Since the programme’s inception in 2015, METAdrasi has aimed to make its Transit Accommodation Facilities for Minors feel like a home; a home in which everyone participates and freely expresses their opinions.

In order to enable the free flow of opinions and ideas, METAdrasi has implemented weekly Family Council meetings at its facilities. During these meetings, METAdrasi staff and children plan activities, discuss each child’s rights and obligations, and voice their concerns. Through dialogue and mutual understanding, everyone’s opinion is heart and respected. Topics discussed may range in scope from personal hygiene to mutual respect, and children have the chance to seek advice and guidance from staff.

At a Family Council meeting in Samos, the children themselves discussed and created new rules; they decided to respect study time and the space of others, to treat their neighbours and friends with respect, and own up to their mistakes.

All of the children in METAdrasi’s accommodation facilities are very creative and they often impress us with their proposals. They are interested not only in the well-being of their home, but also of their society. The children themselves have proposed to help the local community; our children have worked to clean up litter, recycled, and even visited a nursing home. Such initiatives set examples that we all can follow!