Last Emergency Smile Mission of 2022
Our last Emergency Smile mission of 2022 took place in Athens, Greece. Our international team from Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Slovenia, in cooperation with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) worked in several community centres for refugees reaching over a hundred children, of which most were unaccompanied minors.
Working in shelters for unaccompanied minors
Throughout our four weeks mission, we had the opportunity to visit various shelters daily for unaccompanied minors from different organisations.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has three centres in the Athens region.
Our team, besides the usual workshops, went above and beyond to reach all the children in the shelters. One day, with the permission of IOM, they organised a small clown performance in the street, so that the kids in quarantine could also see them and get some of the joy from their balconies and windows. This initiative was extremely well received by everyone involved.
The Home Project is a non-profit organisation set up to address the needs of refugee children, who arrive in Greece alone. They aim to “Help, Overcome, Motivate and Empower” the children. The organisation has 14 shelters for unaccompanied minors in Athens.
As we share the same values of supporting the wellbeing of children, we cooperated with them to bring psychosocial support to hundreds of children between the ages of two and 17 years old.
"We are grateful to RED NOSES for bringing magic and smiles at The HOME Project shelters. With their artistic and interactive clown interventions they filled our shelters with positive energy. Their ability to adjust their activities according to the children’s age makes them a unique group. We are looking forward to having them again with us”. - Vassilis - Development and Community Building Manager of The HOME Project
Our team did a variety of activities adapted to the children’s ages, from clown shows, circus skills workshops with music, percussion and dancing, to just having fun, playing games and making the children laugh again.
Community centre
In Athens, our team also visited the One Happy Family (OHF) community centres on multiple occasions. The centre is home to numerous organisations including Glocal Roots.
Sometimes the team performed a clown show on the rooftop of the stablishment, other times they played games with the kids and other times they did some work with the mothers and other adults in the centre. Overall, there was plenty of singing, dancing and connecting with the visitors.
"We are very happy to host RED NOSES at our community centre. They bring so much energy, and joy to the space! Watching our visitors and team-members laughing, learning some fun tricks, and enjoying themselves is precious! We thank them and hope to see them here again!" - One Happy Family - Community Centre aid worker
