Margaux: participating in a European Solidarity Corps project in Athens with Wind of Renewal

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I am Margaux.

During the first weekend following my arrival at Welcommon Hostel, I had the chance to attend a three-day seminar bringing together different NGOs working on migration issues and coming from different countries: Philippines, United States, Greece, Albania, Poland …

These first days were very interesting and allowed me to update my knowledge concerning the migration crisis in Athens in recent years. They also allowed me to meet many different actors with whom I would like to stay in touch if I continue to work on these issues, and also to participate in empowerment workshops such as the “Story telling” workshop or “organize effective crowdfunding ”.

The following days were a little more difficult because there were only two of us in the volunteer team in December, which did not correspond to what was announced in the description that I had personally found on the Workaway site. Also, the missions were ultimately not those announced.

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The second week, we organized a workshop “Make your own comic strip” where only two teenagers participated, one of whom spoke no English at all, which made us completely readjust the workshop created. Then, I organized a workshop “Create your own stand for the Welcommon Hostel winter market“. Again, no one came during the week, except on Saturday when four children and their mother came.

So, from the observation that creating workshops was not enough because the new comers were not already used to coming to Welcommon Hostel for such activities, I had to readjust the tasks to be done. In the following weeks, I therefore concentrated on making the communication as much as possible for NGOs established around the Exarchia district thanks to contacts that had given me by Ida, one of the receptionists of the hotel. I also changed the formula, instead of offering activities over an entire week, I preferred to offer several short activities taking place once a week. This is how I started to work on the installation of a film club, a karaoke, and a “Sunday activity”.

English lessons meanwhile worked well. There were two advanced students when I arrived and as the weeks went by, the English course kept growing with new students; at the end of my volunteering we had a good twenty students coming more or less regularly. I really enjoyed giving English lessons, trying to find learning methods, and reviewing grammar basics to pass them on.

To conclude, the month of December was a bit fluctuating because there were few people coming to the hotel and few volunteers. And the last two weeks have been very hard, because nobody came to the workshops, the second volunteer from Australia left without giving any news and the new Indian volunteers were not very helpful during this period, arriving regularly with about three hours late. I felt quite depressed during this period, feeling left on my own without support, and having to work on tasks different from those announced without support from other volunteers.

 

Fortunately in early January three new volunteers arrived: Ben, Roseanna and Franziska! One of the Indian volunteers Noyonika also stayed. With this small team, we all got along very well to continue the activities at the Welcommon Hostel. This very enthusiastic new team dynamic allowed the activities to work little by little! Thanks to the support that we gave to each other, communication started to gain momentum and we were able to divide up the missions to be carried out: create posters announcing events, go and stick them in different places, communicate on Facebook, better distribute the students of the beginners and advanced English lessons, animate the events and look for other associations in the area to create partnerships.

Roseanna and Ben have also created online communication tools to exchange our resources thanks to a Google Drive and to identify new students in the English course and have a follow-up on each student’s progress. Then we set up more regular team meetings aimed at improving our functioning and our activities, and meetings with the manager to communicate to him our intentions of activities and to ask him questions concerning the safety rules in Greece. We started asking the English class students if they had any ideas for activities they would like to do. Also, for the more advanced in English we asked them if they would like to teach in turn, and we proposed to some students if they would like to share their knowledge in Farsi, Arabic, French or in other areas of activities.

Franziska allowed, with the help of the team and the hotel manager, several teenagers from our English lessons to organize a kick-boxing session at the Welcommon Hostel. We learned about safety issues, found the basic equipment necessary for the workshop to run, and the manager helped us find a professional to accompany the workshop.

We also allowed other teenagers to organize a music evening at the Welcommon Hostel bar thanks to a DJ they knew. So, little by little, all the activities started to attract more and more people. But it was necessary to constantly support the communication with the students of the English course after having noticed that nobody came to the events when we did not insist every day, even if the week before a lot of people had come.

To conclude, the month of January was much more rewarding. I learned a lot from Roseanna and Franziska thanks to their knowledge of social work: I learned in particular that the most important whatever the organized activity is to spend a pleasant time all together and to create team, to remain vigilant in the way of proposing these activities to avoid waking up traumas and remaining adaptable to different personal situations, and finally to allow others as soon as possible to become active actors in their turn.

I also learned a lot from Ben by attending some of his English lessons. I was inspired by some of his learning methods and I gained more self-confidence while teaching. Working in duo with Roseanna was also beneficial for us may exchange our resources and methods.

For communication, I remember that what was most effective to communicate informally in different places welcoming refugee populations: canteens, free shop, party places … Also, have a start of friendly relationship with some people we met often made them want to join our activities.

Finally, word of mouth ended up working, friends of our students began to come more and more. For cultural events, concentrating communication with students of English courses has also proven to be more effective than trying to reach new people from other organizations.

Finally, I am very happy to have left on a very positive final note. We organized a visit to the Acropolis of Athens on the first Sunday of the month when all the historic sites and museums are free. Many of our young and old students came. On this occasion, I organized a “chocolate photo rally”. The animation worked very well, everyone came out very happy with the activity, and we ended with a huge outdoor game with students from another school, curious to meet us.

Finishing with this great outing was very encouraging for me, despite the difficult beginnings, I keep precious everything I have learned and all the wonderful meetings I have made during these two months.

 

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Lors du premier week-end suivant mon arrivée au Welcommon Hostel, j’ai eu la chance d’assister à un séminaire de trois jours réunissant différentes ONG travaillant sur les questions migratoires et venues de différents pays: Philippines, Etats-Unis, Grèce, Alabanie, Pologne…
 
Ces premiers jours ont été très intéressants et m’ont permis de mettre à jour mes connaissances concernant la crise migratoire à Athènes de ces dernières années. Ils m’ont également permis de rencontrer beaucoup d’acteurs différents avec lesquels j’aimerais rester en contact si je continue à travailler sur ces questions, et aussi de participer à des ateliers enrichissants comme l’atelier «Story telling» ou encore «Comment organiser un crowdfunding efficace».
Les jours suivants ont été un peu plus difficiles car nous n’étions que deux dans l’équipe de volontaires ce qui ne correspondait pas à ce qui était annoncé dans le descriptif que j’avais personnellement trouvé sur le site Workaway. Aussi, les missions n’étaient finalement pas celles annoncées.
 
La deuxième semaine, nous avons organisé un workshop «Réalise ta propre bandedessinée» où seulement deux adolescents sont venus dont un ne parlant pas du tout anglais, ce qui nous a fait réadapter complètement l’atelier créé. Puis, j’ai organisé un atelier «Créé ton propre stand à l’occasion du marché d’hiver du Welcommon Hostel». Là encore, personne n’est venu de la semaine, à part le samedi où quatre enfants et leur maîtresse sont venus.
Donc, à partir du constat que créer des ateliers ne suffisait pas car le public n’était pas déjà habitué à venir au Welcommon Hostel, j’ai dû réadapter les tâches à faire. Les semaines suivantes, je me suis donc concentrée à faire de la communication le plus possible pour des ONG établies autour du quartier Exarchia grâce à des contacts que m’avaient donné Ida, une des réceptionnistes de l’hôtel. J’ai également changé la formule, au lieu de proposer des activités sur toute une semaine, j’ai préféré proposer plusieurs activités courtes ayant lieu une fois par semaine. C’est ainsi que j’ai commencé à travailler sur l’installation d’un ciné-club, d’un karaoké, et d’un «dimanche d’activité ».
 
Les cours d’anglais quant à eux ont bien fonctionnés. Il y avait deux étudiants avancés quand je suis arrivée et au fur et à mesure des semaines, le cours d’anglais n’a cessé de s’ agrandir avec de nouveaux étudiants; à la fin de mon volontariat nous avions une bonne vingtaine d’élèves venant plus ou moins régulièrement. J’ai énormément apprécié donner les cours d’anglais débutants, pour essayer de trouver des méthodes d’apprentissage, et revoir des bases de grammaire pour les transmettre à mon tour.
 
Pour conclure, le mois de Décembre a été un peu fluctuant car il y avait peu de personnes venant à l’hôtel et peu de volontaires. Et les deux dernières semaines ont été très dures, car personnes n’est venu aux ateliers organisés, car le deuxième volontaire est parti sans donner de nouvelles et car les nouvelles volontaires indiennes n’ont pas été très aidantes sur cette période, arrivant régulièrement avec environ trois heures de retard. Je me suis sentie assez déprimée à cette période, me sentant laissée à moi-même sans soutien de la part du manager, et devant travailler sur des tâches différentes de celles annoncées sans soutien de la part d’autres volontaires.
 
Heureusement début Janvier sont arrivés trois nouveaux volontaires: Ben, Roseanna et Fransesca ! L’une des volontaires indiennes Noyonika est également restée. Avec cette petite équipe, nous nous sommes tous très bien entendus pour continuer les activités au Welcommon Hostel. Cette nouvelle dynamique d’équipe très enthousiaste ont permis aux activités de fonctionner peu à peu! Grâce au soutien que nous nous sommes donnés les uns les autres, la communication a commencé à prendre de l’ampleur et nous avons pu nous répartir les missions à réaliser: créer les affiches d’annonce des événements, aller les coller dans différents endroits, faire la communication sur Facebook, mieux se répartir les élèves des cours d’anglais débutants et avancés, animer les événements et rechercher d’ autres associations aux alentours pour créer des partenariats.
 
Roseanna et Ben ont également créé des outils de communication en ligne pour échanger nos ressources grâce à un Google Drive et pour recenser les nouveaux élèves du cours d’anglais et avoir un suivi des progressions de chacun. Puis nous avons mis en place des réunions d’équipe plus régulières visant à améliorer notre fonctionnement et nos activités, et des réunions avec le manager pour lui communiquer nos intentions d’activités et lui poser des questions concernant les règles de sécurité en Grèce. Nous avons commencé à demander aux élèves du cours d’anglais si ils avaient des idées d’activités qu’ils aimeraient faire. Aussi, pour les plus avancés en anglais nous leur avons demandés si ils souhaiteraient enseigner à leur tour, et nous avons proposé à certains élèves si ils souhaiteraient partager leurs connaissances en farsi, en arabe, en français ou encore dans d’autres domaines d’activités.
 
Fransesca a permis, avec l’aide de l’équipe et du manager de l’hôtel, à plusieurs adolescents de nos cours d’anglais d’organiser une session de kick-boxing au Welcommon Hostel. Nous nous sommes renseignés sur les questions de sécurité, nous trouvé le matériel de base nécessaire au déroulement de l’atelier et le manager nous a aidé à trouver un professionnel pouvant accompagner l’atelier.
 
Nous avons également permis à d’autres adolescents d’ organiser une soirée au bar du Welcommon Hostel grâce à un DJ qu’ils connaissaient. Ainsi, peu à peu, toutes les activités ont commencé à attirer de plus en plus de monde. Mais si il a fallu soutenir constamment la communication auprès des élèves du cours d’anglais après avoir constaté que personne ne venait aux événements quand nous n’insistions pas tous les jours, et ce même si la semaine d’avant beaucoup de monde était venu.
 
Pour conclure, le mois de Janvier a été beaucoup plus enrichissant. J’ai beaucoup appris de Roseanna et de Fransesca grâce à leur connaissance du travail social : j’ai notamment appris que le plus important quelque soit l’activité organisée est de passer un moment agréable tous ensemble et de créer du lien, de rester vigilante dans la manière de proposer ces activités pour éviter de réveiller des traumatismes et de rester adaptable aux différentes situations personnelles, et enfin de permettre dès que possible à d’autres de devenir force de proposition à leur tour.
 
J’ai également beaucoup appris grâce à Ben en assistant à quelques uns de ses cours d’anglais. Je me suis inspirée de certaines de ses méthodes d’apprentissage et j’ai ainsi pris de plus en plus confiance en moi en enseignant. Travailler en duo avec Roseanna a également été bénéfique pour que nous
puissions échanger nos ressources et méthodes.
 
Pour la communication, je retiens que ce qui a été le plus efficace a été de communiquer de manière informelle dans différents lieux accueillants des populations de réfugiés : cantines, free shop, lieux de fête… Aussi, avoir un début de relation amicale avec certaines personnes rencontrées leur a souvent donné envie de rejoindre nos activités. Enfin, le bouche-à-oreille a fini par fonctionner, des amis de nos étudiants ont commencé à venir de plus en plus. Pour les événements culturels, concentrer la communication en direction des étudiants des cours d’anglais s’est également révélé plus efficace que d’essayer de toucher de nouvelles personnes d’organisations aux alentours.
 
Pour finir, je suis très heureuse d’être partie sur une dernière note très positive. Nous avons organisé une sortie à l’Acropole d’Athènes à l’occasion du premier dimanche du mois où tous les sites historiques et musées sont gratuits. Beaucoup de nos étudiants jeunes ou âgés sont venus. A cette occasion, j’ai organisé un «rallye photo chocolat». L’animation a très bien fonctionné, tout le monde est ressorti très content de l’activité, et nous avons terminé par un énorme jeu extérieur avec des étudiants venus d’une autre école, curieux de nous rencontrer.
 
Finir avec cette belle sortie a été très encourageant pour moi, malgré des débuts difficiles, je garde précieusement tout ce que j’ai appris et toutes les magnifiques rencontres que j’ai faites pendant ces deux mois.
 
#Welcommonhostel #WindofRenewal #socialinclusion 
#volunteers #hostels #Athens #volunteers #volunteering 
#interculturalcourses #art #India #dance #ErasmusPlus #EuropeanSolidarityCorps #GreenSocialInnovationESC

Commissioner N. Schmit sent a letter to Member States urging them to support social economy

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On Friday 23 April, Commissioner Nicolas Schmit (Jobs and Social Rights)  sent a letter to Member States’ Ministers of Labour/Employment urging them to ensure that social economy enterprises and organisations are well equipped and supported, so they can keep playing their crucial role to manage and overcome the COVID-19 crisis.  Providing over 13.6 million paid jobs in the EU, the #SocialEconomy has a key role to play in our economy and in the response to the #coronavirus crisis.

On 29 April Social Economy Europe (SEE) and its members had an exchange with Commissioner Schmit during the meeting of the European Commission Expert Group on Social Economy  and social  enterprises  (GECES). Schmit confirmed that the European Action Plan for the Social Economy will be published by the European Commission in the second semester of 2021. He called on social economy actors to actively contribute to shape this policy to ensure that social economy is at the heart of the economic and social  recovery that Europe needs and showed his intention to connect the Social Economy Action Plan with other EU policy areas such as the Green Deal, the Social Pillar or the Industrial and SME strategies. He also referred to the importance of mobilising EU funds and investments for the social economy in the framework of the recovery plan, which the Commission is currently working on, as agreed by the European Council, and of a strengthened EU budget (MFF).

Over 90 participants joined the GECES meeting, including representatives of various Member States such as Spain (represented by Director-General for Social Economy Maravillas Espín and deputy DG Juan Manuel Sánchez Teheran), France (represented by Sarah Robin, diplomatic counsellor to the High Commissioner for Social and Solidarity Economy and Social Innovation), Ireland (represented by Andrew Forde, Head of Rural Strategy & Social Enterprise at Department of Rural & Community Development), Belgium and the Netherlands among others.

SEE President Juan Antonio Pedreño commented:“We welcome Commissioner Schmit’s letter to the Member States’ Ministries of Labour and the bold support expressed for the social economy. We encourage dialogue with social economy enterprises and organisations at all levels to ensure their access to instruments designed to overcome the crisis. The future Action Plan for the Social Economy will be key to boosting the development of enabling ecosystems for the social economy to thrive. It is clear that we need to build Europe’s tomorrow based on solidarity, sustainability and social progress. The social economy is ready to contribute to the EU’s recovery, offering an entrepreneurial model able to ensure no one is left behind.”

Read Commissioner Schmit’s letter here. For a PDF version, SEE has transcribed the letter here.

The story of Elisa’s volunteering in Athens with Wind of Renewal

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I am Elisa, and I participated in the Green Social Innovation volunteering ESC project with Wind of Renewal / Anemos Ananeosis from the 15th of February to the 15th of March 2020. I’ve been volunteering with refugees in Athens, through the European Solidarity Corps. I was supposed to stay three months more, but the coronavirus measures implied that we stopped our activities face to face and I had to go back to France. However, I consider what I’ve experienced there as one of the most intense period in my short lifetime.

But first, let’s present the organisation and the project I’ve been involved in.
The Organisation: Wind of Renewal (ANEMOS ANANEOSIS) is a social cooperative enterprise for Social and Green Economy, Innovation and Culture. Among lots of initiatives, Wind of Renewal runs the Welcommon Hostel.
The Welcommon Hostel: This innovative hostel is a community center hosting projects for social inclusion of refugees, sustainable tourism, non formal education, social entrepreneurship and intercultural dialogue. It gathers volunteers, tourists, Greek locals and refugees around activities in the context of the project «Days of Welcommon».
Days of Welcommon: Days of Welcommon project aims to have a social impact while connecting different lifeworlds and people from everywhere. Therefore all the events are open to everyone: refugees, tourists, volunteers, local people… The project covers various fields as art, language practice, integration activities, intercultural mettings, environnmental awareness activties, self empowerment…
All of these activities take place in the Welcommon hostel, which gather all theses different people, or outside for some of the cultural or sportive activities.
Role of the volunteers: Volunteers are involved to bring their help by giving language practices (english, german, french, greek) and organizing activities from Sunday to Thursday to include refugees, local people and newcomers in the hostel. Their role is very important to make the project sustainable and ever more creative.
II- Everyday life
Schedulde : From Monday to Thursday, we used to organise language practice and skills exchanges, every afternoon from 1 to 5. We used to create level groups for each language and to adapt our activities to the number of refugees attending the lesson, number that could vary a lot from a week to another, and to the number of volunteers we were.
I used to pratice french with two very committed türkish refugees, and english with a group of young afghan beginners.
Sometimes I’ve helped the german volunteers too, with families who wanted to learn it from scratch. Trying to keep the language groups as much stable as we could was part of the inclusion project, and allowed us to create special links with our ‘students’.
On the Sundays, we used to organise outdoor activities :
– cultural visits (Athens is full of historical monuments and museums)
– a photography tour that I‘ve organised with an other volunteer and a small group of very commited refugees
– a visit at the Sea Turtle Rescue Center and a beach cleaning
– a carnival party
We had lots of ideas for the following weeks, and asked everytime the participants about their wishes and own ideas of activities; not doing unilateral teaching was part of the project philosophy.
From 5 to 6, we used to do informal education with children, that we called «family time», during which we used to do some art activities or play games in english. The participants of this time-slot were very committed and this was an appreciated time for everyone.
In the evenings, we used to organise intercultural nights (we cooked specialities from one country with families and people who wanted to make us discover their meals), Karaoke nights and movies projections. Keeping a regular schedulde about these acitivities was very important for the social inclusion of people.
Athens and Exarcheia: The Welcommon Hostel is located near the city center of Athens, in Exarcheia which is a very lively neighboorhood, full of social and green initiatives, and historicaly the anarchist district of the city. The streets of Exarcheia are full of street art and there are both refugees and students from the Politechnic University, which is a very interesting merging of people.
Living all together: During the project, I’ve been living in the Welcommon Hostel with other volunteers coming from Belgium, Germany, Japan, England and France. Some tourists of the Hostel, (from Canada and India) joined the project for one week too. This intercultural merging of everyday has contributed to the enrichment I got from this month in Athens. We used to cook and eat together, and do lots of activities to discover the city. During this short period, we all felt like we found for a while a second family.
III- My experience and learnings
The context of Athens and refugee crisis: Being in Athens to work on social inclusion with refugees in the actual context has been very intense. I’ve been able to get 100% engaged for the cause I went for and to understand very precisely the situation: with the other volunteers, we attended lots of assemblies and went to lots of protest to demand the opening of borders.
A social and intercultural experience: Before coming, I had only a tiny experience working with refugees. I’ve learned many different stories there and think that now I understand well the difficulties they have to face, and all the reasons why they had to leave their country.

My personal apreciation: First, I would like to go back there as soon as the international situation allows me to do so. I feel a huge frustration having to leave after only one month in such a social experience. Moreover, thinking about long-term implications, my professional project will for sure evolve in the direction I took during this ESC: I want to get committed in such social issues and even work again with migrants. Finally, I did know nor Greece neither Athens before arriving there but I’ve been strucked by the cultural and historical aspects of the city and would love to come back later to live a few months more there.