Irida: Safe space for 650 women at risk in Greece

Over the past months, Irida Women’s Center has continued to provide essential protection, legal, and psychosocial support to women in Thessaloniki who are facing violence, poverty, social exclusion, and multiple barriers to safety and justice.

During this reporting period, we supported 224 women through individualized protection services, including social support, referrals, accompaniment, and emergency assistance. Behind this number are women navigating complex and often overlapping challenges: violence or the risk of violence, poverty, insecurity, health concerns, legal uncertainty, lack of access to services, and social isolation.

For many of the women we support, protection does not begin and end with one appointment or one referral. It often requires time, trust, and a combination of different forms of support: being listened to without judgment, understanding their rights, accessing legal aid, covering urgent needs, receiving psychosocial support, and being accompanied through complex public and legal systems. This is why Irida’s work remains holistic, individualized, and grounded in each woman’s own reality.

Legal aid continued to be one of the most critical areas of our work. During this period, 30 women received legal support, while our legal team provided legal sessions/interventions on issues related to gender-based violence, custody, divorce, residence status, access to public services, and court procedures. In many cases, women had no financial means to access private legal support and very limited alternatives for free, specialized legal representation.

Through Irida, women were able to receive reliable legal information, better understand their options, and take concrete steps toward safety, dignity, and justice. This support is especially important in cases where legal procedures are lengthy, emotionally demanding, and difficult to navigate without specialized guidance.

One woman supported during this period was facing domestic violence. With Irida’s support, she was able to pursue her rights, issue interim measures, initiate the divorce process, and take full custody of their children. Her case reflects what we see every day: legal support is not only about procedures. It is about helping women regain agency when systems feel inaccessible, intimidating, or impossible to face alone.

At the same time, our social support team continued responding to urgent and practical needs that directly affect women’s safety and stability. During this reporting period, we provided 1906 social support sessions/interventions, including support in accessing healthcare, referrals to public and civil society services, accompaniment to appointments, emergency assistance, and individualized case management. For women facing multiple and overlapping forms of vulnerability, this type of support is essential. It helps reduce immediate risks while also creating the conditions for women to make informed decisions about their next steps.

Psychosocial support also remained a key part of the protection pathway. During this period, 118 women accessed group psychosocial support through Irida. Many women arrive at our center carrying fear, uncertainty, isolation, and the emotional consequences of violence, displacement, poverty, or long-term insecurity. Through this support, women are offered a safe space where they can feel heard, regain confidence, and begin rebuilding a sense of stability and connection.

Beyond direct support to individual women, Irida has also continued working with the wider community to strengthen prevention and response to gender-based violence. During this reporting period, we engaged a total of 49 local businesses through training in the context of the #SheChangeSpeak Campaign: Thessaloniki raises its voices against gender based violence.  These collaborations help create safer and more informed spaces in Thessaloniki, where women at risk can be connected to support before a situation escalates further.

This community-based work is an important part of protection. Women experiencing violence or severe vulnerability do not always reach specialized services immediately. Sometimes, the first person to notice that something is wrong may be someone in their neighborhood, workplace, or local community. By working with businesses and community actors, Irida helps build a more responsive local environment around women.

This reporting period has also been important for Irida’s long-term development. Alongside our frontline work, we have been developing our new Strategic Plan 2026 - 2029, which will guide the organization’s work in the coming years. This process has allowed us to reflect on what we have learned from years of direct support to women, assess the changing needs of our community, and define how Irida can continue to provide high-quality, relevant, and sustainable services.

The new strategy places strong emphasis on protection, access to justice, community prevention, evidence-based advocacy, and organizational resilience. In practice, this means that Irida is not only responding to urgent needs today but also strengthening its capacity to address the deeper barriers that prevent women from accessing safety, rights, and dignity.

One of the clearest lessons from this period is that women rarely face one challenge at a time. A woman seeking legal support may also need emergency social assistance, psychosocial care, interpretation, accompaniment, or help navigating public services. Public systems are often overstretched, legal procedures can be lengthy, and women experiencing violence or severe vulnerability are frequently expected to manage these barriers alone. Irida’s role is to make sure they do not have to.

Thanks to your support, we are able to continue offering steady, specialized, and compassionate support to women who might otherwise be left without options. Every contribution helps ensure that women in Thessaloniki can access a safe space, receive reliable information, and take meaningful steps toward safety, dignity, and justice.

Thank you for standing with Irida and with the women of our community.

Dearest supporters,

We hope this message finds you well.

Throughout the past triennial, 2023-2025, we reached and supported more than 1,800 women exposed to gender-based violence and facing increased vulnerabilities. Our response combined protection services, legal assistance, mental health and psychosocial support, and pathways to economic empowerment. 

A cornerstone of our programming has been our mental health and psychosocial support, assisting women in processing traumatic experiences and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorders, developing coping mechanisms, building emotional resilience, and strengthening social connectivity within a safe, welcoming, and trusting environment.

Through open psychosocial support groups built on creative expression and community-led activities, women accessed pathways to healing and socio-emotional support while engaging as active participants in a solid, peer-to-peer chain of empowerment.

Today, we are pleased to share with you the Irida Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Handbook through Arts.  This handbook reflects our holistic, gender-sensitive, and community-centered methodology. It presents a representative selection of open psychosocial support sessions and community-led artistic activities implemented throughout 2025, outlining both our structured approach and the women’s lived experiences.

This Handbook captures the essence of our work: fostering safe and welcoming settings where women are heard, respected, and empowered to reconnect with themselves and others. It demonstrates how creative expression, collective participation, and community care cultivate resilience, emotional well-being, and pathways toward healing and sustainable inclusion.

We are sharing this resource with you in the hope that it offers meaningful insight into the impact of your support. Your trust enables women not only to access services but to rebuild confidence, strengthen community bonds, and lay strong foundations for their future.

Sending greetings from our community,
Lydia Siapardani

• The Handbook (PDF)