At OCC Greece, Monday is a particular day: we don’t hold classes and the afternoon is entirely dedicated to the Women’s Space, an activity held by the OCC (female) volunteers for the women from the refugee community.
Category: Blog
Leaving Greece, and then what?
These last days in Polykastro have been full of changes: many families who had been waiting for years to complete their asylum process are getting international protection or refugee status and are leaving Greece. This would therefore seem to be the end of the exhausting migration journey, but actually it is not; it’s just another step on a path full of challenges.
Read the TOCL Newsletter #1
TOCL (‘Translation of Cultural Language’) is a European project coordinated by Open Cultural Center. It combines culture and language learning to facilitate the inclusion of migrant and refugee communities into local communities.
What Afghan people want us to know about their country
In this blog post, we portray Afghanistan through the words of the Afghan people that are living in the camp of Nea Kavala and in Polykastro as asylum seekers. We just asked interviewees one question: what do you want people to know about your country?
Children, migration, and the need for safe spaces
A relevant question when working with refugee children is “what does it mean to be a refugee child?”. Many children experience the first phase of migration with confusion and disorientation. All these changes can create a psychological vulnerability that often manifests in trauma, development dysfunctions, communication, and socialization difficulties.
Juventud Para Todos: una oportunidad para poner luz a la incertidumbre
Hace exactamente un año, en Open Cultural Center empezamos un nuevo y ambicioso proyecto: Juventud Para Todos. A través de esta iniciativa, proporcionamos alojamiento y formación agrícola a ocho jóvenes migrados que llegaron a España como menores no acompañados. Ha llegado el momento de hacer retrospectiva.
In the search for identity
“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.
World Refugee Day 2022: Safety for all
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.
Yemen: seven years of silence
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.
Emerging Communities: empowering communities across Europe
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.
