A few days ago, the wedding of our first former unaccompanied child who joined METAdrasi’s supported independent living for unaccompanied adolescents took place in Kalamata.
An unaccompanied child who arrived from Syria to Greece during the years of the refugee crisis, he escaped from the “jungle” of the refugee camp of Samos because he was lucky and there was a place in our accommodation facility, the only one on the island for unaccompanied children.
When he turned 16, in 2018, we proposed to him to go to Kalamata where we were just starting our pioneering semi-autonomous living programme for teenagers. With the help of our amazing team in Kalamata, and the whole local community that embraced him, he immediately joined the school, became fluent in Greek, engaged in his favorite sport of cycling, made friends, worked occasionally and when he became an adult, moved into his own apartment.
Today, the child we remember has become a man, and has created his own family. He continues to set goals, achieving them all and step by step.
We wish him to make all his dreams come true! We will always be by his side, as we are by the side of the hundreds of children who have now reached adulthood and are trying to become independent and find their own way as equal members of society.
The Supported Independent Living programme for unaccompanied minors in Kalamata is supported by the Kahane Foundation and by METAdrasi’s own resources. METAdrasi, since 2018, when the s Supported Independent Living programme for unaccompanied adolescents started for the first time in Greece, has supported 232 children.
