By Gabriella Dixon | Co-Founder
Dear Friends,
there is an ice-cold headwind facing organizations, NGOs, journalists, aid workers, civilians, etc., working to protect human rights in the refugee context. Aid workers are charged with criminal action for saving lives, and journalists reporting on illegal pushback on Greece's borders are intimidated and accused of fake news. .https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1202265/lesvos-court-rejects-charges-against-aid-workers/ In this case, 24 people – 17 foreigners and seven Greeks – were charged over their work assisting people whose lives were at risk arriving at Lesvos. Fortunately, this case was rejected by the Greek court after loud international protests – for now! But the message is clear: "Trials like this are deeply concerning because they criminalize life-saving work and set a dangerous precedent," (UN Human Rights Office) "Indeed, there has already been a chilling effect, with human rights defenders and humanitarian organizations forced to halt their human rights work in Greece and other EU countries."
While not directly affected by the Government's crackdown and not easily intimidated, it has not been fun working in this climate. Our partner organization HR360 has fallen victim to this witch hunt for their border monitoring activities at the Evros River and the cynic rhetoric of pushback denials and the shedding of responsibilities by both Turkey and Greece (and Europe at large).
Despite this chilly political environment the solidarity and cooperation between aid organizations to assist refugees are high and undeterred to keep going when and where possible. At the HUB our amazing team of teachers and volunteers keeps concentrating on offering high-quality services to our students. Since our last report in September, we managed to realize all our new projects and have therefore had a very busy term! Based on student feedback from our previous evaluation in the summer term, we added some intensive language classes to our regular program. The average number of language students is at an all-time high at 188. Overall, we are also noticing higher attendance levels than the previous months and fewer dropouts. We prepared 25 students for the December ESB English language exams. We are still waiting for the results.
Our volunteers, Farah and Salma, run two Computer Beginners' courses and we offer ECDL classes for certificates. With early opening hours between 7.45 am for early classes and closing at 9.30, the HUB is almost at total capacity.
We are very excited about our high-quality Vocational Training at the HUB: The 2n Coding program is up and running and is now in its third month.
We also added pilot training courses to our services: a 3-month Senior Caregiving training in cooperation with the German Malteser Hilfsdienst and host WeEducate, run by a former volunteer teacher, Sophie, and Matt (teaching the English language at the HUB) that offers globally certified TEFL teacher training program to members of migrant communities.
Apart from offering educational services to assist our students to fast track into employment and independent life in Greece, we give importance to offering community-building activities and field trips to our students who rarely get a chance to step out of their daily struggles. Getting to know and understand what Athens has to offer in ways of culture and history, is key to integration and identification to build a new home. As part of our cultural trips, we took students to the Ancient Agora of Athens. We are planning plenty more museum visits and field trips in the new year, which we are really looking forward to!
Thank you so much for making all of this possible!
The ECHO Team
By GABRIELLA DIXON | CO-Founder
By GABRIELLA DIXON | Co-Founder
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