By Colleen Bromberger | Co-Founder and Co-Director
INTRODUCTION
The Fáilte Centre in Athens, Greece is thriving! In 2024, our second full year of operation, we focused on:
We are particularly proud of the relationships we have built with those who come to Fáilte; in fact, over 20% of our visitors in 2024 had also come in 2023. As we look forward to 2025, we hope to continue offering long-term, consistent and quality programming to individuals in Athens, Greece.
OVERVIEW
In 2024, a total of 105 individuals used our Education and MHPSS Programming at Fáilte. These individuals came from 23 different countries, with the majority from Egypt, Congo, Afghanistan and Cameroon, with ages ranging from 18-month-old triplets from Congo to a 70-year-old woman from Iran.
OUR EDUCATION PROGRAMME
Individualised English sessions remained the most popular Education Programme activity, followed by small group English sessions. Thanks to a generous donation of educational materials, Fáilte students are provided with brand new workbooks, notebooks and writing utensils. In terms of our Professional Preparation sessions, University Writing Support was the most popular, followed by CV-making sessions, computer literacy and English language exam preparation sessions.
Thanks to our diverse community of volunteers, we were also able to expand our language sessions to include French, German, Greek and Spanish. All new teachers received training sessions on both facilitating lessons and planning curricula in order to support their classes.
In 2024, 17 students participated in 58 one-on-one and small group French, German, Greek and Spanish lessons. Of these four languages, German was the most popular class for Fáilte students. A little over half of the students in our Education Programme identified as female, while a little less identified as male. These students ranged in age from 10 years of age to 70, from countries including Afghanistan, Congo, Egypt, Palestine, and Somalia.
OUR MHPSS PROGRAMME
Our Safe Space continued to be our most popular activity in our MHPSS program with 105 individuals (adults and children) engaging in our Safe Space, Children’s Activities and Individual Support Sessions. In 2024, our Safe Space had 648 visits and our Children’s Area had 126 visits. Our Individual Support Sessions focused on trauma and integration into Greece. 100% of participants identified as Female and sessions took place in English.
Our Safe Space activities in 2024 included knitting, sewing, chess as well as an expanded Music Programme. In fact, music was one of our most popular Safe Space activities, with almost 60 individual music lessons taking place where students had the opportunity to learn guitar, recorder, piano and voice. We also held a dedicated Music Week as part of the annual Refugee Week Greece event, where students tried new instruments such as trumpet and clarinet. We observed the importance of music as part of psychosocial support and building positive coping mechanisms among our individuals.
OUR SPECIAL CHILDREN'S EVENTS
Thanks to the variety of talents, skills, and incredible leadership of our volunteers, we were able to offer special events for children at Fáilte, including a music-filled week to celebrate Refugee Week Greece 2024, a juggling workshop, parent-child English literacy sessions and a special theatrical performance with music and dance.
OUR VOLUNTEER COMMUNITY
In 2024, 29 volunteers from 14 different countries supported the work of Fáilte. This included leading language lessons, facilitating art or music workshops, and sharing their passions and skillsets with the Fáilte community. One volunteer, our Fundraising Intern, supported our work remotely. Two volunteers from the U.S. used their experience at Fáilte in order to fill graduation requirements for their university degrees.
OUR PARTNERSHIPS AND SUPPORTERS
This year we welcomed two new partnerships: Global Connect Courses and GlobalGiving. Our partnership with Global Connect Courses, which supports refugees with receiving a General Education High School Diploma, includes tutoring and university preparation sessions, all of which are held at our Centre. We were also accepted as a partner on the GlobalGiving platform, which allows us to connect with donors and fundraising opportunities, including matching incentives on special donation days around the world. We are also grateful to continue working with our previous partners from 2022 and 2023, including local organisations and supermarkets, which provided us with vouchers to use for essential items.
OUR FINANCES
The majority of our income came from grants, two of which were new this year. We also participated in two GlobalGiving campaigns, which increased our individual donations this year by 8.7% compared to 2023. We are immensely grateful to all of our donors, who have allowed us to continue providing a welcoming and safe environment.
At 78.80%, our expenditure of running costs (e.g. rent, electricity and WiFi) continue to be our main expense. Providing a safe, warm and comfortable physical space is at the heart of what we do; therefore covering these costs is essential for us in continuing to provide a welcoming centre in Athens.
CONCLUSION
Thank you for being a part of the Fáilte Community! For our full annual report, including statistics and photographs from 2024, please see the attached file.
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.
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