JANUARY 2026 - MONTHLY REPORT

At Wave in January 2026, we served 3,054 hot meals, welcomed 72 new arrivals, charged 113 phones and power banks, ran 35 showers, washed 47 laundry loads, and distributed 394 hygiene packages, and 2958 clothing items. 

The total population we supported this month was 3,012.

January Updates

The month of January has been incredibly busy again in our Community Centre, as the total number of visitors (3,012) was 15% higher than the already busy month of December. With an average daily attendance of around 120-150 people, we continued to provide takeaway food only, since our communal space is not big enough to allow us to distribute hot food inside for such a large number of people. The majority of people we welcomed at Wave were from Sudan (around 90%) and they are residents of the closeby Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) of Diavata and, sometimes, from Policastro. Towards the end of the month of January, we noticed this trend starting to change, with the number of daily attendance going back to 70-100 visitors per day. The reason behind it could be the fact that residents of RIC of Diavata and Policastro are being relocated elsewhere in Greece. If this trend continues, we are confident we will resume distributions of hot meals inside of Wave soon!

To make things more challenging, during this past month the local farmers’ markets were on strike to protest against the deteriorating work conditions, so our supply of fresh produce was unreliable and we had to buy some extra groceries out of our own budget. We stand in solidarity with the protest of the farmers and we are grateful for their generosity in donating fruit and vegetables to us again, as soon as the protest was over.

Distributions of NFIs
The high number of visitors in our Community Space made it necessary to reassess the way we distribute clothes and hygiene products. Since we received many requests from our community to access these products, we decided to organise 2 different distributions during the month of January: on each distribution day, our community space was open to everyone in order to provide each individual with hygiene products (toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, soap bar), basic clothing (t-shirt, underwear and socks) and winter clothes (hats, scarves, gloves, thermals, joggers). Both distributions had a very high attendance- around 200 people at each- and very positive feedback from our community. We are very grateful to our partner IHA, for the flexibility of their warehouse in supplying us with such a high number of items in a short amount of time, and to Firefly Hope Project who supported us with a huge donation of winter clothes and joined us for the distribution day.

Changes in our Team
The new year has also meant some changes in our Coordination team, leaving the usual bittersweet range of emotions. We are sad to say goodbye to Francisco, who has been the Logistics and Finance Coordinator for over a year at Wave. Time has passed so quickly! We very much appreciated the devotion, energy and passion that you brought with you every day, and that you always contributed to create a nice and welcoming environment for everyone! Thank you Francisco for everything, we wish you all the best in your next steps at Habibi.Works in Ioannina!

On the other hand, we are very excited to introduce you to the new Logistics and Finance Coordinator, Stella! She has been volunteering with Wave since last summer and she has a lot of experience in humanitarian aid, with academic and field experience in sociology, governance, and human rights. She has been collaborating with our partner Medi’Equali Team and she has been part of BVMN. Stella is from Thessaloniki and we are looking forward to her joining our team, for her good will and strong commitment and as she could help us strengthen our connections with the city we work in. Welcome Stella!