The OHF "One Happy Family" community center on Lesbos is a haven for refugees stranded in the ill-reputed "Moria" camp. Just a handful of staff with refugees and volunteers help run it.
It is noon at OHF. In one hour this place will be teeming with a big "happy family".
Some background
In comparison to the camps, the Swiss-run OHF (One Happy Family) refugee community center a haven of civility and relief. OHF has been renting a warehouse and grounds close to the main harbor Mitilini, near the KaraTepe refugee camp (ca 5km from Moria) and fixed it up DIY alongside refugees.
The OHF motto is “WITH them, not FOR them” to empower, to value skills + talents, to give some structure to those who want to help at OHF.
There is no pay without work permits of course, but rewards in cigarettes and shop coupons - and in being useful , making friends, having a reason not to be in the camp. There are carpenters and painters; a Syrian doctor now runs the kitchen with 5 helpers from different countries, tossing basics in English and Arabic and Greek between them while cutting vegetables for 300 lunches. Others staff the 2nd hand clothing boutique, the weight gym, Pierre from Congo runs the library in a converted bus, others plant herbs + flowers, give haircuts, mend clothes on 2 donated sewing machines.
Fabian Bracher left a banking job in Switzerland this spring to head the center. Along with him Ralph from Switzerland, Rike from Germany, and Akis from Greece are the pillars who run the center this summer. Others have spend months here before them. This is a bare-bones operation, financed by donations. Between organisation on WhatsApp, hands-on work, administration, this often is an 18-hour day for them. Yes, your donation is welcome as well (see also on the 'About' + 'More information' pages)!
Natan, an Israeli-Arab non-profit runs the adjoining 3-room language school for adults and children. Just as OHF, they delegate to the numerous refugee academics and professionals. Children learn in their native languages: Farsi, Arabic, French. Native teacher run Greek and English classes for adults. During late afternoon gym + play time, the happy shrieks of children can be heard across the dusty hill.
A rotating set of volunteers, I call them ‘21st century International Brigades (without guns)’ come from the Mediterranean, northern Europe, a few from Canada and the USA to donate weeks of their vacation time.
We all arrive at the center at noon for a daily meeting to decide who picks up refugee volunteers with the rickety van, who gets the food for 300 lunches, who refills and staffs the stores. A few hundred men, women, and children come to stay for the day (from 1-8) or drop in now and then. Between 8-9pm all present help with cleanup, ferrying helpers back to the far camp + locking up.
For my project I worked alongside volunteers and refugees in the boutique, the cafe, sat down with them for lunch and for chats, doing afternoon drawing or crafts tables. After one day, I was greeted with “Hello, my friend!”