During a recent accompaniment mission carried out by the METAdrasi team, a young boy spent almost the entire ten-hour journey trying to learn as many Greek words as possible. After just one month in a reception center near the border, he had already learned to count to one hundred and use basic everyday phrases in Greek.
His greatest concerns, however, were not about the journey itself, but about his future: When would he be able to go to school? Would he have the chance to continue pursuing his dream of becoming a professional footballer?
As we watched a football match on the ferry’s television, with the sun setting before us, he smiled and said:
“I want to make Greece my home and, one day, I hope to proudly wear the national team’s jersey!”
For the METAdrasi team, every accompaniment is more than a safe transfer. It is the beginning of a new journey—one where safety, education and hope can finally find the space they deserve.
Since November 2025, METAdrasi’s activity “Escorting missions for unaccompanied children” is implemented in the framework of the project “Strengthening protection systems for unaccompanied migrant children and vulnerable women applicants and beneficiaries of international protection” funded by the National Development Program for the Programming Period 2021-2025 through the Special Coordination and Management Service for Migration and Home Affairs Programmes of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.
