Emergency situations
Responding to emergency situations across the islands of Lesvos and Samos.
What we do
Refugee4Refugees is a non-governmental organization, with no political, religious, or ethnic affiliation that works at the front line of the humanitarian crisis in Greece.
Mission
Refugee4Refugees aims to offer sustainable support, humanitarian assistance and emergency response to migrants from all nationalities who arrive at the shores of Lesvos and Samos seeking asylum in Europe.
Vision
Refugee4Refugees aims to promote the establishment of a participative global aid ecosystem, whereby refugees and asylum seekers can feel empowered through their active involvement in humanitarian and development interventions.
Refugee4Refugees co-founder, Omar Alshakal was forced to flee his home in Syria because of the civil war and arrived at the island of Kalymnos, Greece, after swimming for 14 hours from the Turkish coast in 2014. After receiving asylum in Germany, he decided to go back to Greece to help people who are currently living through similar experiences. He knows first-hand the problems involved in obtaining asylum and is aware of what it is like to create a new life in a country far from the place you called home before losing everything. After realizing that he was well positioned to help fellow refugees and asylum seekers, he decided to found the organization together with Andrea Montenegro in 2017, in order to assist migrants on their arrival to the Greek shores of Lesvos.
Nowadays, Refugee4Refugees runs a number of projects on the islands of Lesvos and Samos. Our main activities consist of clothing and hygiene item distribution through our ‘free shop’, sorting and organizing the warehouse of donated items, camp and beach cleaning, setting up tents for new arrivals as well as providing recreational and non-formal educational activities for children and adults.
Refugee4Refugees welcomes every person who wants to collaborate and help in its projects, always encouraging refugees and asylum seekers to get involved in the activities of the organization.
To support our work on Lesvos and Samos donate here!
Our projects
Every month hundreds of people attempt to cross from Turkey to Greece to escape violence and poverty. Refugee4Refugees strives to help those people as they make this perilous journey by offering humanitarian assistance and emergency support to those who arrive to the shores of Lesvos and Samos. We acknowledge the protracted and “chronic” nature of the current refugee crisis in Europe, and as such, we aim to also address longer-term development needs of the refugee communities currently living in Lesvos and Samos.
Free shopping experience
distribution of clothing and hygiene items to refugees living in and around the official Reception and Identification Centers of Moria Camp in Lesvos and Vathi Camp in Samos.
Recreational activities
for the children living in Moria and Vathi Camp and their surroundings.
Non-formal educational
Activities for the adults and children living in Moria Camp and its surroundings.
Cleaning
Of the informal settlements surrounding Moria and Vathi Camp. Beach cleaning of the southern shores of Lesvos.