Our expectation of the project is to give proof to reality, which is that volunteerism really helps in the social integration of refugees and migrants. So, we are just waiting for the results to prove us right!
Olga Antoniou | Hellenic Red Cross
Olga Anoniou | 04/07/18 | english version |04:30min
Olga Anoniou | 04/07/18 | greek version |03:24min
Written Version
The Organization
My name is Olga Antoniou and I represent Hellenic Red Cross. I work for HRC for 22 years and the last 11 years I am specialized in the supervision, support and the mobilization of volunteers, especially Social Welfare Volunteers. The reason why, I was selected to coordinate the VAI Project on behalf of HRC, was my experience on the training, the supervision and support of volunteers and since October 2015, I was the Volunteer Manager for the migratory issue, training volunteers all over Greece, especially migrants and refugees.
HRC is a member of the International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies, which is the largest Humanitarian Organization in the world. It aims to provide assistance without discrimination, as nationality, religion beliefs, class or political opinions, to all the vulnerable groups. The humanitarian activities aim to prevent and alleviate human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.
HRC has a tradition in volunteering, since Volunteering acts as one of the Fundamental Principles in the Movement. So far, HRC has trained more than 500 migrants since October 2015, in order to be HRC Volunteers and give them an insight, know how, knowledge and experience as they practice in the field offering voluntary services. The activities that they have been running so far have to do with psychosocial support to other people in camps or the society and also hygiene promotion during living in camps, restoring family links for people who are tracing their family members and community engaged accountability.
Our Role
In VAI Project, I am the HRC coordinator in order to implement all the activities concerning the research and all the working packages we have undertaken I this project. Our participation is essential as we work with refugees and migrants as volunteers since a long time ago, where especially we gave a lot of emphasis during the mass arrivals from October 2015.
Greek native people, migrants and also refugees from Third Country Nationals participated to this research that we will be contacting in VAI project, which we believe is the most important issue, since we have the ability to collect information from first hand from people who have the experience from volunteerism during their stay in Greece all these years since 2015, or even earlier.
Also, native and migrants volunteers have been activated not only in the migratory issue, being involved also in multicultural activities, which give them the opportunity to be already members of the Greek society and to enter themselves in Greek communities exchanging ideas, culture, philosophy and standards of living.
Expectations
Our expectation of the project is to give proof to reality, which is that volunteerism really helps in the social integration of refugees and migrants. So, the research we are contacting is a tool to present and justify our goals and inspirations of the field. We really believe that volunteerism is a step for migrants and refugees to integrate in the society. So, we are just waiting for the results to prove us right!