Because of war and having to flee their home, many refugee children have spent years without education. For many of them, learning centres aided by Finn Church Aid are the only chance they get to study in Greece.
The youngest children in the Satovriandou centre, around three years old, attend the centre’s kindergarten. The oldest are on the verge of adulthood, and the centre also organises language courses for the pupils’ parents.
Over the course of a day, up to 100 children and young people visit the centre. The rooms of an old house have been divided into classrooms using low screens.
Teaching is challenging, as new pupils join the groups every week. Every time, the work begins from scratch; the teachers need to figure out what level the child is on and explain what schoolwork is about.
Even though the Greek aid organisation Apostoli maintaining the centre has been carrying out aid work for a long time, the workers had no previous experience of working with refugees and immigrants. So, Finn Church Aid was called in to help.
The aim is to teach the pupils at Satovriandou centre enough Greek for them to study in a Greek school, or enough English for them to manage in other parts of Europe.
Finn Church Aid (FCA) is the largest Finnish development cooperation organisation and the second largest provider of humanitarian assistance in Finland.
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