JUNE 2025 MONTHLY REPORT

At Wave in June 2025, we served 2,375 hot meals, welcomed 26 new arrivals, charged 135 phones and power banks, ran 90 showers, and washed 50 laundry loads, distributed 534 hygiene items, and 324 Clothing items. We sent 64 packages to people held in Detention Centres. 

The total population we supported this month was 1,568.

 

June Updates

The rising of the temperature in Thessaloniki has coincided with a rising number of Community Members accessing our services (+25% compared to May ‘25). At the beginning of the month, we recorded the highest number of people (100) and meals distributed in one day (220), the highest numbers that we have seen in a long long time. Overall, during the whole month of June we increased the total number of meals by 25% compared to May, similarly we registered more showers (+10%), phones charged (+11%) and new arrivals (+30%).

The trend slowed down towards the end of the month, where we registered numbers more similar to the previous month. The reason for these rising numbers we believe is connected to a large group of residents from the Diavata camp starting to access our services.

We cannot deny that, as much as we were pleased to see so many new people at Wave, we found the space overcrowded at some point, so much that we started to implement a plan to limit the number of beneficiaries inside the Centre. We were still offering full access to our services to everybody, but asking them to wait outside when the space was too crowded.

The rising number of Community Members has also affected our stock of clothes and hygiene items, since in only 2 distributions we finished almost all our stock. Since we didn’t have the resources to support everyone, we sadly had to suspend the clothes and hygiene distributions for the last 2 weeks of June. Our Logistics Coordinator  Francisco is working hard to refill our storage and we can hopefully start again at the beginning of July.

Related to this, a big shout out to Lifting Hands International (LHI), that supported us with a donation of hygiene products, that made it possible for us to fulfill the high demands of the last month.

On top of this, we have continued to support people in detention centres in Paranesti and Xanthi (a total of 64 parcels sent in June), with each parcel consisting of a change of summer clothes, hygiene products, coffee and tea. We believe it’s a small gesture that can really make an impact on those who cannot leave those facilities and don’t have access to any other material support.

 

Updates from the ground

A big thank you to Project Anthropia from Athens, who supported us with a big donation of clothes, shoes, blankets and take-away equipment at the beginning of June. Your van full of donations arrived in a time of need, when our supplies of non food items (NFI) were low, and it was well appreciated by the community.

We are also proud to share a fundraising campaign with Naomi – a community tailoring workshop in Thessaloniki run by displaced and marginalised people with a migration background – to make and distribute hundreds of lightweight shorts that will be distributed to our Community Members . A big thank you to everyone who already donated to this campaign, where we can help those who’ve experienced displacement and marginalisation to use their skills to support others facing similar struggles.

 

Team Changes

In June, our Coordination team changed, since we sadly had to say goodbye to our Project Coordinator, Tamer. Even though  he stayed with us for just over 6 months, his positive energy and his experience will be missed. As a  long-term resident of the city, well integrated in the local and self-organised groups in Thessaloniki, we want to thank him for bringing all his ideas, inputs and connections. We wish you all the best in your future steps and we hope to see you again soon!
Francesco will take over his role, starting from July. He’s Italian and he has some experience in grassroot organisations, as he was volunteering between 2018-2020 in Serbia and Bosnia along the Balkan Route for over 2 years. He’s also a self-taught cook and he worked in a catering company in Germany for around 2 years, until he decided to join Wave in December last year as a volunteer. Welcome to your new role Francesco and we look forward to working with you as a Coordinator!

We are also delighted to welcome back Annie, in a new role!  Annie joined the Board of Directors in June. She was the Project Coordinator for over 2 years and concluded her work on the coordination team at the end of January.  She brings not only a wealth of knowledge, but also hands-on experience of Wave to the Board.