Author: admin

For the first time after the beginning of the pandemic we, at Thalassa of Solidarity in Heraklion at the island of Crete, were able to organise with our students and volunteers a graduation ceremony for those students that followed our solidarity courses of Sewing, Greek and English language and Basic Computer literacy.

On Wednesday evening, more than 40 students, in their majority refugees, were present with their families and friends to receive attestations of the creative and learning time they have shared with us in our safe space. Lots of hugs and lots of emotions, lots of hope and ambitions for the future in their proud smiles and tears of happiness!

In parallel, there was an exhibition of the sewing creations done by the participants of the courses and a feast with falafel offered by the community.

That give us motivation to continue, together as a community of proud people in solidarity!

Thalassa of Solidarity since October 2019 develops in Heraklion Crete solidarity actions of support, information sharing and learning for the creative integration in the Greek social realities of vulnerable refugees, migrants and locals alike.At our social workshop #Amalab we offer free courses on Sewing, Greek and English languages and Computer Literacy to help the development of skills and the socialization of participants. The courses are free of charge, given by volunteers and based on solidarity actions and not on institutional funding. Our vision is to create and develop those relationships that contribute to the development of our society in one of solidarity, mutual aid and learning, creative coexistence, effective integration and respect of diversity.

Thank you all for your support!

The team of Thalassa of Solidarity concluded in the month of December the creative integration courses in our social lab (sewing, computer literacy, English and Greek language courses) for 42 asylum seekers and refugees and we have started in January new courses for 50 new and old students!

We have continued the distributions -of more than 2 tons monthly- of food and hygiene kits for more than 30 households (more than 140 individuals) along with other in-kind support. For the holiday season we have also distributed gifts and extra support to the children families of our students. We have also sent much needed items to the residents of the earthquake hit areas in our region.

We have provided information, accompaniment and counseling to more than 30 persons for their legal, asylum, administrative and access to health issues and challenges.

All the above become possible with the contribution of more than 20 volunteers -some members of the migrant community itself-, with the individual in-kind and financial donations and the generous support of the team of Choose Love that have provided us with the grant to sustain our activities and distributions.

We would like also to thank Αντικρουστοί for their excellent street performance for our cause, Humanity Now: Direct Refugee Relief that help us to buy goods for our distributions, Cosmos Sport for their donation of athletic shoes and clothing, and Γιατροί Χωρίς Σύνορα (MSF) for the donation of masks and disinfectants we use in our courses and distributions.

We currently started to prepare a “survival map” for access to social and humanitarian services in our city funded by the Active citizens fund Greece operated in Greece by @Bodosakis Foundation and SolidarityNow.

The needs of refugees in our city are many as most of are unemployed, feel neglected and forgotten, cannot cover the essentials and live in very precarious housing but politics keep them in a constant dependency and stress. We will continue to lobby locally as well as trying to convince municipal, regional authorities, international organisations and others to enable projects and funds to support common local activities. We will also continue to contest the inhuman deterrence policies at national and European level.

Thank you for helping us making it happen and for your continuous support!

we live, we learn, we work, we dream together!

THALASSA OF SOLIDARITY is inviting you to our new courses for the period January – June2022:

– Sewing , basic skills

– English language

– Greek language

– Computer literacy

Courses are free, given by volunteers and available to locals, refugees and migrants and all persons facing any kind of social exclusion (unemployment, financial difficulties, single-parent families, lgtbqi+, etc).As places are limited*, please express your interest starting this Monday 10th of January until Friday 21st by:

sending message to our FB page: @ThalassaSolidarity

email to info@thalassa-solidarity.org

visiting our laboratory every Tuesday and Thursday, from 9:30 to 14:00 hrs. Saturday 16:00 – 18:00 hrs (1770 str., no 34, Heraklion city center).

*** PRIORITY ORDER WILL BE OBSERVED

Volunteers needed for the creative integration courses at Thalassa of Solidarity starting in January and throughout 2022!

Our free courses:

* English Language

* Greek Language

* Computer Literacy

* Sewing

Put your knowledge into practice and support our solidarity courses for refugees, migrants and locals facing social exclusion, in Heraklion, Crete!

From Tuesday 7 of September we start the courses at the sewing laboratory!

The places at the 2 running groups are already covered from the previous period, when COVID-19 measures didn’t allow us to complete the learning cycle.

Registration is also open for those interested to join new small groups of English language for adults! No previous knowledge of English is required!

Courses are free and available to locals, refugees and migrants and all persons facing any kind of social exclusion (unemployment, financial difficulties, single-parent families, lgtbqi+, etc).

As places are limited, please express your interest with an mail message (info@thalassa-solidarity.org), by phone (2810 223464) or by visiting our laboratory every Tuesday and Thursday, from 9:30 to 14:00 hrs. (1770 str., no 34, Heraklion city center).

The operation of our laboratory is based exclusively on solidarity actions, mutual aid and your support!

How you can help:

* Volunteer your time, skills and expertise to the courses!

* Donate equipment, hardware and consumable for the sewing lab and the other courses:

– Professional and household sewing machines, serger

– Fabrics, zippers, threads, needles for home sewing machines, scissors, pins, tape measures, pillow feelings and any sewing article that can be used in the courses

-Stationery and school items for the use of our students

* Donate the amount you wish to cover our running costs to the following bank account:

Acc. Holder: Thalassa of Solidarity AMKE

BIC: CRBAGRAA

IBAN: GR2601406640664002002015824

Thank you for your support!

The Team Of Thalassa of Solidarity

We have concluded yet another distribution round of food and other essential items to the 27 households we are supporting this period.

Most of those items for this 3^rd round were acquired with the support of

Choose Love and from solidarity donations from friends!

The key for us is not only to share some goods, but mainly to communicate with fellow human beings, exchange of our latest news, the handshakes and the hugs, the food they will share with us, the tea they will treat us to.

Despite the difficulties of all of us, every day we can build relationships of practical solidarity and meaningful mutual understanding!

This is for us Thalassa of Solidarity

We have completed on last Saturday the second cycle of distribution of basic food and hygiene kits to 25 households mainly our students. This was made possible with the help of the Choose Love team and many of you with the contribution of products, time and solidarity!

Through our daily contact with families of refugees and migrants, but also individuals, we discover once again that the asylum process, the generalized deterrence policies and "integration" through well-publicized “charity” programs, only bring more stress and misery to the people we meet, adults and especially minors, impacting their mental health.

The situation is no better for people who have already been recognized as refugees. Every day we receive new requests for help from individuals, families, organizations and even authorities. Every day we are asked for legal support, information, escort to hospitals and services, baby milk, food and items of daily use. Something that, as they witnessing to us and from our own observations, is not actually provided by the competent institutions and authorities. 

We are all judged by the result.

Keeping hundreds of people in insecurity, unemployment, only in the poorest sections of society, without real information, accompaniment, language and vocational training programs, shows that there is no plan or political will. 

Here at Thalassa of ​​Solidarity, with our given capabilities and the support of all of you, we believe in practical solidarity and mutual aid, without having any financial support from state and international agencies. 

And we continue our fight together!

If we were to ask the refugees in our city today what “World Refugees Day” means, they would answer, uncertainty, lack of information and opportunities, unemployment and precarious housing, which further adds to the traumatic experiences they already carry from the place they left and the long journey of the refugee.

Unfortunately, every day is the day of the refugee, woman, man, child.

They are not invisible, they live in our neighborhoods, the children are in our schools, they participate in a society like all of us.

With impoverishment, unemployment, indifference and the “lack” of resources, political will and fear of the Other, the Different.

On such a day, and every day, let us make ourselves visible.

Let’s start by say good morning in our neighborhood, in our schools, in our workplaces to all these people who have come here seeking asylum and protection, because they have left their homes and neighborhoods, out of fear, persecution, misery, poverty, lack of access to basic rights.

Ans let’s struggle with them for a better, participatory, colorful, fair society.