By Pauline Klose-Abedelghani, Benedetta Romanelli | Co-Director, Fundraising Officer
Over the past months, Lighthouse Relief has continued to create stable, supportive, and accessible spaces for refugees and asylum seekers, adapting our programmes to the evolving needs of the communities we work with.
Starting in May 2026, we have expanded our work in Corinth through a new Safe Space initiative developed in partnership with our local partner, Meraki Humanitarian Support. The community garden - in close proximity to Corinth camp - provides a space for participants to shape and lead activities, which include carpentry workshops. Over the summer we have built a ping-pong table, shade structures for the summer heat, a boules game field, and now we are starting to build a bar table for offering tea, coffee and water to the visitors of the garden. All these are entirely built from recycled materials such as old pallets, and we find it a great opportunity to teach valuable skills and learn together how to build useful things with your hands. The programme also includes trauma-informed creative activities, art and music sessions, photography workshops for young people, community-building games, a multilingual library corner, and other activities designed around the interests and needs of participants. This community garden project offers a valuable safe space away from the grey and restricted life in the camp, to connect with peers and nature and relax in the shade. Building something together can create strong bonds and a feeling of purpose and achievement, which is incredibly valuable for people who are stuck in limbo.
We continue to offer our regular Sport4Development sessions, providing community led basketball and football sessions for your men living in Ritsona and Corinth camps. Participants can engage in physical activity, strengthen social connections, and build skills and resilience on the court as well as off the court. Whether in our longstanding football programme in Ritsona, or in our newly established programme in Corinth, we continue to see the important role that sport plays in fostering community and resilience and create a unique safe space outside of the harsh reality of life in Greece’s refugee camps. In our sports programmes the high majority of our participants are young men between 18 and 25 years of age. This population faces many vulnerabilities in the Greek asylum system, often facing increasing risk for mental health crises and less access to support offers. Before this background, our support for this participant demographic becomes incredibly necessary.
In Malakasa our former partner organization Sama Community Centre has developed into a vibrant community hub with an increasing number of organisations providing activities, services, and opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers from the two camps in Malakasa. Lighthouse Relief has been proud to contribute to this development and to support the creation of a space where people can access a wider range of services and engage with their community. As the number of available services at Sama has grown, we have gradually scaled down this part of our Safe Spaces programme, allowing us to redirect our resources towards communities where access to support remains more limited.
We, however, continued to provide services to said residents of the two Malakasa refugee camps through our monthly distributions of clothing and hygiene articles. Malakasa is one of the most important locations in the Greek asylum system, as the small town hosts one of the largest registration camps in Greece, where the vast majority of new arrivals to the country are transferred to. These people are often highly vulnerable and arrive with little to no possessions, in desperate need for basic clothing suitable for the weather, and hygiene articles such as soap, shampoo, dental products, period products, razors, underwear and socks. Lighthouse Relief - in cooperation with 3 partnering NGOs (CRR, SOS Refugiardos, Katafygio) - hold 2 monthly distributions in a community centre walking distance from the camps, to distribute all listed items to men, women and children. Every month throughout the last half year, we were able to distribute to 400 to 700 people.
These developments reflect Lighthouse Relief's commitment to remaining responsive to changing community needs and ensuring that our resources reach areas where they can have the greatest value. None of this work would be possible without the generosity of our donors and the commitment of our staff, volunteers, and partners. Your support allows us to continue creating spaces where people can connect, learn, participate, and build a sense of community and achievement. On behalf of everyone at Lighthouse Relief, and all those who take part in our activities each week, thank you for being part of this work and for helping us create opportunities for wellbeing, inclusion, and independence across Greece.
Impact Numbers
Since May 4, we have delivered 34 basketball sessions, with two sessions held each week. Participation has been strong and has increased steadily over the reporting period, with a total of 218 participants recorded between May and September. The football programme in Ritsona has also maintained consistently high levels of participation, with one session delivered each week. A total of 229 participants took part between May and September. Community garden activities have engaged approximately 15–20 participants each week, demonstrating sustained interest and positive engagement with these activities. In addition, between May and August, 2,068 people received essential hygiene items and clothing through our monthly distribution programme. The September distribution had not yet taken place at the time of reporting and is therefore not included in this figure.
Testimonials
“Training with Lighthouse is nice, it makes you feel better. That’s the most important need in the camp. To go and play, you can find comfort and compete”
“When we play football and other sports, it gives us a chance to enjoy ourselves. I like to win and succeed”
“Because of lighthouse relief, greece psychosocial resilience is powered by women”
“I saw many families in the camp who don’t have any activities to do, they stay all week in the camp, there are many things they are missing and they need to get out of the camp so they can have a little fun [...] so they don’t feel bored all the times”
“I come to the sessions to take a break from the camp and be with the community”
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