Culture Without Borders
Culture Without Borders
“I hope my story helps other people”. That is what Ivana concluded after talking to us, since her story is one of many changes: from living in Peru to moving to Spain, from working as an accountant to studying data analytics, and finally from being assigned male at birth to becoming who she is: a woman.
Today we celebrate the #WorldRefugeeDay, an international day issued by the United Nations that falls every year on the 20th of June.
It is a way to honour the courage and the strength of millions of refugees, who, every year, are forced to flee from their own country, and an occasion to highlight which are the rights everyone should be entitled to.
The war in Yemen is not one of those conflicts that we hear about on the news every week. However, this country is experiencing what some call the worst humanitarian crisis happening in the world right now. Our OCC interns Serin and Dionne had a conversation with Akram, one of our long-term ESC volunteers, who is from Yemen.
Open Cultural Center is collaborating with the ‘Emerging Communities’ project of the European Union, which brings together organizations from Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Serbia that are active in the fields of adult education, social engagement, empowerment, social inclusion, housing and communing.
On February 24th, the lives of millions of people in Ukraine drastically changed. In two months, the escalation of the conflict has destroyed civilian infrastructure and caused civilian casualties, forcing people to leave their homes in search of safety, protection, and assistance.
Can anyone imagine having to choose between feeding your children and taking them to the doctor? This is one of the choices that many refugees and asylum seekers living in Northern Greece have to make when they need to travel and pay for transport to get to vital appointments. Reach Refugees helps them to get to asylum and police services, medical health or legal aid.
We hear about the refugee crisis every week, many times, but we associate it with places that are thousands of kilometres away from us. However, what if an actual refugee crisis existed in the heart of Europe, many years before the current situation in Ukraine?
Behind each of the people that decides to leave their country, there is a story with its own characteristics and peculiarities. However, although different from each other, each story is invariably united by a common element. Every journey and every path has a precise starting point: home.
Mobility restrictions among the refugee population in Greece are more severe than they appear. Not only do they violate freedom of movement, but can also lead to worrying consequences for the health of migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers. At OCC, we are fighting to reverse this situation.
We talk about four important topics that took place during 2021 and marked life in Nea Kavala: the construction of a concrete wall, the upgrading of the camp’s facilities, the delay in the payment of allowances, and the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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