Monthly Report - January 2022

In the first month of 2022, we distributed 1,979 hot meals, welcomed 51 new arrivals with packages to cover all their basic needsand gave out 143 hygiene packs. In January thetemperatures dropped very low, to minus 9 inthe nights at some point, and many of you willhave seen the snowstorm that shut downAthens. As a result, we had an increase inrequests for warm winter items and in Januarywe distributed 145 pairs of gloves, 126 hats, 110 scarves, 75 sleeping bags and 57 blankets. Most of this was funded by thegenerous monthly donation we get from ThreePeas, with support from Hamburger Hilfskonvoi on the sleeping bags. Withoutthese donors we wouldn’t have been able toprovide our beneficiaries with this small bit ofrespite during the cold nights. We also did afull blanket distribution on the first day thatthe temperatures went below 0 degrees atnight to make sure that every person whocomes to us at least had basic cover from thecold. As many of you know, most of our serviceusers live in squatted abandoned buildingsthat often don’t have proper walls or shelterfrom the winds and rain. Therefore the smallthings we can provide make a massivedifference.

As always, we have to get creative with our winter vegetable donations that are mostly cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli. Of course these flavours get pretty boring pretty quickly but we managed to spice them up with meals of deep fried zucchini balls, tzatziki sides, and classic dishes like mulukhiya with chicken and rice, or mujadarra (a lentil and rice dish). Hamburger Hilfskonvoi supported us in two big shopping trips to the local Cash&Carry in January, meaning we were able to buy
some nice extras like sun-dried tomatoes, olives and tuna, as well as stocking up on basics like bottled water and sunflower/olive oil.

We are back to a fully functioning team of volunteers this month with supporters from all over the world to help us run our daily operations to the best of our abilities. We started again our training programme this month with coordinator Hope giving a short introduction to access to asylum in Greece and border violence, and our partners at MVI gave a first aid training to cover basics such as CPR, heavily bleeding wounds, and the recovery position.

Just like every month we have to thank all of you, our wonderful donors, for supporting us to keep serving in solidarity seven days of the week.