Five unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan, who lived in Greece in accommodation facilities and camps, without prospect to join the relocation program or family reunification with a relative in another EU country, live since April in Portugal, where METAdrasi’s team accompanied them.

Their first months in the new host country brought many new things, but also challenges. The minors go to school, try to learn the language better day by day, make new friends, indulge in their favorite sport, football. METAdrasi’s members of the Guardianship Network for Unaccompanied Minors are still by their side, through skype or phone calls. We are all sending them positive energy!

This important opportunity for a new life was offered to the five children after major efforts and METAdrasi’s cooperation with organizations and authorities in Portugal and Greece, such as the Portuguese National Federation of Institutions of Solidarity CNIS, the pertinent Portuguese Ministries, the Greek Asylum Service and the Athens Minors Prosecutor. Financial support was provided by the Swiss Organization No More Walking, with their initiative Just Cycling and the collective initiative “Never Alone – Building our future with children and youth arriving in Europe” by the European Programme for Integration and Migration(EPIM) and Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Bodossaki Foundation – Ίδρυμα Μποδοσάκη and John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation.

Efforts continue to be made in order to enable us to give this opportunity to more unaccompanied children who are trapped in Greece and often live in unacceptable conditions, due to lack of proper accommodation facilities, and as a result are endangered by traffickers’ networks.

This project has been supported by the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM), a collaborative initiative of the Network of European Foundations.