Dear friends and supporters,
We have an exciting announcement to make: our monthly newsletter will from now on be called ECHo! This name matches our organization ‘Europe Cares’ and at the same time represents our most important values: a sense of compassion and a lasting impact through acts of kindness. With our work, we hope to create a ripple effect that continues to inspire and support humans over time. After their time in Paréa Lesvos, the members of our community will always bring with them that feeling of safety, care, compassion and connection they shared with others. At the same time, with our advocacy work, we strive to inspire our followers, friends and supporters, including you, by showing them that the energy we put into the world, particularly through caring actions, can have a far-reaching and enduring influence on other people's lives.
Updates from Paréa
In response to the increasing shortage of basic needs, we have taken additional measures to support our visitors. From June, we have started offering Cooking Workshops in the Women’s Space, where women from the different camp communities can gather and cook together some traditional recipes from their country. This helps them foster a sense of community and connection with their culture, while also bringing different cultures together. Moreover, the food situation in the camp is still dire. Many people have no access to the camp distribution due to their legal status, and those that do often complain about the quantity and quality of the food distributed. In the meantime, in our free café in Paréa, we continue distributing lunches and drinks to all our visitors, with the addition of cold juice in the summer season.
Moreover, in July we welcomed a new partner organization in Paréa, Collective Aid. They are now running clothes distributions in the center three times per week, addressing the urgent need for clothing - especially for men who often wait up to 1 month after their arrival before receiving a second set of clothes.
Due to the high temperatures, from August on, Europe Cares has also decided to offer a new service to our visitors, a bus operating twice a day between the camp and Paréa to make the way to the center easier and less tiring. Priority is given to children, women and the elderly, to make our services even more inclusive and accessible to everyone.
If you want to read more about the situation inside the camp and on Lesvos, have a look at our monthly report: Monthly Report: Paréa Lesvos July 2024 (europecares.org)
Updates from Frankfurt
After 3 years of countless sorting events and over 40 shipments of in-kind donations to Lesvos, Calais, the Balkans and Eastern Europe, last December we decided todownsize our operations in our warehouse in Frankfurt, the Frankfurt Hub, and focus on our community center Paréa Lesvos. For this reason, we donated all the remaining boxes of clothes and hygiene items to the local organization Bahnhofsviertel which supports homeless, mentally ill, drug-addicted, and unemployed individuals through counseling sessions, activities in their café and provision of basic needs. We hope their free clothing store is even more welcoming now! For us, supporting the local community is crucial to be part of the change and fight for a more just and welcoming world for everyone.
Ongoing Campaign
At Europe Cares, we are committed to continue standing in solidarity with people on the move on Lesvos and advocating for their human rights all over Europe. We rely on the trust of our donors to continue our work in Paréa and to adapt to the changing needs of our visitors.
Our community in solidarity needs people like you to keep fighting for a world where everyone feels safe and welcomed! Every small donation makes a difference in the lives of people on the move. Thank you for considering this important commitment and for being an integral part of Europe Cares!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me via silvia.lucibello@europecares.org. We are happy to share more info on our work and the situation on the island.
With the best wishes and a hug from Lesvos,
Silvia
(Executive Director Europe Cares e.V.)
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