Meeting with Equal Legal Aid in Athens
SafePlace International banner
Student at Velos Youth
Aid boxes distributed by Dobra Fabryka
When Humanity Now visited our Greek partners in November, we were deeply impressed by how they supported the needs of displaced people. We see the same effectiveness in the organizations we help fund in Ukraine and Poland. These grassroots teams are astonishingly productive, even with small budgets. The Be Aware and Share Community Center, for example, can feed 60 refugees for less than $1 a meal. We’re grateful to our donors for making it possible for us to help.
In this issue of Humanity News, we’re sharing the results of our recent funding cycle. We distributed $85,000 in grants to 16 different organizations. When you read the details below, you might think, “They funded everything but the kitchen sink.” In fact, we also funded a kitchen sink—our first, ever! We hope you’ll find the rest of the grant projects as inspiring as we do.
How We Spent Your Generous Donations
Greece:
• A cultural mediator for domestic violence support at Amurtel, a center for displaced pregnant and postpartum women
• Food and transportation vouchers at Better Days’ Gekko, an after-school education project for refugee and migrant students
• Stipends for “community volunteers” (displaced people who serve as staff) and rent for team member accommodation at Be Aware and Share, a community center for people living in camps
• Rent for international dental volunteers at Crisis Management Association, which runs a dental clinic and pharmacy in Mavrovouni Camp on Lesvos Island
• Funding for children’s play space and child care specialist at Irida Women’s Center in Northern Greece
• Six months’ stipend for a field coordinator at Med’EqualiTeam, a mobile medical clinic supporting residents of camps in Northern Greece
• Purchase of diapers, underwear, and menstrual pads for community center clients at Northern Lights Aid in Kavala, Greece
• Purchase of thermal gloves and socks to residents at Vial Camp on Chios Island via Refugee Biriyani and Bananas
• A new sink for Saffron Kitchen Project, a food distribution team that supplies up to 7,000 meals monthly to displaced people
• Rent and utilities for Equal Legal Aid, a clinic that supports asylum seekers in Northern Greece
• Food, educational workshops, medical and legal support, and emergency housing at an Athens-based center serving displaced people from the LGBTQ+ community, SafePlace International
• Six months of English-language instruction, educational materials, and exam fees for Velos Youth, an Athens-based community center for refugee and migrant young people
Poland:
• Funding for accommodation and support staff for Egala Association’s housing project for migrants and refugees on the Poland-Belarus Border
• Polish language instruction costs for Pol Foundation, a Krakow-based humanitarian aid organization supporting marginalized displaced communities
Ukraine:
• Medical assistance vouchers distributed by Dobra Fabryka to 100 particularly vulnerable people in Ukraine’s war zone
• Funding for Stand with Ukraine Foundation to renovate a university dormitory as temporary shelter for internally displaced people in Dnipro, Ukraine
