FEBRUARY 2022
In the month of February, WAVE served 2,071 hot meals, welcomed 61 new arrivals with a full pack of essential non-food-items (NFIs) and distributed 185 hygiene packs. We also provided for 43 warm showers!
At the beginning of the month, we welcomed back Refugee Trauma Initiative (RTI) and United Societies of the Balkans’ Football 4 All event. After a two year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, finally this wonderful event came back to Thessaloniki and brought different communities together to play around and have some fun. We provided chicken shawarma sandwiches, juice and bottled water for all those who attended, whilst MVI were on hand to provide rapid testing and any other medical support.
In terms of the general kitchen operations this month we have stepped up our services once again to provide top quality food to our population. Our wonderful donors at Network Anthropia came to pay us a visit and took us shopping for sharp new knives, a blender, and exciting new ingredients like bulgur, red lentils and a variety of nuts. This has coupled up nicely with the turn in the weather, as the days get warmer the varieties of fruit and veg at the market get better: things like apples, oranges, lemons, kaki’s, bananas, carrots, broccoli are all back on the menu! Furthermore, through our partners at Room 39 we have made new bread connections with local bakeries across the city that sees our bread storage area fit to burst on a daily basis.
Our volunteers always tell us how much they love the variety of tasks we give them – chopping, cleaning, cooking, going to markets, sorting through donations and much more! We saw a big donation coming in from Germany last week and organised a separate team to support sorting at the IHA warehouse. On top of this we have continued our monthly trainings in first aid, organised by MVI, and access to the asylum system in Greece.
Last but not least we are very excited to finally announce the launch of our website!
https://wave-thessaloniki.com/
Here you will be able to stay up to date with everything that’s going on with us, see where we need support, and watch videos and pictures of our day to day work. We couldn’t have made all of these steps without the continued dedicated support of all of you – so as always, a huge thank you from us!