Another year coming to an end...

A year full of events, experiences and emotions that we all experienced together and each one of us individually in our own way, in the large team of the Kinoniko EKAV.

Every year that passes seems to be more and more demanding. Today, just before we say goodbye to 2023, we reflect on all that we have tried, what we have achieved, but also on our difficulties and disappointments. We do not even put aside our failures, because they teach us, they give us knowledge to face new challenges.

In any case, we are strengthened by the deep feeling that we have consistently found ourselves, as a Social EHIC, next to fellow human beings in need of support. This year, as we bid farewell to the year, we hold in our memory the 337 unaccompanied refugee children who found shelter, protection and love in the six Social EHIC* shelter centres. We keep in mind the 41 homeless people we have housed in equipped apartments, and who we are helping to find work thanks to the "Home-Work" programme**. We remember, with a little pride let's not hide it, all our vulnerable fellow citizens, elderly people, abused women, young people in a dead-end situation, single-parent families, whom we took care of within the framework of a psychosocial support centre.

In an international context where the situation seems to be going off the rails, with a war raging in Europe, a genocide unfolding almost next door to us, under the indifferent gaze of the international community, we choose to follow the path of solidarity. We leave behind the sterile individualism that is suffocating modern society and work every day to ensure that there is no social exclusion. And we invite each of you to become our fellow travellers.

As the sister organisation of the Kinoniko EKAV in France, SAMU Social, put it so beautifully, giving is good for you !

With this phrase, we hope that we all join our efforts to be, as a society and as people, even more interdependent, even stronger in 2024.

Happy New Year!

*The Accommodation Centres for Unaccompanied Minor Refugees are co-funded by the European Union and national resources through the Asylum and Integration Fund 2021-2027.

**The project "Estia – Ergasia I" is implemented in cooperation with the Municipality of Nikea - Agios Ioannis Rentis and is funded by the Ministry of Labour & Social Security with OPEKA as Managing Authority.