Get a mobile library to refugee camps in Greece

Yes, it sounds unbelievable but in the second half of 2026, ECHO will be 10.

From starting out of a disused petrol station near the border with North Macedonia in 2016, ECHO went through many transformations and adapted to an ever-changing asylum system. At its core, ECHO retained its values: a strong sense of solidarity towards people stuck in isolated, overcrowded and substandard refugee camps in the Greek countryside, a lean structure, and a balance between the library's practical work and a more conscious positioning within the context of solidarity organizations.

First of all, we wanted to reassure all our donors that our project is back live on GlobalGiving, after renewing our due diligence documentation. Thanks for your messages in these past weeks.

As we approach our first ten years ECHO needs your support more than ever, but let's get back to where we left in our last report: after the summer, we restarted our weekly sessions in the refugee camps of Malakasa, Oinofyta, Ritsona and Thiva, in Platia VIctoria in Athens and our biweekly session in Corinth. We also continued visiting the self-organised camp in Lavrio. Sessions have been busy, following the large number of arrivals of the summer months. 

In the summer we were told we had been granted funding for a very special project: the production of a book and podcast about the situation in Sudan, to be prepared together with a local group, Mataris - Sudan Solidarity Committee. In the past months, we have been working on this and we're excited to carry on. Expect more news in the next reports! And check Mataris out on social media - they do a very important work on shining a light on both what's happening in Sudan and the conditions for people arriving in Greece.

In October, our library Monsier René van suffered a major breakdown on the way to one of our sessions. Sadly, this revealed underlying problems that we are still trying to solve. Engine parts, battery, turbo, diesel injectors... the garage bill keeps growing. This has also left us without our beloved library for many weeks. Alas, we still ran most of our sessions, borrowing friends' vans, using our personal vehicles, partnering with local community centres and focusing on maintaining relationships with our readers. Even without our van, sessions kept being busy and lively. Nonetheless, the absence of our René was deeply felt, as it has been missing sessions for some of the coldest weeks of the year, when the chill winter air is felt especially by our readers, often unable to afford decent winter clothes and with camps' authorities refusing to organise much needed distributions.

As of February 2026, we are still waiting for the latest news about the prognosis of beloved René.

For the good news, our coordination duo managed to source a very large number of books in Arabic, English Persian, Turkish and Bangla, to refresh our catalogue and continue to provide interesting reading material. Between October 2025 and January 2026, we bought over 300 new Arabic books (fiction, non-fiction and poetry for both teenagers and adults), friends brought us books from Istanbul and Bangladesh, we got a large donation of books from the closing Failtè Centre here in Athens, and we are waiting for and even larger delivery of English books donated by Book Aid!

For now that's it. We hope everyone had a positive start of the year, despite the state of global affairs. Thanks again for your support and keep thinking about our library!

LOVE IDEAS - LOVE YOUR LIBRARY

ECHO's team

• Our 2025 Annual Report (PDF)