“They invited me to a kindergarten in Athens. There, a 5 years old boy from Afghanistan attended the class. He was always silent and serious, to the point where the teachers thought there was a problem with his hearing or verbal abilities. No one could communicate with him. As soon as he heard me speak his mother language though, his eyes lit up with happiness! The teacher mentioned that it was the first time she saw the boy smiling” remembers Hamida, an interpreter of METAdrasi. Since then, as the teachers say it’s as if he is a different child. More social, happier and he now tries to communicate with his classmates and to play games with them. With the support provided by the teachers, the help of interpretation and the successive meetings with his parents, they saw a significant progress in the integration of the boy in the classroom.
The inclusion in the formal education of refugee and migrant children is one of the most demanding procedures undertaken by the Greek public schools. Certified METAdrasi interpreters are called daily to facilitate communication between teachers, children, and parents but mainly to be there to give the children courage for their demanding journey of social integration through a language which is not theirs.
During the school year of 2021-2022, the interpreters of METAdrasi performed more than 900 interpretation sessions in 145 schools throughout Greece (in Attica, Central Greece, Macedonia, Epirus, and the islands).
The programme “All Children in Education” is being implemented in cooperation with the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and with the support of UNICEF.
