April 2026 - Monthly Report
At Wave in April 2026, we served 2,715 takeaways, welcomed 80 new arrivals, charged 150 phones and power banks, ran 108 showers, washed 81 laundry loads, and distributed 256 hygiene packages and 1,268 clothing items.
The total population we supported this month was 2,575.
April – numbers and operations
The month of April 2026 followed a similar trend to the recent past months, with a consistent 100-150 people visiting our community centre every opening day. The slightly lower total number of takeaways (-15% compared to March), is due mainly to the fact that we had to forcibly close our centre for a day, due to lack of volunteers and team members. The daily attendance at Wave is quite steady at the moment, and our space is constantly busy from 2pm until closure at 6:30pm: from time to time, our team has to regulate the number of people entering the space, to prioritise the safety of everyone and avoid overcrowding. Our community members have proven to understand the reasons behind it and are normally very collaborative and help us to keep Wave a welcoming space for everyone. With the rising temperatures and the approaching of summer, we are also seeing an increase in the demand for hygiene and sanitation services: our solar-powered shower container is busier every day, while our laundry room is always packed with laundry bags – with our washing machine buzzing and spinning all day long. We sometimes wonder how many total laundry loads this machine has successfully washed…
Since the end of Ramadan, the vast majority of our Community comes from the nearby camps, especially from the RIC of Diavata: around 90% of the total visitors are camp residents, mainly from Sudan. Every day we hear stories about the dysfunctional services in the camp: from insufficient washing machines, no hygiene products distributions or the poor quality of food given out in the structure.
Shipment of clothes and hygiene items to Pre-Removal Detention Centre of Paranesti
At the end of April, in collaboration with ‘Arsis’, we successfully delivered a much needed donation of clothes and hygiene products to the people detained in the Pre-Removal Detention Facility (Pro.ke.ka) of Paranesti. Our small van was packed to the roof with boxes and crates as we drove North-East to the detention facility, where detainees have no or limited access to clothing or hygiene products, according to recent reports and testimonies we collected. In total we supported 250 men with jumpers, sweatpants, t-shirts, underwear and socks, soap bars, toothpaste and toothbrushes.
Challenges and Solidarity
The month of April has been challenging for our team for the lack of long term volunteers, the backbone of our Community Centre. In order to guarantee safe and smooth operations, we require a minimum number of team members per opening day, a number which was difficult to reach sometimes. We are still in the process of recruiting new members for our team to join us as soon as possible.
On the bright side, we cannot emphasise enough how grateful we are for the solidarity that we have witnessed during these challenging weeks: so many people stepped in to join our shifts for one day or two, people from partner organisations or local students and friends and, last but not least, from some community members, who are joining our shifts as community volunteers. The solidarity response from everyone has allowed us to keep our community centre up and running.
A big big thank you to everyone!