Dear friends,
the last days were really turbulent for all of us. We had to deal with a lot of bad situations and emotions.
But finally we all found hope again.
We’ve had no time and also no energy left to tell you in detail about all the things that happened.
So let’s do this now:
On Monday some of us went to the Alpha Bank of Mythilini to have a final talk with them.
Along to your support emails, faxes and calls, we also collected signatures in the neighborhood, in the city and started a petition.
Also two of our team members made a really nice postcard with the No Border Social Center on it. On the backside of it people wrote why they want our place to stay.
But the responsibles at Alpha Bank didn’t even have a closer look on them.
They showed their small-mindedness by not being responsive to even one of our suggestions.
There was no option for us to either rent, buy or get the place in any legal way.
After the meeting with the bank we decided to open the Social Center again on Tuesday like planned and a huge amount of people came by.
Police didn’t.

That changed the next morning. We were evicted but got time to bring our stuff out.
Some of us then moved the NBSC to the beach opposite the building, some others stayed at the
roof. Afterwards the police then left quite quickly.

On the next day we organized a Solidarity Concert on the beach. A lot of people came by and
altogether we danced to greek, arabic, pakistani, and gypsy music. It was wonderful.

Yesterday we tried to reopen our place again but police came quickly, there was no chance for us.

Now we are looking for new options, maybe we will stay on the beach.
We won’t give up that easily.
And thank you all for your support, it really means a lot to us!

FOR HUMANITY AGAINST BORDERS!

Dear Friends,

yesterday was the day we’ve all worked hard to reach: finally, we opened the No Border Social Center!!!

It is located on the main road from Moria to Mytilini, where many refugees pass by each day in order to flee the overcrowded and inhuman facilities of Moria.

The first day was a huge success:
After only few people had arrived until midday, the news got spread very fast in the afternoon and a lot of people came by – women and men, children and adults. Some were chatting in the main hall, drinking tea and coffee while having some snacks.
Others just wanted to take a short nap or play some board games. The children were playing in the yard, on the playground or drawing pictures in the children’s room.
The Center, moreover, includes a little shop which gives out clothes for free.

Many of the people we had seen and talked to yesterday entered the place again today, bringing with them friends and family.

Altogether, the athmosphere was extremely peaceful and the two last days have clearly shown how urgently needed a place like No Border Social Center is. However, as some of you might already know, the owner of this building – Alpha Bank – wants us out and the Social Center closed. They gave us a deadline to leave the place until Sunday evening,
and threatened to evict us if we won’t leave. However, they also agreed to enter new negotiations on Monday morning.

This is why we need YOUR support right now! If it is somehow possible for you, write mails, letters and faxes to Alpha Bank, call them or twitter, post something on their facebook page…just let them know how important it is that we can remain in this building!

Spread the word, tell your friends and family that their help is urgently needed!
Thank you all so much!

Together we stand, divided we fall!

Adress Alpha Bank Athens:

Diefthinsi Promithion Periousias Kai Asfalias
Leoforos Athinon 103
104 47 Athens

Phone: 0030 210 343 6801
Fax: 0030 210 343 6815
email: procurement@alpha.gr

To fight depression and boredom deriving from the unclear situation the refugees have to endure, we from No Border Kitchen Lesvos have decided to create a self-oganized and non-hierarchical Social Center, where everybody, regardless of nationality, religion, sexuality and gender, is welcome and invited to participate.

Several weeks ago we found a suiting place to realize our aim to create a „NO BORDER SOCIAL CENTER. Located along the long dailiy road (8km!) people walk from the Hot Spot Moria to the city.

Our work to create the social center progressed quickly. Walls got coloured, rooms furnitured, information gathered… so now we are ready to start!

We will open the Social Center tomorrow, Friday 7/22/2016 at 10pm

We serve free snacks and drinks, offer legal information, a separate save space for women, books, games, a playground for children, mobile charging stations and hang-out areas.

Let’s bring down the walls that divide us! We are counting on your support!!

Dear people,

Close to 3000 registered refugees (UNHCR report Lesvos daily statistics 7/7/2016) plus an unknown number of unregistered people are stuck on Lesvos, Greece. Since the conclusion of the EU-Turkey Deal and the closure of the Macedonian border the situation on the Island has changed a lot. After a period of few boat arrivals to Lesvos, the media attention has moved to other Hotspots in Europe.
However, people are still stuck here waiting for the process of their asylum applications in order to be able to leave the Island. They are forced to spend their days in the overcrowded and highly fenced Hot Spot Moria, their only alternative being the hot and sometimes hostile streets of Mytilene.
In the last days, boats also started arriving on a daily basis again, so we expect the situation to get worse in future.

As you can see on the following pictures, the conditions in Moria are still inhuman:

Things are changing quickly here on Lesvos. The situation for migrants in Greece is getting worse (to get an impression of the current situation of migrants in Greece check out the Facebook page “You CAN’T evict a movement” https://www.facebook.com/YouCANTevictamovement/ ).
After many intense discussions about our food distribution close to Moria and the general policy here we agreed that we cannot continue providing food for people living in Moria. We are not willing to support this system and the way that people are treated in Moria.
Telling our friends in Moria that we would stop with food distribution after Monday June 27th was bitter for our whole team. However, we are convinced that it was a neccessary step in order to not give up on our political principles.

Nevertheless, we continue to cook for people living in the forests and therefore we still distribute food at Tsamakia Beach and on the way up to Moria.
Our team has grown to be enormous during the last days and since we have finally found a good place to create a social center, that is our main focus right now.
Thanks to our motivated and enthusiastic team, converting our ruin to a space where people can spend their day, eat, prepare for their interviews, receive information about the current situation in Greece and Europe in general, read, play,…and whatever else they wish to do, does not seem like an impossible task. It rather seems to be a challenge that everybody is more than happy to take on.

Our goal is to create a place collaboratively with those who will use it. Therefore we only decided to give out food and prepare the above listed things – all other ideas for projects that we will eventually offer at the social center will be collected from the people who come once it is open.

We will all give our best to make sure this project will work out and we are always happy to get any kind of support – whether it is financial aid, donated material, helping hands or spreading information!

We have a high need of construction and other materials since we try to keep our expences low and many special tools are very expensive on this island. If you are planning on coming here and you have some space left in your bag it would be great if you check out our file “Material Needed“ to see what is urgently needed. Of course we will cover the costs if you cannot find it as donation – in case of higher expenses please contact us via email before buying.

Thanks so much for all the support!