Action for Education

Action for Education (Δραση για την Εκπαιδευση) is a non-profit established to advocate and act in support of refugee children and youth’s rights in Greece. We focus on filling gaps in education provision for vulnerable communities, as well as structuring our centres around meeting basic needs that pose barriers to accessing education. Our proven model of participant-centred education, high levels of quantitative and qualitative reporting, combined with long-term experience responding to the refugee crisis in Greece, has made us one of the most stable organisations operating multi-locationally. We're fighting for the rights of children and youth in one of the forgotten corners of Europe, where thousands of children and young adults have their right to education, safe, fun and playful spaces withheld from them. We run and manage innovative education spaces that fill gaps in the state-provided education for asylum seekers. We're responding to a systemic problem created by the EU-Turkey deal, a political resolution that has, for the past 3 years, kept tens of thousands of refugees detained on Greek islands for many months, and up to 2 years at a time. During this time, access to education is severely limited, with few opportunities to attend formal schools. At this critical time in the lives of children and youth, education is not only about learning, it is about having an alternative to camps, tents and violence. Our centres are these alternatives, fostering positive relationships and interpersonal skills, developing non-violent alternatives amid much inter-cultural tension, and following trauma-sensitive approaches to teaching. We work with hundreds of refugees who have fled sustained war in countries that include Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and the Congo. As such, we believe it also becomes the right of older youth (up to 23) to have equal access to education. This hugely important remedial education is neglected by the government, yet most students we receive have missed out on years of education. Each of our centres is uniquely adapted to its target community and context. We work with mixed teams drawn from the local community, the refugee community, and internationally. Together, each of our programmes finds and fills gaps with speed, energy, a sense of ambition and fun. We're participant-led, adopting the learnings and methods of others along the way, remaining flexible, and always looking for arising issues to respond in a timely manner. We take child safeguarding extremely seriously and recognise the extra challenges posed by working with vulnerable persons, often displaying signs of trauma, who are also in-transit. Our centres react to these challenges, creating welcoming and professional spaces that allow individuals to access warm and friendly spaces so that they can continue to learn even in this period of instability. We also recognise that there are many barriers to accessing education, including the critical lack of access to other basic services: dignifying washing facilities, basic nutrition, hygiene products, shelter and clothing. As such, we've embedded some of these services into our centres: for example, we provide hot meals every day to our students, as well as access to dignifying and safe showers. We work closely with other organisations to give access to clothing and better shelter. Working in Greece also means working in a polarised context, where support for children's education is not a given. To counter this and advocate for education, we work alongside civil society to promote and fight for these rights. Each of our centres is embedded in the local community, running events, outreach programmes and initiatives to create positive cycles of change. On Chios, we run a Youth Centre and Learning Centre for refugee youth aged 15 - 22. Here, we run Greek, English, arts-based activities, and promote education through peer-to-peer learning in a participant-led youth centre model. On the island of Sam