Blog Nr. 3

Two Robins are flying back to Switzerland and we are welcoming two new Robins to our project! 

We are very happy to announce the continuation of our beach project. The project has been a huge success so far and as it has developed we have seen how much joy it has brought people. Therefore, we are so pleased to have found Yasmina and Jill who will keep the project running until school starts again for the kids of Sindos. 

Meret, Jill, Yasmina, Hassan and Debora in front of our van "the cloud". 

We would love to share some photos and stories of the wonderful people we have met along the way, and some of the incredibly rewarding experiences we've had. 

We enjoyed some nice girl time with these ladies and their teenage daughters. 

These two brothers fled from the Kurdish part of Turkey with their families. The baby in the back seat is only 4 weeks old! 

Mert caught a fish for us but unfortunately it didn't live very long. It is now resting in peace on the beach in Nea Kallikratia. 

Hazem from Valentinos project came to the beach with us to translate. He also was a big help in setting everything up for the families. 

We had dinner with the Kurdish families two times and we grew really fond of them. We will stay in touch with them and keep updated with their further journey. 

Our new Robin Yasmina came in to our project and was warmly welcomed by our participants. 

The kids usually play for a full four hours and never leave the sea. Except for water fights  and sand castle building. 

Blog Nr. 2

the last couple of weeks we were able to organize beach days for more than 20 families of a housing project for refugees in Sindos.  

Word about our trips quickly spread throughout the house and people were really eager to come to the beach with us. It is our goal to take as many families as possible during the time we are here, so we try to fill the van to the last seat everyday. Our van (which we named „the cloud“) hasn't let us down yet although sometimes it needs an expert push from the front to start.

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The families always come well prepared with delicious picnics and camping cookers to brew fresh coffee and heat the coal for their waterpipes. A very popular snack they bring to the beach is flat bread with olive oil and zatar (a middle eastern spice mix). That's one of the reasons we never leave the beach hungry.

We also took our  little English students on a field trip to the beach as one of them celebrated his birthday. They were very happy about the collective birthday present we got for them ; a huge ice cream cone. 

Every trip is different. Sometimes the whole family enjoys to swim in the sea, other times we take care of the kids in the water while the parents get to enjoy some rare moments to themselves.  The summer feeling is completed at the end of the day when we take a group of exhausted kids and smiling parents home. 

As not all the families we contacted were interested in going to the sea, we also offer to take them to beautiful Platanakia Park in the hills of Thessaloniki. This week we took the first three families to the piney forest of the nature park. 

We are happy to have been able to do these trips for two entire housing projects in Sindos and that we have another three weeks to bring sunny days to even more families. 

Love from Thessaloniki,

Debora & Meret

Blog Nr. 1

First Week back in Greece

We arrived back in Thessaloniki last Thursday and went straight to work. We met the people at the community center in Sindos, where we will be teaching English two times a week. We already taught our first lessons on Monday and got to know some of the regulars at the community center.

Fortunately we were lent a van by Swiss Cross, an organisation that is now operating on the island of Lesvos. We started our first tour to gather people for our excursions on Tuesday. At a housing complex for refugees close to the community center, we spread the word about our idea. We were pleasantly surprised that every family we asked to come to the beach with us in the following weeks was eager to fix a day and a time for their trip and we saw many happy reactions to our suggestions. 

The following day we already went on our first excursion, with three families from Sindos. We picked them up at the housing complex and drove with them to Katerini beach. We had a beautiful time, both small children and elderly women had smiles on their faces and enjoyed the fresh sea air. Quickly the kids built new friendships.

Mariam and Murat taming a wild Greek crocodile typical for the region.

We have a good feeling about the upcoming weeks of work and we are hoping to take as many people as possibles on these short but sweet trips that take peoples minds off of their unfortunate situation. 

This family from Baghdad enjoyed the view and a small picnic. 

As people are becoming aware of our work, we have been contacted from many different coordinators of refugee housing projects all around Thessaloniki. There seems to be a big demand for projects like ours, which have the sole purpose of bringing a little bit of fun and distraction to these long hot summer days in Northern Greece. 

We are trying our best to give as many people a break from their monotonous daily routine, but we already know that we will not be able to take everyone, which is a hard fact to accept. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to the time lying ahead of us. 

Love,

Robins

Summer project "Lampetia", Thessaloniki

This summer our two robins Debora and Meret will be returning to Thessaloniki. For their summer project "Lampetia" they want to work in different camps in and around Thessaloniki. They will return to the classrooms and teach English and want to offer summer activities to residents. As temperatures rise up to 45 degrees, people stuck in camps and apartments are desperate to catch a fresh breeze on one of Northern Greeces many beaches. Our Robins will try their hardest to offer this opportunity to as many people as possible.

Stay up to date and see what we are able to accomplish through this blog! 

If you like what you're reading we would be happy if you share our blog and website with your friends and family.

Love, 

Robins

Here you can read Valentino's Blog!