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Description
The project suggests the continuation of 2 shelters in Samos and Chios. Organization''s approach to shelters is that they are a transit family: they offer a safe home while helping children prepare, according to their skills and best interests, to smoothly transition to best-practice alternative care and adulthood. We place prime focus on enabling integration into local Greek society or, in cases of reunification, in other EU member-states. The shelters have a capacity of 20 beds each, 2 of which (4 in total) are reserved for short-term accommodation. Due to their proximity to the camps, the shelters on the islands accept all ages and genders and prioritize the most vulnerable. Both shelters are established according to national and EU standards and focus on building the resilience of children while finding permanent solutions for them. Activities of the shelters include the provision of housing and coverage of basic needs (food, NFIs and healthcare), day to day care (including individual care plan, psycho-social support, life skills and education, recreational activities and sports), community activities, provision of interpretation, case management andsafe exit.
Summary of project results
More than 5,500 unaccompanied and separated minors were on 2019 in Greece and only 1 in 4 had access to safe shelter.
METAdrasi addressed this need with shelters operated by expertly trained staff, focusing on children’s psycho-social development, safe integration to local society, and their preparation in making the next step. The project suggested the continuation of 2 shelters in Samos and Chios. The approach to shelters was that they are a transit
family: they offer a safe home while helping children prepare, according to their skills and best interests, to smoothly transition to best-practice alternative care and adulthood. We place prime focus on enabling integration into local Greek society or, in cases of reunification, in other EU member-states.
The shelters had a capacity of 20 beds each, 2 of which (4 in total) are reserved for short-term accommodation. Due to their proximity to the camps, the shelters on the islands accepted all ages and genders and prioritize the most vulnerable.
Both shelters were established according to national and EU standards and focus on building the resilience of children while finding permanent solutions for them.
Metadrasi’s Transit Accommodation Facilities provide unaccompanied children a safe, suitably equipped space, in accordance with their age. The goal of these facilities was to minimize and ideally eliminate the time spent by minors in detention centers, until legal procedures are completed for their safe escorting (through METAdrasi’s escorting missions) to accommodation centers for unaccompanied minors of a permanent nature, throughout the Greek territory. This activity also contributes substantially to the protection of minors against networks of smugglers and traffickers.
The specialized interdisciplinary groups (psychologists, social workers, special educators and nurses) and the support staff, along with the support of METAdrasi’s interpreters, offered children care, covered their everyday needs and provided psychological and social support, as well as health care and legal advice. The daily schedule of the children hosted was enriched with a variety of activities for their psychosocial development, highlighting their skills. Furthermore, social, cultural, recreational and educational events were organized in the facilities.
The transit accommodation facilities in Chios and Samos
The major goal of the transit accommodation facilities (TAF) on islands is to keep children safe for a few days until they move to mainland or reunite with their families. Due to delays that have occurred since 2016, the goal shifted towards providing children with short-term and long-term accommodation and we focused more on their education and recreation,
as well as preparation in making the next step based on their interests. Most children benefited from the provision of psychosocial and educational care services.
The main goal of the program was to provide safe living, psychosocial support, and educational training to children 0-18 years old.
In addition to enrollment in public education, which is always a priority, the children receive educational support from the hired educators, who also supervise educational and recreational activities organized by the volunteers of METAdrasi.
Despite the difficulty of the COVID 19 situation and the limitations it presupposes, even today, many activities have been developed internally to support and entertain children.
METAdrasi managed to maintain a team of professionals by leveraging its long-standing presence and local networks
The project aimed to serve 280 unaccompanied minors (UMAs) but reached 114 asylum seekers, predominantly older minors aged 16–18, from Sub-Saharan Africa, Syria, and Afghanistan.
An additional 85 vulnerable individuals, all classified as UMAs, received services. This group was largely undocumented or recognized refugees, with a majority being older minors aged 16–17 from Sub-Saharan Africa, Syria, and Afghanistan.
The accommodation provision met the planned target of 40 places specifically for UMAs, though the average monthly occupancy rate was 73%, below the target of 90%.
Psychosocial and educational care services:
While individual care plans exceeded the target (319 UMAs versus the planned 280), other areas fell short:
• 188 UMAs received psychosocial support,
• 196 participated in recreational activities,
• 164 received life skills training,
• 173 received legal support,
• Formal and non-formal education reached 164 and 187 UMAs, respectively.