by the Legal service of the Athens Solidarity Center by SolidarityNow

Ms. A., one more story of an abused woman, who asked and received support and today sees her life changing.

Ms. A. is a mother of two, with one of her children having special needs. In addition, she faced many financial and health problems and addressed the Athens Solidarity Center, in despair.

The Center provided her with social and psychological support and the legal service undertook to investigate all its pending courts. The lawyers of the service, mediated in public services and tax authorities in order to settle and regulate her debts, something that was impossible for her to do especially during the pandemic days we are going through where the citizens’ access to public services has become more difficult.

In addition, she was provided with legal advice for all her criminal courts. With the appearance of a lawyer of the legal service in one of these courts, Ms. A. won an acquittal for her debts and thus secured her home, avoiding its upcoming seizure. Today, Ms. A. is collecting all her documents to join the out-of-court mechanism with the help of the Center’s legal team, feeling that now she is not alone. She has her very own allies by her side.

*From 1/8/2021 till 31/7/2022, the Athens Solidarity Center’s operation is supported through a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) in the framework of its global COVID-19 Relief Initiative.

**From 1/7/2021 till 30/6/2022, Kahane Foundation supports the Psychosocial service of the Athens Solidarity Center.

*** The Athens Solidarity Center is also supported by the Municipality of Athens.

Muzhda’s story completes the SolidarityNow storytelling tribute to the broader role and importance of education, which began on January 24th, International Day of Education.

Muzhda is the friend of Mohadesa and Sezara. The three girls from Afghanistan live together in the open accommodation structure for refugees and asylum seekers in Ritsona (Boeotia region). Muzhda is also a super-talented girl, a painter and along with the other three girls of the tribute, they light up everyone’s days in the accommodation structures they live. They are the ones who keep alive the hope that despite the difficulties and temporary impasses, the light will come out again. It is through these children who do not quit, who do not face life passively, but on the contrary, they try and find a way to express not only themselves but also collective feelings, that a world can become a better place for all.

Muzhda is very good in English, and this helps her a lot to describe her feelings and her dreams but also to facilitate and help her friends when they have a difficulty in their first foreign language.

She paints everything. Landscapes, nature, animals, women. “I paint something and then I do the tricks of van Gogh “, she confesses with a huge smile.

When asked why she paints and if she learned on her own, she says that she remembers herself painting since she was little. She liked the colors and their mixing. As she grew up, her talent grew too. And then the paper with childish paintings became canvas with more complex paintings and meanings.

In Ritsona, Muzhda found herself in the right environment to start painting again after arriving in Greece. She not only gets Greek, English, math, and science courses at the SolidarityNow “Homework and Creative Activities Centre”*, but more. She found a place where she can exchange ideas, thoughts, dreams and get support of her talent.

“When I paint, I feel like a queen who orders her hands to splash the paints and who orders her mind to focus on something that makes her feel the happiest person. And then I feel like a leave dancing in the wind”.

Following this, we could not ask her anything else. The words she chose, the dreamy style in which she described her relationship with painting were enough for us to start dreaming too, and to begin a conversation with her in which we exchanged thoughts about art and of course about the paintings by her favorite Dutch painter.

Like the dreams of the other three girls, Muzhda’s dreams do not focus on her. These children do not respond alike with their peers usually in the West, in the question what you want to do when you grow up.

Whatever they want to become or do has a more universal character. “I want to show love, respect and solidarity to the people in need. I want to be able to return the love that people have shown me and help them. I want my art to be an example that we should support those who have talent, I want to live in a world where no one should hide their talents but be free.”

Towards the end, Muzhda talked to us about the joy she feels when she participates in painting exhibitions and festivals and manages to sell one of her paintings: “I feel so much joy and pride, the more they encourage me the more I want to continue!”.

Her favorite work is a painting that has given it the title “Free Bird” which depicts a hand raised to the sky and a man flying. Muzhda aims the sky too! And access to knowledge, education, and creative activities, stand by her so that she can develop her talent, be empowered to discover her potential and choose her future.

*The project “All Children in Education” (ACE) is implemented by SolidarityNow with support and funding from UNICEF Greece.

Since she was a child, she remembers hearing that it is not allowed for her as well as for the other people living in Afghanistan -her country- to paint and generally to engage in any form of art. Let alone to women.

The 15-year-old Sezara, recalls this memory, but she is lucky enough to grew up in a family that this prohibition could not be accepted as a fact. It was and remains an unreasonable prohibition for every reasonable human being.

Thus, when Sezara and her family fled Afghanistan for Iran, in this first migration trip towards a better life, she started painting and has not stopped since then – “Painting helps me forget whatever makes me sad; when I paint, I feel happier”.

The next trip of Sezara’s family was this time to Europe. Today, they all live safely together in the open accommodation structure for refugees and asylum seekers in Ritsona (Boeotia region in Greece). This safety allows Sezara to enthusiastically state that “I don’t know what I want to become when I am older, I just know that I want to experience everything!”

In Ritsona, Sezara has found a new home and has made her daily routine in a way that it is allowed to engage herself in the things she really wants. She goes to high school, reads literature, meditates with her friend Mohadesa and of course she paints either alone or with her friends, Mohadesa and Mozhda.

Sezara paints everything; landscapes, portraits, objects. She loves black and white, but she paints colorfully. By her side, it is always her family – “my parents have always been very supportive“, she says proudly.

Her favorite work is a painting with the sign of victory and this because even though she lives in Ritsona as she says, which is a structure for refugees, “we, women, can win! We can be free and become what we wish!“ However, she did not choose this painting to come with her story, but another beautiful painting of hers depicting a little girl walking in nature.

Sezara’s dreams are as many and intense as her need to gain many experiences! When Sezara speaks and describes feelings and future plans it is obvious to her companion that she is not holding back! She speaks with enthusiasm, laughs out loud, makes lively gestures, it seems that the narrow boundaries of a structure -luckily- do not fit her!

Our conversation with Sezara came to an end and we were happy to find out about her dreams, “first and foremost, I want to help the homeless find a home. And then to support them to pursue their dreams, as I do!”. At SolidarityNow, we stand proudly by her side that we can contribute even a little to her dreams. Through the activities taking place in the organization’s “Homework and Creative Activities Centre”* in the structure of Ritsona, Sezara and the other children are empowered to live well in the present and plan to live much better in the future. The road to this goes through education.

* The project “All Children in Education” (ACE) is implemented by SolidarityNow with support and funding from UNICEF Greece.

It is always promising to discuss with young people who, although things have not turned out very well for them, they are actively present in their lives and do not leave only the external conditions to determine their present and future.

Mohadesa, a 15-year-old girl from Afghanistan, is such a young person. She currently lives in the open accommodation structure for refugees and asylum seekers in Ritsona with her family, having first lived for a while in the structures of Samos and Lesvos islands. Upon her arrival in Ritsona, Mohadesa felt she found a home again, but on the other hand she had nothing to do at first. She was just sleeping. Gradually, however, Ritsona became a real home, a neighborhood, a social environment in which Mohadesa made friends, became acquainted with the people of the organizations that operate there, participated in various group activities and thus things started to get better.

“Friendship is very important“, says Mohadesa, and that was why she was very sad when her first friends left Ritsona for Germany. Then, as she describes, “I was left alone and turned to myself. I was looking for joy and suddenly I found support by the people of the International Organization for Migration who provided me with the materials I needed to start doing what gives me joy again. To paint“.

The source of joy had been found and Mohadesa continued making steps ahead. New friends, new stimuli, new goals. Today, she shares her life with Sezara and Muzhda. The three girls go to the same high school, attend Greek, English, and math classes at the “Homework and Creative Activities Centre”* of SolidarityNow in Ritsona, they are painters and most of all they are very good friends!

Thus, the multi-talented Mohadesa created a hyperactive daily routine. She wakes up early, goes to school, then studies, meets her friends with whom they meditate, she paints of course and in her free time she reads literature, listens to podcasts, and for some time now she has added the writing of a book to her activities.

Her book does not yet have an official title, so she calls it “A Girl from Afghanistan”. Because, as she explains, the story of a girl from Afghanistan is the same as most girls, “as if our fate is common if we do not leave from there“. There, as she tells us with complaint but also with the certainty that she has escaped the danger, “you can be a 12-year-old girl playing with a doll and someone to tell you that you finally had a baby, you were late!”

But all this is now far away, and the dream is ahead. Mohadesa is happy painting whatever she likes and knows that she is talented. Her talent is also appreciated by the people who visit the various exhibitions and festivals that Mohadesa has taken part with her paintings. This makes her happy: “I have a good feeling. I feel that I grew up. Two years ago, I was like most people who praise art. I only knew a few things about painting. But now I am the one whose art is praised by the others, and I am so happy”.

Mohadesa though still changes her mind often: “I want to become a model (and she blushes) I want to become a writer; I also want to become a very good painter“. Whatever she chooses, however, she wants to do it well so as to raise her voice and talk about Afghanistan, about women and their rights, about justice and equality. We completed our discussion with Mohadesa with the belief that she will succeed in whatever she chooses to do and with the promise that we will meet her again in person in a painting exhibition to admire her work!

*The project “All Children in Education” (ACE) is implemented by SolidarityNow with support and funding from UNICEF Greece.

Roya has just turned 18. She is from Afghanistan, and she has been living in Greece since she was 15. The first stop of her life in the new country was Samos, then Preveza and Thebes.

In Thebes and in the open accommodation structure for refugees and asylum seekers, Roya got to know SolidarityNow. She attends Greek and English classes at the organization’s “Homework and Creative Activities Center”*. This Center turned out to be more than just a non-formal school for Roya. It became the supportive environment she needed so as to “speak” through her painting.

Roya has been painting since she was very young, but she believes that she found her style at the age of 15. The famous Vincent van Gogh helped her in this; the observation of his paintings slowly led her to find her own style, her unique way of capturing her feelings artistically. And she feels a lot, as she vividly confessed: “I like to paint because it makes me feel free. I want to speak to the world! I have a lot to say about what I feel, about women in Afghanistan who have a voice but cannot be heard. I want to support them through my paintings!”.

Roya is inspired by her emotions, by the difficulties of living in a refugee camp – “it is very difficult sometimes, so difficult that I feel like I am in prison” – while many of her paintings are landscapes that she recalls in her memory from the long trip from Afghanistan to Greece. She loves the blue, red and green colors and sometimes understands that “the colors I use depend on how I feel – sometimes when I’m upset, they are darker”.

When asked what her favorite work is, she tells us about her painting depicting a young girl, Sharbat Gula. Roya took the famous photo of photojournalist Steve McCurry showing the 12-year-old Sharbat from Afghanistan in a refugee camp in Pakistan during the country’s Soviet occupation. Roya painted Sharbat the same as the photo, but with one difference. She removed her mouth. Thus, Sharbat became one of the millions of girls from Afghanistan who have no rights, cannot speak, no one will be found to listen to them.

All of Roya’s dreams are about women in Afghanistan – how to help them through her art, how to get people’s attention to act and support them. She talks about all these to the younger girls in the structure of Thebes to whom she teaches painting. Because Roya loves to teach others as she says. She teaches the younger girls painting and “mainly I want to help them express themselves without fear, teach them to be confident, show them that there are ways to move forward in their lives as they wish.”

Amid all the above, Roya reads literary books, participates with her work in exhibitions and festivals, where she has often managed to sell her paintings and this excites her – “I have been told that I look deep into life…”, she says proudly and shy. In addition, she often escapes from the “prison” of Thebes and visits Athens, where she prepares to take the exams to the School of Fine Arts. After all, she will become a famous painter and “I will show the Afghan women that they can achieve everything!”

The last wish Roya shared with us concerned the artists and the support they need to be able to create. The wish we shared for Roya was multidimensional – to go to the School of Fine Arts, to remain creative and on the side of women who need support, to keep dreaming, teaching and trying!

*The project “All Children in Education” (ACE) is implemented by SolidarityNow with support and funding from UNICEF Greece.

The 15-year-old Mohadesa, Sezara and Muzhda live in the open accommodation structure for refugees and asylum seekers in Ritsona while the just-turned-18 Roya resides in the structure of Thebes.

What have they in common? Painting. And Vincent van Gogh, whom they all picked as they ‘re favorite artist.

Four young women from Afghanistan, who came to Greece with their families in search of safety and began to unfold their talent finding the appropriate human net to support them. Today, they speak with a dreamy mood and enthusiasm about their love of painting, women’s rights, and the freedom they experience through art.

On occasion of the International Day of Education, January 24^th, SolidarityNow would like to present the overall benefits of access to education for children.

Children that, through student activities, not only learn a new language, but also get better acquainted with themselves. Through education, they are getting closer to what they want to do. Moreover, frequently, children discover new interests, even talents which properly encouraged and guided can develop and change their lives! Such are the little stories of the four girls that will be presented in the coming days.

The four formidable girls live in two -out of the 14- open accommodation structures for refugees and asylum seekers in Greece, where SolidarityNow operates its “Homework and Creative Activities Centers (HCACs)” through the program “All Children in Education” implemented with the support and funding of UNICEF Greece.

by the Employability Service of the Athens Solidarity Center* 

Ujjal is a 20-year-old man from Bangladesh and asylum seeker in Greece. He arrived in the country as an unaccompanied minor when he was 17, he lived in a shelter for minors, he registered at High School and started learning the Greek language. Ujjal turned 18 at the same time when the world turned upside down due to the outburst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Consequently, he could no longer attend school and he needed to find a job.

During November 2020, Ujjal left his city and shelter, came to Athens and visited the Athens Solidarity Center and its Employability Service asking for support to find a job.  A young, shy but smart man, positive, and determined to build a life in Greece. His condition, however, was urgent, as he lived in severe poverty without any support network.

The days of quarantine rolled by together with Ujjal’s sessions with his employability counsellor. After few of their meetings, his counsellor suggested him agriculture as the main temporary option as all the other sectors were suspended that time and helped him apply for jobs. Ujjal, although unfamiliar with the job market in Greece, he seized the opportunity and worked for three months as agriculture worker in the suburbs of Athens. Even though this seems just a small step, it was the first of a continuous improvement of his livelihoods.

Ujjal returned to Athens with improved language skills, the curfew was lifted in Greece, and he found his next job. Today, he is working in a central Athenian restaurant, his job is appreciated by his employer and colleagues, he has registered again in High School, he has started attending cooking training seminars and he is dreaming of the future! His employability counsellor supported him from the first small survival step to the creation of ambitious dreams.

For refugees and asylum seekers, the Covid-19 curfews exacerbated the already extreme living conditions leading to desperation. Ujjal managed to overcome it by asking help, making one step at a time towards social integration, being brave, focusing in the future and not giving up. We couldn’t be prouder of him.

*From 1/8/2021 till 31/7/2022, the Athens Solidarity Center’s operation is supported through a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) in the framework of its global COVID-19 Relief Initiative.

**From 1/7/2021 till 30/6/2022, Kahane Foundation supports the Psychosocial service of the Athens Solidarity Center.

*** The Athens Solidarity Center is also supported by the Municipality of Athens.

by the Social Service of the Athens Solidarity Center*

The Social Service of the Athens Solidarity Center by SolidarityNow provides daily specialized and personalized support to beneficiaries from different backgrounds with multiple needs. One of the most interesting and challenging cases that we recently took care of, was the one of N.K., a woman from Pakistan who arrived in Greece last summer.

N.K. is a highly educated person, member of a wealthy family, who had been working for years in the banking sector. Her life changed dramatically around five years ago, when her sexual orientation was exposed, at first to her parents and later to the man that she had been forced to marry. After being subjected to multiple kinds of abuse by her relatives and husband, she finally managed to flee Pakistan and arrived in Europe.

When she first visited the Athens Solidarity Center three months ago, she was in bad condition both physically and psychologically, because of the severe difficulties she had experienced during her journey, but also because of her dire living conditions in Greece.

With the coordinated efforts by the Center’s Social Service, N.K. was referred to the Greek Asylum Service and shortly after managed to obtain her legal documents. Then, regarding her accommodation, an application was sent to the ESTIA hosting program for asylum seekers and as a result, N.K. is now accommodated in the context of a hosting project dedicated to the LGBT+ refugees. She was also assisted to have thorough medical tests and get fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Moreover, the support provided by the Center’s psychological service was of great help to N.K. She had weekly sessions for the past three months with one of the Service’s psychologists, and that helped her to overcome the negative experiences and focus on the efforts to rebuild her life in a new, protective environment. 

All the above, combined with N.K.’s strong desire to learn the Greek language and actively enter the labor market soon, make us, the ASC team, presenting her case as a story of strength, courage and hope. It also shows how valuable is the cooperation and interconnection among the various services offered at the Center; these two principles are the foundation on which the Center’s overall operation is based.

*From 1/8/2021 till 31/7/2022, the Athens Solidarity Center’s operation is supported through a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) in the framework of its global COVID-19 Relief Initiative.

**From 1/7/2021 till 30/6/2022, Kahane Foundation supports the Psychosocial service of the Athens Solidarity Center.

*** The Athens Solidarity Center is also supported by the Municipality of Athens.

Marina Kanta, Team Leader, Legal Service

Athens Solidarity Center*, SolidarityNow

 On the World Refugee Day, I would like to speak TO the refugees and not for the refugees. I do not know the language of the programs …”means of verification, results, inputs, outputs, indicators, numbers”… However, I know the language we have spoken with the beneficiaries in the Athens Solidarity Center (ASC) since 2016, when my own trip there began. I know that the beneficiaries of ASC, refugees, migrants, or Greeks, trusted us because we always had the doors open to everyone regardless of nationality, race, politics and religious beliefs or income criteria and I would like to thank them for that.

I would like to tell them that we tried to listen to them, but also to listen carefully and understand deeply their request. We tried to understand the explicitly expressed but also the hidden request. Behind the phrase: “I want a house, I want papers, I want a job” we heard: “I want someone to care, I want acceptance, I want understanding“. We tried to frame and offer integrated services to the beneficiaries, offer a shelter where socially excluded, vulnerable, tortured people would find a solution for most of their needs. Anyone entering the Center could receive the services of a social worker, consult a psychologist, receive legal advice and representation, visit a job counselor, or receive accounting services. And they trusted us… and came again and again to the point of reference.

Our journey with the beneficiaries was not always easy, we had successes, we laughed, we rejoiced, we hugged but we also experienced setbacks. We experienced tensions, anxiety, and became witnesses of human suffering and trauma. We opened and closed circles, but above all I would like to tell our beneficiaries how much we have learned from them. We admired them for their strength; we learned how you rebuild your life even though there is only debris around you; how you survive when all your dreams collapse; we learned to make sense of things that seemed meaningless; we discovered the resilience we hide. In other words, we matured.

Response to the urgent condition

We managed to keep the “doors open” through hermetically sealed houses, behind glass screens, among empty streets. We have adapted to the digital age, we have responded by all means to the new condition of the pandemic, but the beneficiaries have also adapted, and we all joined forces. We fought with viruses, fines, sms, restrictions on movement but the connection was not lost.

I met S. shortly before the first quarantine, a strong woman from Afghanistan, who speaks five languages. I will not talk about what she suffered in her country as a victim of gender-based violence, nor about her serious health problems. I have only to say about the power of her soul, a woman-inspiration for me. We spent a year in quarantine, communicating inside and outside the hospital, preparing an interview with zoom, skype, teams and whatever was needed. We went together to the first interview for her asylum application, and shortly before the end, S. fainted. Her body just paused, she wanted to stop remembering. The second interview was postponed due to Covid-19. We went to the second interview together; we went to win this time – to win a small battle against gender-based violence.

But if I could address the Center’s beneficiaries, I would like to talk to all those for whom I tried but I failed due to reasons beyond my -and our- control. I failed to help them get the refugee status, I failed to help them in their family reunification request. I would like to tell them I am sorry, and I hope that from now on each of their next journeys and efforts to be successful.

A special dedication

For this day, I would like to make a dedication to a woman refugee, a woman holding a special place in my heart. A woman who did not manage to reunite with her husband. A woman who told me how she literally carried her three baby children on her back and walked day and night on snowy mountain peaks and steep slopes to bring them safely to Greece. She told me about the prison in her country of origin and the tortures she had suffered because she dared to speak her mind. She asked me to get her to Germany quickly, because she was tired, but unfortunately, she did not make it. We did not make it.

I dedicate the next efforts and battles to her.

*Since May 2019, the Athens Solidarity Center is financed by EEA Grants, with CROWE Greece and HumanRights360 as the fund operator. The Center is also supported by the Municipality of Athens.

International Day of Families | May 15, 2021

Hadia and her family are from Hanges, a small village in the city of Duhok in Iraq. In 2019, Hadia and her eight children arrived in Greece through Evros, after wandering for several days and facing difficult weather conditions.  Hadia however never lost her faith, since she always kept her children in mind, along with the responsibility of managing to protect them. From the first moment, she found herself in Greece she felt hopeful that everything was going to be alright, and that a new and better future awaited them.

Currently, they live in the Open Accommodation structure in Serres. They feel satisfied with the living conditions since they now live without fear and insecurity.  Moreover, today the children can go to school, think about their future, and make dreams. Meanwhile, they have succeeded in creating a friendly and supportive environment in the Centre with the other members of the community. The children have developed friendships, Hadia keeps in touch with a lot of women and thus, the feeling of belonging offers them hope and security.

When we asked her what the word “family” means for her she said: “Family means happiness, siblings, mother and father, family means life, it is life itself” and she continues “it doesn’t matter if a family consists of many or few members as long as everyone is united as one”. And she adds: “I feel really proud of the family I have created, and I always hope to be there to for them”.

Hadia is a quite powerful woman and the emotional pillar of the family. She has always been there to provide her family with hope, promising her children that everything is going to be alright. The family’s common dream is to continue being safe and get over their problems in order to be happy.

For the future, Hadia wishes the reunion of her family in a European country, preferably in Germany, where they will be able to live all together, supporting each other. She wants her children to study and to be given the opportunities to pursuit their dreams. Then she will also feel complete, as she said.

*SolidarityNow’s “Child & Family Support Hubs” (CFSH) program is supported by UNICEF Greece and IOM Greece with funding by the European Union.