JANUARY 2023 Monthly Report

In the first month of 2023, we at Wave served 1894 hot meals, welcomed 110 new arrivals, distributed 1241 clothing items & 665 hygiene items, and 97 sleeping bags, ran 158 showers, charged 287 phones and power banks, and washed 129 loads of laundry.

This month temperatures dropped significantly. Most days were sunny with a cold breeze in the air but plummeted at night to near freezing point. Despite harsh weather conditions, it was a busy month with 110 new arrivals to our centre. Inevitably, the demand for winter clothing items such as thermal clothing, winter sleeping bags, gloves, scarves and hats, rose significantly.

We are open daily from 11:30 and throughout the day provide breakfast, tea, coffee and soup. As the month drew to a close, we noticed an increase in people frequenting our centre to access these basic services. Our centre is one of the only warm and safe spaces available to people, particularly those without documents, who are excluded from other services in the city and live in precarious arrangements. Furthermore, undocumented people are under constant threat of arbitrary detention and pushback if apprehended by authorities.

Training
During January, we organised training activities at our centre in collaboration with local organisations. Mobile Info Team facilitated the monthly Access to Asylum training, which was attended by volunteers from other projects in the region such as teams from MVI, IHA and NAOMI. We encourage local actors to attend so that people are informed about the context we are working in. The training also covers border violence at the EU’s borders with a focus on Greece, which unfortunately many people who visit our centre have experienced. A team from MVI gave our volunteers First Aid training, whereby they taught us how to give CPR and respond to emergency situations such as wound care, fainting, dehydration and other first aid matters. This enables our volunteers to feel more secure and confident when dealing with emergency situations.

New logistics coordinator
At the end of the month, we welcomed Paddy (Patrick), our latest team member. Next month, he will gradually take over Jelle’s role as logistics coordinator and we will sadly say goodbye to Jelle! Paddy has previously worked as a coordinator with Foodkind, our colleagues who operate in southern mainland Greece, distributing food to displaced peoples. Welcome, Paddy!