Mar 15 2021
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Huxley, ESC volunteer: a very enriching and educational time with refugees in the Welcommon Hostel

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My name is Huxley Schnur and I`ve spent 2 months in the welcommon hostel volunteering with the social cooperative Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal. These two months as a participant in the European Solidarity Corps project “Social Green Innovation for Young Persons” have been a very enriching and educational time.

What I liked most about my time in the Welcommon Hostel was the teaching and the exchange with the students and really connecting with my co-workers and making a lot of friends in the process.

My go to memory of that time are the long talks we had with some of our students about how they fled from their home afraid of being killed, if they don´t leave everything they know behind.

One night my girlfriend and I had an hour long talk with one of the refugees in the hostel, telling us about his journey from Afghanistan to Greece. He told us how he had to leave his home, being threatened by the Taliban because he was a liberate muslim. A young boy, not more than 13-14 years old, threatened his life and told him he ‘d kill him if he wouldn’t convert to his beliefs. So the man packed his stuff and took his wife and newborn and left for safety elsewhere and for a brighter future. When we talked to him, his wife and son were in Germany applying for asylum.

It still moves me until this day to think of all the things they have told me and all the things I’ ve learned from them whilst volunteering in the Welcommon Hostel.

When I first arrived I knew no one and didn`t really know what to do when I entered the classroom and tried to educate my students on the german language. Luckily there were my co-volunteers, who soon turned into friends, that helped me get through this adapting period with useful tips and advice on how to be at ease and still be a good teacher.

Sadly after the first month the lockdown came and we had to cancel all outside classes. But we figured out a solution and had classes exclusively for the refugees – residents in the hostel, so we could keep up teaching during the lockdown. We designed a new schedule, with new classes to execute during lockdown. Unfortunately our planned classes didn`t match the sleeping schedules of the residents so we had to adapt to that. But little by little we created a kind of normality during the strangest of times.

Right from the beginning I loved the concept behind the Welcommon Hostel. That being the unification and combination of sustainable tourism and the accommodation, empowerment and non formal education of refugees. Even though tourism collapsed after Covid, just by the volunteers and refugees living in the same building kept the spark that is the Welcommon Hostel alive.

I absolutely enjoyed my time in the Welcommon Hostel, which taught me so much about myself, real suffering and true happiness. Here goes a big thank you to all those people that made the two months I ‘ve spent so lovely.

Mar 15 2021
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Lia, ESC volunteer: we created a kind of normality during the strangest of times

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My name is Lia Thiede and I’ve spent 2 months in the Welcommon Hostel volunteering, as a participant of the European Solicarity Corps project “Social Green Innovation for Young People” implemented by the social cooperative Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal. These two months have been a very enriching and educational time.

When I first arrived I knew no one and didn’t really know what to do when I entered the classroom and tried to educate my students on the german language. Luckily there were my co-volunteers and the staff of Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal, who soon turned into friends, that helped me get through this adapting period with useful tips and advice on how to be at ease and still be a good teacher.

Sadly after the first month the lockdown came and we had to cancel all outside classes. But we figured out a solution and had classes exclusively for the residents, so we could keep up teaching during the lockdown. We designed a new schedule, with new classes to execute during lockdown. Unfortunately our planned classes didn`t match the sleeping schedules of the residents so we had to adapt to that. But little by little we created a kind of normality during the strangest of times.

What I liked most about my time in the Welcommon Hostel as a ESC participant, was the teaching and the exchange with the students and really connecting with my co-workers and making a lot of friends in the process. Our students were so grateful and happy about every lesson they had. Every time they exited the classroom they had a smile on their lips and said: “thank you teacher“, which always warmed my heart. Furthermore they were really ambitious and anxious about learning languages from us, some even learned extensively at home more than what was expected from us with homework. I always thought this ambition and passion was very inspiring and I´ll always cherish their motivated faces in my memory. I think I will try to be as ambitious going forward as these people were, having faced things I couldn’t even imagine.

My go to memory of that time are the long talks we had with some of our students about how they fled from their home afraid of being killed, if they don´t leave everything they know behind. It still moves me until this day to think of all the things they have told me and all the things I´ve learned from them whilst volunteering in the Welcommon Hostel. Right from the start I really liked the concept of the Welcommon Hostel: to combine sustainable tourism with the accommodation of refugees and by doing so creating an exchange between these two groups. Concerning the fact that tourism collapsed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, I think the concept still worked alone by volunteers from all over Europe and refugees living together.

It was a wonderful experience being part of the communinty of the Welcommon Hostel and learning and growing together with friends, mentors, refugees and coworkers.

Mar 15 2021
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Common statement, Stand Up for the Social Pillar Alliance

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Common statement, Stand Up for the Social Pillar Alliance

Before the release of the release of the Action Plan for the Social Pillar by the Commission next May the 3rd, and in parallel to the informal meeting of Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs (EPSCO), the Stand Up for the Social Pillar Alliance publishes the following common statement.

The European Confederation of Industrial and Service Cooperatives, the European Trade Union Confederation, Social Economy Europe, the Social Platform, members of Alliance Stand Up for the European Pillar of Social Rights, jointly state:

The Alliance calls for an ambitious Action Plan implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). We believe that the EU’s recovery must be grounded in strong, sustainable and resilient economies flanked by social policies and services to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on our health, employment, economy, and on equality and democracy in our societies.

We are committed to the principles enshrined in the EPSR and call on our European and national institutions to deliver an ambitious Action Plan to fully implement them. This Plan must be based on the European values, principles and cornerstones of:

–Innovativeness and comprehensiveness: The Action Plan to implement the EPSR must lead to a higher quality of life for all, with new policies to bring social progress as well as a greener and more digital future.

– Promptness: The Action Plan should protect workers and enterprises that are suffering from the economic consequences of the pandemic crisis with the main aim of preserving jobs, including income of workers, self-employed and social entrepreneurs.

– Social ambition: The Action Plan should restore social and regional cohesion, fight inequalities, poverty and exclusion, lead fairer digital and green transitions, establish gender equality, ban discriminations and ensure equal opportunities for all. In the aftermath of the pandemic, it should rely on a job-rich recovery and lead to strengthened social protection systems that guarantee dignity to people of all ages.

– Social & economic well-being: The Action Plan should guide the use of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and shape a fairer and more equal post-Covid reaction. The RRF must fund actions that implement the EPSR and that relaunch the European project on the basis of thriving economies, advanced social models and wide-spread well-being.

– Investments & common good: We expect the Action Plan to promote public investments and to champion universal, effective, high quality and accessible public services, including health and care. It must stimulate private investors’ commitment to pursue the public good as well as tangible environmental, social and good governance progress. Enterprises of all sizes that can provide a high social return must be supported and rewarded – including the social economy and not-for-profit providers of social services, paying special attention to the collective and community dimensions and to socially relevant performances.

– Concreteness and tangibility: Actions aimed at recovery and social progress must be concrete and should therefore be measurable and accompanied by monitoring frameworks, jointly agreed among relevant stakeholders, encompassing the social, environmental and economic criteria.

Please find here the full statement, that has been sent today to the 27 Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs of the EU.