ECHO HUB Leros

25/10/2023

Dear Friends,

Admittedly this ECHO100Plus channel has been silent for a while, but that doesn’t mean that we have been idle. Rather the opposite! We have been so busy and limited in capacity to keep up.

WHAT YOU MISSED: At the end of 2021, we left Leros Island. The opening of the EU-funded Closed Controlled Access Center (CCAC) and the implementation of stricter asylum conditions prevented us from continuing our projects on the island. We shifted all of our efforts to Athens, expanding our ECHO HUB that opened in the city in 2019. During the pandemic we expectedly struggled to push our humanitarian agenda; nevertheless, we managed to shift most of our language classes online and our team cooked hot meals for homeless people on the streets of Athens.

WHERE ARE WE NOW The Athens HUB is fully operational again. Our Education Team is offering Greek and English language classes at all levels, beginner computer classes, and three (3) vocational training courses: Care-giving, Coding & Webdesign, and TEFL Teacher training. Our Social Integration Team offers legal advice alongside employability services, with the aim to place people into jobs and/or secondary education as quickly as possible, to ultimately help them restart a self-determined life.

As the Athens HUB is our only active project for the time being, we will be shutting down all social media channels connected to former, now inactive, projects, including this, the ECHO HUB Leros page.

Please “like” and follow our ECHO HUB Athens page to receive regular updates.
We thank each of you for the amazing emotional and financial support you have given us over the years and hope to meet you all again on the flip side: https://www.facebook.com/ECHOHUBAthens and https://instagram.com/echo100plus?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

The ECHO HUB Athens is an education and community centre for adults

01/09/2022

31/12/2021

CHEERS TO 2022!!!

06/12/2021

First Day of Distribution at the ECHO HUB Boutique

Today was the first day of our winter clothes distribution at the ‘Boutique’ and we saw a lot of happy faces. It was almost like a Saint Niccolo party! This kind of distribution is only possible because we have continuous support from our former volunteers who keep sending us clothes. On behalf of others, a big shout-out goes to Petra and Laura, whose boxes keep arriving at a regular pace. A special thank you goes to the TUI Care Foundation, which sponsored socks and underwear, to Δεσμός - Desmos who provided wonderful hoodies and shirts, and last but not least, a big thank you goes to our partners in Athens, the HumanRights360 team, who added Hygiene packs for everyone!
Distribution will continue tomorrow and on all the other days of this week from 10am to 2 pm. The white ECHO van ('Orca') will shuttle you from and back to the hotspot. Don’t forget to bring your ‘Ausweis’ and a face mask. See you soon!

03/12/2021

WINTER CLOTHES DISTRIBUTION AT THE ECHO BOUTIQUE

Dear all,
If you have not yet had the chance to get warm winter clothes, the ECHO HUB Boutique will be open next week from Monday, Dec 6th, to Friday, Dec 10th, from 10am – 2pm. Our van will pick you up at Hotspot - the police are informed.

Please everyone come in person and bring your ‘Ausweis’. In order to comply with COVID rulings, you will have to wear a facemask. Also, we are not allowed to have more than 5 people in the shop at a time, so please understand that you might have to wait before you can enter. Maximum time in the Boutique will be 30 minutes per person. Please do not all come at the same time, we do have enough nice clothes for everybody.

25/08/2021

☀️COVID-19 KIT DISTRIBUTION UPDATE☀️

Kalimera everyone,

Today, 25 of august, Echo100plus will run another Covid 19 Protection Kit distribution containing masks, hand sanitisers and soap to people in the hotspot.

The distribution will start at 3pm in front of the church next to the hotspot.
See you soon🌺

INSTRUCTIONS:
✅ please wear a mask
✅ Please bring your PHYSICAL police paper or ausweis to the distribution. We will not accept photos of IDs. If you are a family please send only one family member, carrying the papers of all family members.
✅ Do keep social distancing (1.5m)
✅ Do not rush. Every person will receive one kit.

23/06/2021

Good morning to everyone 😊
Yesterday we had a distribution of baby strollers at the hotspot in Leros! Thanks to our generous donors from Careuk Charity - RENEW Refugee Essentials, North East Wales who raised funds for this special project, we were able to give each child between the ages of 6 months and 3 years a stroller. Walking on the busy road from hotspot camp to town with small children and groceries is always a challenge. A stroller makes this trip so much easier and safer for the families. Big THANK YOU to Wales!!!

21/06/2021

With World Refugee Day yesterday we want to share an insight into the state of affairs of the 'refugee crisis' in Greece.

The European Union is quick to criticize the human rights failings of other countries, but when it comes to rights abuse by its own agencies within its own territory, Brussels is all too often silent. Little do we hear from officials about the deplorable conditions prevailing in Greek refugee camps, or about the illegal push-backs that have been systematically performed by the Greek authorities for more than a year now.

Greece has adopted increasingly tough polices over the past two years to reduce the population at the hotspot camps that were established with EU support on five Aegean islands in response to the 2015 migrant crisis. The ruthless onslaught by Greek border guards on boats approaching the islands from Turkey has drastically reduced the number of refugees arriving on the islands. In many cases these push-backs have taken place within Greek borders, a practice that clearly violates the legal right of arriving asylum seekers to remain in EU territory until their applications have been reviewed.

Rights groups and international media have also accused Frontex, the EU agency that co-ordinates search and rescue and border interceptions on behalf of the 27-member states, of active involvement in unlawful push-backs. Yet, the EU has been slow to launch an investigation and, for the most part, avoided public comment on the legally questionable activities of its own agency.

These days, overcrowding is less of a problem at hotspot camps, but how come that migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected, are not receiving food anymore in the camps, but have to buy it with their own money? How come that their infants are no longer given basic immunisation jabs? And while EU states race to vaccinate their populations against the Covid-19 virus, residents of most camps have so far been ignored.

It is widely accepted that the so-called ‘hotspot approach’ has failed, as it just confines asylum-seekers in legal limbo for years on end. Yet, the EU is bankrolling five new, even bigger prison-like camps that are now being built in more remote locations on the Greek islands at a total cost of over Euros 100 million. There has been no public discussion about the reason such large sums of tax payers’ money are being spent on these facilities or whose interests they serve.
Meanwhile, Greece has just designated Turkey as ‘a safe third country’ for five nationalities seeking international protection in Greece, among them Syrians, Somalis and Afghanis. It is difficult to understand why expensive new camps are required if refugees are simply to be returned to Turkey.
The EU’s New Pact on Asylum and Migration unveiled last September calls for co-operation between member states, including those that have refused point blank to take in refugees, to facilitate legal deportations. It is of course impossible to repatriate migrants to homelands where they will face violence or oppression without violating their human rights.

Facing this quandary, the EU has been seeking ways to outsource the so called ‘migration problem’ to non-European countries, including Turkey and Libya - Let them deal with refugees. Let them trample on their rights.

Are we to accept that the EU, so ready to preach to oppressive regimes about their human rights failings, is ready to shed its own obligations enshrined in the Geneva Convention of Refugees signed over 70 years ago? So much is at stake! Refugee rights are human rights - our very own rights are in peril if we let them slide. Offloading asylum-seekers in countries beyond our borders, will not relieve us of our legal and moral responsibilities. Our commitment to the convention must be upheld. (Isabel Gorst and Catharina Kahane)

21/06/2021

⚠️See you tomorrow from 11.30 to 12.30 in the big building behind the hotspot for the strollers distribution🌻