life implies the right to access to education.

“I like it here! Very much! All teachers are very good at me. My favorite lessons are physics and ancient Greek, but when I grow up, I will learn more about the computers I love!” – Ali, 15 years old from Afghanistan. He attends Greek, English, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics courses at the Blue Refugee Center.

In Numbers

Access to education for children aged 5 to 15 of the organization’s programs, in numbers:

Accommodation Program

• 100% of the children living in the organization’s accommodation structures in Thessaloniki, Ioannina and Tilos are enrolled and go to school (total number of children: 169)
• 73% of the children living in the organization’s accommodation structures in Athens are enrolled and go to school (192 out of the 264 children)
• 6,638 training activities have taken place since the beginning of 2017 and till today in the accommodation structures (non-formal education activities).

Child and Family Support Hubs/Blue Dots

• 600 children have been supported in school enrollment and regular attendance, for the time period November 2017-October 2018.

Solidarity Center & Blue Refugee Center, Thessaloniki

• 709 children have attended the 3,700 educational activities organized in the Solidarity Center and the Blue Refugee Center in Thessaloniki from the beginning of 2017 until today.

The education process never stops, so apart from providing children with access to formal education, non-formal educational activities are enriched by the organization’s expert teams in order to even more effectively respond to children’s needs by overcoming language and other barriers.

*The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 20 November 1989. The Convention was incorporated into national law in Greece by the Law 2101/1992.

The SolidarityNow accommodation program is part of ESTIA-Emergency Support to Integration & Accommodation program, supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and funded by European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).

The Child and Family Support Hubs project is implemented by SolidarityNow with the support of UNICEF and funded by the European Commission – Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).

Thessaloniki Solidarity Center was established and is supported by the Open Society Foundations. The Blue Refugee Center is supported by the UNHCR and UNICEF and funded by European Commission – Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).

SolidarityNow embraces young refugees, supporting their way towards

their independent adult life

 Athens, October 25^th, 2018

They are young, different and ready to pursuit their dreams! They are the 25 young men, aged 18-22, who live at the Youth Shelter operated by SolidarityNow and the Society for the Care of Minors, in the center of Athens.

A diverse group of people from many countries around the world, whose members live together under the same roof, share the same space, participate in common as well as in different activities and their bond is their shared dream: to become capable and claim a better future for themselves.

The Youth Shelter is now home for young male refugees and asylum seekers who, as adults, are deprived of a living environment, while they previously lived in accommodation facilities for unaccompanied minors; the Shelter offers them hospitality and support during this transition period of their lives – the one that starts with adulthood.

“Until yesterday they were the ‘unaccompanied minors’ hosted in accommodation facilities that operate especially for them. But when they became adults, and in compliance with the current law, these children were obliged to leave their place of residence and make it on their own; either they were ready for that step or not“, says Antigone Lyberaki, the General Manager of SolidarityNow and continues: “In SolidarityNow, with this program for young adults, aged 18-22, we primarily create a safety net by offering them a safe place to stay; a place where they will feel like home. Then, we empower them with all the necessary skills, including educational and professional training actions, to stand on their feet and start their own independent life“.

“I feel that this is my home. I have friends, I go to school, I cook, all these are my home“. This is how the 18-year-old Hamid from Afghanistan describes his stay at the Youth Shelter, while talking to the organization’s Head in the structure about his school achievements. Hamid lives in his new home -the Youth Shelter- since March 2018, when he turned 18.

SolidarityNow undertook the management of the Youth Shelter from the beginning of 2018. Apart from accommodation and food provision, a variety of pro bono services are provided to the Shelter’s beneficiaries:

– Psychosocial support

– Educational activities, with a focus on Greek language courses through the SolidarityNow implementing programs and relevant referrals to community centers – Employability counselling through the corresponding service operated in the organization’s Solidarity Center in Athens

– Medical escorting when necessary and legal support through the respective service operated in the organization’s Solidarity Center in Athens.

Furthermore, and in order to accomplish the above, as well as to enhance the interaction with the local community, many group recreational and cultural activities are organized in the Youth Shelter supporting social inclusion, community sense and self-reliance.

*The Youth Shelter operated by SolidarityNow in partnership with the Society for the Care of Minors and Youth in the framework of the organization’s Accommodation program, is part of the ESTIA- Emergency Support to Integration and Accommodation of the UNHCR and funding by the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO).