Justice and Human Rights Greece Project #22034

Share Hope with Refugees at Camp Oinofyta Greece

by Do Your Part, Inc

Project Report | Jul 6, 2017
Thank You for helping us provide hope and dignity

By Lisa Campbell | Project Manager

Fresh Vegetable Delivery

In the past three months, lots changes have come to our camp here in Oinofyta. The catering that was provided for the residents was discontinued in May. Through the donations from our wonderful supporters, we have been able to make sure that none of our residents are going hungry. We have been able to continue to provide weekly fresh vegetable deliveries and supplemental food packs for each family unit. Thanks to a generous grant from GlobalGiving, we are installing a commercial freezer and two commercial refrigerators so that the large food deliveries can be kept safe in the summer temperatures and we can now provide dairy products and meat. The new electrical panel has been installed and the units have been ordered for delivery soon.

We have been able to remodel our warehouse space to make it a much friendlier experience for each of our 500 residents. Now they can come for the clothing distribution and actually ‘shop’ for what they need for their families. This gives them a sense of dignity that can’t come when they have to sort through boxes or bins of donations.

Our workshop has outgrown it’s one container and we are moving it to a new location in the camp where we can have two containers with a roof between them so that more of our residents can enjoy making for themselves. The workshop has been a great place for creativity to show through. We have built two beautiful shade areas that are the new social gathering spaces for residents of all ages.

The sewing center is growing in both the number of residents working there as well as the number of people who want to support their work by purchasing the items they make. The generosity of our supporters is allowing them to have the supplies they need to make beautiful, high quality products. The regular routine has been a great way for those who are working there to regain their sense of self-worth.

The women’s space has become the gathering place every afternoon. Our team is providing English classes and other activities for the women so that they can gather and socialize while learning new things. We have regular classes on women’s issues and provide breastfeeding classes and baby care classes.

Our teen center is giving the youth an opportunity to explore their skills and talents with photography workshops, computer classes and other activities provided five days a week.

Our newest project is a child friendly space for the children from age 5 to 12. We are putting a fence in this week and are looking to raise the funds to purchase 2 portable classrooms so that the younger children can have a place to go that is just for them.

We do not know exactly what the future holds for us here, but we are confident that thanks to the generous support of our GlobalGiving donors, we will continue to be able to provide for the needs of our residents!

The New Warehouse shopping space

Some of our Sewing Center workers

One of our shade spaces

Permalink

Apr 7, 2017
Hope Continues to Grow

By Lisa Campbell | Project Leader/Executive Director

Carpentry workshop

One year in, and thanks to the generosity of our supporters, Do Your Part has been able to make a huge difference in the lives of the residents of Oinofyta Camp. Our relationship with the Ministry of Migration is strong and they have requested more assistance in taking care of the camp. With your support, we will continue to build more facilities for the community.

In the past year, this is what we have accomplished!

Do Your Part has provided/accomplished the following:
*A school for the children and adults
*3 community cooking spaces
*A Sewing center
*A Barber/beauty shop
*A Mosque
*A Women’s space
*A Teen center
*A Multi-purpose space where we currently do children’s activities and movie nights as well as have scheduled visits from a local team of acupuncturists who provide de-stressing help to the residents.
*We have renovated the first floor to accommodate the single men, allowing the families to be on the main floor.
*We purchased a shower container
*We have replaced/waterproofed the entire roof surface
*We created a warehouse space
*We have installed three containers with 32 computers for computer learning centers.
*We provided 10 washing machines onsite for the community to use.
*We have provided locking doors for the rooms for the families
*We built a chicken coop where the residents work to take care of the flock and the eggs are distributed to the residents
*We have installed and equipped a carpentry shop for the community to use
*We replaced 27+ broken windows
*We have run electricity and placed a power panel to the left side of the camp to power the school
* We have run electricity to the three IOM containers
* We have run electricity and leveled the UNHCR container
* We have run electricity to the four Do Your Part containers
*We provide weekly deliveries of vegetables and dry foods for the residents to cook for themselves
*We have coordinated the deliveries of around €150,000 worth of clothing, hygiene items, bedding, cleaning products, food and other supplies for the residents to use.

Everything that we have done has been done with the best interest of the residents and their safety and comfort in mind. Each thing or space that we have provided thus far has been discussed with the community in one of our weekly community meetings. This is what the residents themselves want to have in their community.
We are looking forward to another great year helping the refugees during this critical time in their lives as we provide hope for a better life ahead.

Building Clothesline poles

The product of being able to cook for themselves

Results from the Sewing Center

Links:

Visit our NEW website

Permalink

Jan 5, 2017
"A New Year with new goals"

By Lisa Campbell | Vice President/Greece Project Manager

Oinofyta Refugee Camp

Nine months have passed in the Oinofyta Refugee Camp, and Do Your Part is going strong with the help of our wonderful donors. Since the last report, we have finished the waterproofing on the roof and also took on the task to bring all of the residents in from the tents by building out the upstairs section of the building. With the help of a great contractor, we have built 11 dorm style rooms and one bathroom block with seven showers, five toilets and five sinks, and have moved 100 single people upstairs. Now all of the families are downstairs on the main floor level!

Three weeks ago, the Ministry of Migration announced that we are now a permanent camp. At the ribbon cutting ceremony for the upstairs build-out, the representative told us that the reason that we have become a permanent camp is because of the work that has been done by our team here. We are very proud of and grateful for all of the volunteers who have come and helped us get to this point.

We continue to provide fresh vegetables and fruit for the residents as well as a weekly distribution of rice, lentils, chickpeas, tomato paste, sugar, salt and tea. Our third kitchen will be ready to open next week and that will give us 45 burners for the families to cook on. The stainless steel shelving means that it will last and be very easy to clean.

We now have 100 hens in the chicken coop and are getting around 40 eggs per day. The Beauty/Barber shop is open five days a week and the residents are very happy to have this service onsite. The sewing center is busy with people altering and repairing clothing and this week they have begun to produce tote bags that will be sold online to allow the residents to earn some extra money. We are using the extra clothing that has been donated that is not appropriate for the residents to wear to make the tote bags. Do Your Part provides the other supplies that are needed to make these bags, thanks to the generosity of our donors.

Our team is in charge of all distribution from the warehouse and we continue to source hygiene products, diapers, baby wipes, formula and cleaning supplies. With the help of the residents, the warehouse does distribution five days a week and we have special distributions a few times a month.

Now that we are officially a permanent camp, we have begun to remove the tents from outside. This has been a wonderful thing for the residents, to know that they will not have to be in tents this winter. The temperatures here reach below freezing for a few weeks and living in a tent is not an ideal situation.

We are moving on to the second phase of building infrastructure now and we are hoping to provide a compact sewage treatment plant for the camp. We have a long wish-list of things that we want to provide for the community and will be working hard to accomplish this list. We hope that our donors will continue to support us in this endeavor so that we can continue to help the refugee population as they move on to their new lives.

Thank you so much for all the support you have provided.

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.