The second school year, during which METAdrasi has been providing interpretation in schools of Attica, Northern Greece and Epirus, facilitating the communication among school principals, educators, refugee and migrant children and their parents, has been completed.

Adam, METAdrasi’s Interpreters’ Coordinator in Thessaloniki, recounts:

“One day, we received an interpretation request by a primary school in a village in Northern Greece, which many students from the local accommodation facility attend. The school principal and the teachers had invited the students’ parents in order to get acquainted and inform them about the educational system and their children’s progress. The languages in which interpretation was needed were Kurmanji, Badini and Arabic.

Thanks to the interpreters, the parents managed to communicate for the first time with the teachers, a fact that made them very happy. After the meeting, a student’s grandfather approached us and after he embraced us, he said: “May god keep you well for what you did today”.

The exchange of images, experiences and views was in itself an open school. The people’s diversity acted as a trigger that led to the discovery of common ground. That day, parents and teachers discovered that they speak “the same language”.

The activity is implemented in co-operation with the Greek Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs and with the support of UNICEF.