Disaster Response Greece Project #45017

Support the unaccompanied refugee minors in Greece

by Better Days Greece

Project Report | Sep 23, 2022
THEMIDA GREECE - Conscious closure and new beginnings

By Anna Taxeidi | Compliance & Data Officer

“I am so happy I am doing this procedure. I want to go to Germany so much, it's the only dream in my life. I want to study and work and be a useful member of society. Here in Greece, I am all alone, struggling to survive.” ‘A’, UASC boy, Afghanistan.

'Themida' has undergone an extraordinary journey, reaching out to support children who were often invisible and at immediate risk. Alert of ongoing developments on the ground in Greece, including a decrease in the number of homeless UASC, we entered the last semester with an exit plan. In Better Days we call it ‘a conscious closure’, a process that calls for celebration, critical reflection, documenting lessons learned, and building on best practices. Themida has taught us so much!

We believe in creating blueprints of humanitarian programs that can be replicated and adapted to fit responses throughout Europe. In Themida, we adopted a holistic and child rights-based approach to responding to unaccompanied children’s primary need for legal aid while providing access to secondary - yet essential - services such as social support, clothing, food, and information. Our program aimed at accompanying unaccompanied children through an otherwise lonely, turbulent, and exhaustive journey navigating through a hostile environment and complex bureaucratic procedures.

Themida’s services included:

Basic assistance (NFIs, PPE and COVID-19 support etc.)
Legal aid (i.e., child-friendly legal information, legal representation, access to DNA tests, referral to safe long-term shelters)
Medical care (facilitated access to medical care in private and public medical services)
Psycho-social services (access to a psychological aid, initial PSS assessment, mainstream, specialized and non-specialized support, case management)
Social services (support in transportation and escort services for vulnerable cases, translation services for Farsi, Somali, Bengali, French and Arabic)

Because of your generous support through these years (2019-2022), we managed to:

Support 337 individuals, out of whom 290 were UASC or unrecognized UASC
Achieve 93 positive legal cases (91 + 2 age assessments)
Place 88 UASC in shelters
Register 65 individuals to authorities

What's next for Better Days?
The end of Themida allows for new beginnings in Better Days' story. Our goal is to remain agile, relevant, and effective so we can maximize our impact and invest in areas that need us the most going forward. Following an in-depth needs assessment, we identified serious gaps in the provision of quality education and accredited programs in Greece. Data from early 2022 indicates that there are over 65000 children living in sites on the mainland, of whom many are registered in public schools, but regular attendance is rare due to logistical and social difficulties.

We are excited and looking forward to the relocation of Gekko Kids, our blueprint education program on Lesvos, to Athens. Gekko has run successfully since 2017, during which time we worked with thousands of children and young refugees trying to build a future in Europe. Feel free to explore our GlobalGiving page, "Personalised education for 120 refugees in Athens" or visit our website for more information on Gekko Kids.

We are truly empowered by your love. If you’d like to continue to follow our efforts, check our on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Links:

Gekko Kids - Personalised education for 120 refugees in Athens

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May 25, 2022
2022 first quarter developments

By Daniel Larios | Outreach & Communications Coordinator

Better Days team during an outreach activity

"I just woke up. I am in the shelter. I am very thankful. The first night in the shelter went well. Now I can rest. I love you all" - says ‘B’, an unaccompanied 16 y.o girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

We feel empowered by the words of ‘B’ and many other participants. Despite the ongoing changes occurring in the migration context in Greece, the development of THEMIDA GREECE program, implemented in collaboration with DCI Greece, has caused a significant impact on the lives of another 28 children during this reporting period.

During the first quarter of 2022, our program was situated in a hostile environment for refugee children which was characterized by:

The limited capacity of the National Tracing and Protection Mechanism to onboard and identify new homeless unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Overstretching of asylum services resulting in difficulties to register children. Some UASC are waiting for over 8 months without a registration appointment.
The Joint Ministerial Decision added an extra admissibility interview for asylum seekers incl., UASC.
The burden of proving kinship in family reunification cases relies on UASC and their relatives and adds to the long delays.

Besides these impediments, we remain committed to fulfilling the requirements of our participants and helping them exercise their rights for protection and legal representation. During this reporting period the Themida team focused on:

Supporting 13 children with their asylum process and 12 children with open family reunification cases who needed additional aid from our program.
Registering a newborn and working on his guardianship with his underage unaccompanied mother and Themida participant.
12 outreach activities which involved escorting, NFI delivery and PSS sessions.
A successfully completed age assessment with a positive decision from the doctors.

Simultaneously, at the beginning of a new year, Better Days performs an impact and a context analysis. Therefore in February 2022, we launched two parallel assessments on Lesvos and in Athens to perform and submit a comprehensive field needs assessment to help inform decision-making on THEMIDA GREECE for the coming year and other Better Days programming for 2022-2023. During this time, Themida Greece and other BD programs paused the acceptance of new cases. The results of the assessments have highlighted a critical gap in quality education for children and youth in Athens and the development of a closer relationship with the National Tracing and Protection Mechanism which runs under the Special Secretariat for the Protection of the Unaccompanied Minors since April 2021. Although the program's efficacy has been challenged over the past year, we are interested in determining means of support for this initiative and compliment national efforts in developing a comprehensive and holistic approach to protecting the rights of lone children in Greece.

We will be getting back in touch with you shortly to inform you about our next steps. Remember to stay tuned to our social media to get first-hand information about our operational updates!

Playing with children during streetwork activities

Analysing the data from our Needs-assessment

Links:

Beneficiaries of international protection in Greece by RSA

Attachments:

Unaccompanied Children in Greece EKKA March report (PDF)

4 Attachments

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Jan 25, 2022
THEMIDA GREECE's 2021 snapshot impact

By Daniel Larios | Outreach & Communications Coordinator

Themida Greece participant during a PSS session

“Thank you for your help, you help me within a week. I am blessed to have met you. I was transferred to a good place, I like it. No words can express the feeling I have for you. Thank you so much”. Ibrahim, 16 yo, Syria.

UASC homelessness in Athens has remained one of the main focuses of our programme. Some unaccompanied children sleep rough on the streets, live in parks or share rooms with unknown adults. Through a solid network of partners, we continued providing basic assistance as well as with holistic protection services to a total of 193 children. THEMIDA GREECE program, implemented in collaboration with DCI Greece, managed to register 37 new children, find shelter to 63 UASC and received 8 giant positive decisions for family reunification cases.

Here the snapshot regarding basic assistance services provided through the program:

Medical appointments: 110

Escorts: 273

NFI (Backpacks): 75

Hot emergency meals: 49

Rapid response interventions: 3

Better Days also remained present on the streets of Athens were we have performed over 20 streetwork outreach exercises since April.

Running in coordination with all the components of THEMIDA GREECE since April 2021, our PSS department continued to actively offer PSS sessions on an individual basis.

Our Greek Senior Child Protection Officer licensed psychologist provided mental health support to 26 participants, through the 92 individual PSS counseling sessions she conducted which capitalize on different therapy methods including art or gestalt techniques.

At the end of last quarter, we implemented comprehensive satisfaction surveys to gather participants' feedback on the quality of services provided by Themida Greece. These feedback surveys are anonymous and voluntary, with participants encouraged to complete them post-service. We are delighted with the results obtained so far where over 97% of participants are satisfied with the services!

During the first quarter of 2022, Themida Greece will continue to provide holistic support to 56 UASC and youth cases which are open and in need of protection and legal aid.

We will also focus on conducting a nation-wide context analysis, as well as field assessment exercises focusing on the legal, PSS and educational needs of UASC in Greece with the objective to ensure that Better Days operations will cover fundamental gaps and needs to provide the most efficient, impactful, and qualitative, services possible.

Stay tuned to our social media to get first hand information about our operational updates!

BD team during a training workshop

Links:

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