Sep 09 2021
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Idir Q, volunteer: I recommend to everyone to have such an experience

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By Idir Oudelha

Having the desire to understand more the refugee situation in europe and all the issues it involves, I applied for a European Solidarity Corps program with Anemos Ananeosis (Wind of Renewal) in Athens within the Welcommon Hostel.

Greece, by way of its proximity with Turkey, is a passage country for millions of refugees coming from Asia and Africa and crossing the European border looking for a safe place to live. Women, men, children, families who ran away from war, oppression, hard life, find themselves piled up in camps, or sometimes in the urban jungle of Athens. In the middle of this, the Welcommon Hostel is a necessary transition place for refugees who are looking for a place to stay. It is a beautiful lab of multiculturalism and social exchange where meet volunteers, tourists, and refugees. The ecological conscience and the will of making the Welcommon Hostel an eco-responsible place through the work of the volunteers and the residents is also a part of the DNA of the hostel and the reason I decided to commit for 3 months and have this amazing experience.

In the hostel volunteers were able to benefit of a great freedom of action, and create different activities to make the refugees busy, particularly during the lockdown due to the pandemic. For my mission, entitled “Social and Green innovation for young people”, and with the help of the volunteers team, we imagined many workshops, classes and kids activities. When I arrived there were already different classes proposed to the residents who were completely free to attend, such as German and English class, sport class or history class. I then imagined and created a new one called “Society and Environmental class”, a sort of introduction to some social and ecological principles and issues. I organised this lesson as an open discussion with the students about things that “matters” to them. Through lessons about classical subject such as science or geography.

I always tried to keep an environmental approach in order to raise them awareness about ecological issues. For instance, I made a classical geography lesson about all the different climates we can find on the earth surface and turned it into an opening to the climate change questions and the effects of the greenhouse gas on the climate. The students of all ages, eager to learn, were very involved in the classes. I also learned a lot on my ability to teach something and realised that it could be a real vocation.

In addition to the classes, we organised many different workshops that could bring into light the skills owned by the residents and in our turn learn from them, in particular, with the cleaning and reorganisation of the backyard of the hostel. Indeed, knowing that summer and hot temperatures were coming back, we needed an outdoor place within the Welcommon Hostel to organise events, classes or simply to hang out.

The experience in the Welcommon hostel was culturally and socially enriching. The share environment of the volunteers and the residents allowed me to understand more the issues the refugees are faced to. I recommend to everyone who have time and motivation to have such an experience to be more aware of this reality and create or involve the collective conscience.

Aug 29 2021
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Eloi D., volunteer: meeting beautiful people with difficult backgrounds building strong and real connexions with them

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I am Eloi D.

One day, while I was walking in the streets in Athens, I met a group of young people. They explained to me that their group was made of volunteers working with Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal at the Welcommon Hostel. We had the chance to discuss about their activities and work which I felt really interested. They nicely invited me to visit the place so I can discover more. The first time I saw the place, I knew I wanted to volunteer, and help creating intercultural projects.

During these 3 months participating in the European Solidarity Corps project “Green Social Innovation for young persons” implemented by Wind of Renewal, we had time to build things. My daily activities in the hostel were mainly based on kids activities, music classes,  cultural and environmental projects with the residents and support the reception.

I will talk more about the cultural and environemntal project because I think it’s the most important. In collaboration with another volunteer coming from Belgium named Rosalie, we decided to develop some workshops and events for and with the refugees living in the hostel.

The first project was to rehabilitate the backyard of the hostel. This space was full of materials. We asked some residents to help us empty it and clean in order to use it as a common place for outside classes, and different others events.

Afterrwards, we organized some decoration workshops with some of the residents focusing on using only natural products and re-using materials. We painted all the walls with the limestone (organic material usually used on the tradditional greek white houses), and built some planters, tables and other furnitures all made of materials that we found in the first place and of palets that we picked up in the streets of Athens.

The second project was called «Collective exhibition». Still with Rosalie (the other volunteer I worked with), we gathered a group of residents once a week for one month. The idea of these workshops was to make them work all together about the exchange of knowledge and skill. All these people despite the cultural differences and gaps, had three similarities: They all had left their land, their jobs and some close people. Knowing this, we wanted them to open to each other sharing their experiences and skills to someonelse and in the meantime receiving an other person’s knowledge. All this work accomplished during the workshops and the differents creations that have been made (photographs, origami, painting, haircuts, jewelery and cooking), were meant to be exhibitaded to the other residents so they could learn as well.

This experience was great, I could learn lot of things concerning the conditions of refugees in Greece.

Living in this hostel was an opportunity to meet beautiful people with difficult backgrounds building strong and real connexions with them.

 

Aug 27 2021
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Allegra B., volunteer: beautiful experience living with people coming from different cultures and environments

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My name is Allegra,
I am a 21 years old traveler from Italy. When I finished school I decided to take 2 gap years to travel before university. I fell in love with Athens since the first time I came and it was amazing to found such an interesting project here like the one organised by the Anemos Ananeosis / Wind of Renewal. I worked as a European Solidarity Corps participant – volunteer for the project “green social innovation for young persons” in the Welcommon Hostel.
When I arrived in the hostel Greece was in lockdown so the only guests in the hostel were refugees. The other volunteers were organizing classes and events in which we were taking part all together. That was the best thing for me as I felt connected to all the people living in the hostel, no matter the language barrier. We were doing games together, cooking, eating, teaching to each other.
It was such a beautiful experience living with people coming from cultures and environments so different from mine (residents and volunteers). Everyday you learn something new about a language you didn’t know, a typical food of the middle est, about politics, about culture and traditions. You learn something about yourself as well.
I became way more conscious about many topics and problems that I didn’t know about before coming here.
I grew up a lot during my staying here, and living in my favourite neighborhood of Athens and getting to know such amazing people is an experience I will never forget.