ELIX, supported by UNICEF and funded by the European Commission (DG ECHO), began in October 2017 the implementation of an educational program for refugee and immigrant children and their parents in Attica.
The aim of the program is to provide non-formal education and homework support to underage refugees and migrants as well as their families in order to contribute to their smooth integration into the education system through innovative educational methods.
The program is designed to cover on daily basis the educational needs of children aged 3-17 and support the study of children going to school. Each student attends 2 hours of lesson a day (10 hours a week), which are implemented in the morning or afternoon hours.
In addition to Greek-certified pedagogues, all courses are supported by teachers stemming from the ethnic communities of the students.
In particular, the actions of the program include:
• Preschool classes for children aged 3-5 years.
• Greek language lessons for children aged 6-17.
• English language classes for children aged 6-17.
• Natural science lessons for children aged 6-17.
• Life skills courses for adults.
• Greek and English language lessons to parents.
• Promotion of parents’ integration through sensitization, language course and social integration activities for parents
Brief review of the program for the months of January and February:
- 6 training centers in Attica
- 1.250 children enrolled aged 3-17, total of 810 boys, 657 girls
- 217 parents, 102 men, 115 women.
- 27 different nationalities (indicatively) and 10 different mother tongues.
- 2.748 hourly classes in total (Greek & Mathematics and English) were provided to children and 254 hours for parents
- 57 Educators, 3 Social Workers and one psychologist have been working on the program providing services to children and parents.
In addition to the above, a number of training seminars and capacity building activities were provided to all ELIX teachers (educators and community teachers) and social workers in all Learning Centers including: Teaching Greek as a Second Language, Balance Literacy Approach, Classroom Management, Competency Management, Basic Rules in Interpretation, Post-traumatic stress, Team-bonding skills, play-based Learning Using Lego Bricks, Attention Deficiency Disorder, Learning and Memory, Living Together, One-way mirror psychotherapy for adults with supervision, Introduction to dyslexia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In Children and Adolescents, Dyslexia and Bilingualism, Transforming perspectives in lifelong learning and adult education, Management of diversity in school, Maths in Motion, Physical Theatre-and Make your own movie about refugees.
In Attica, the program is implemented in 6 educational centers in the hospitality centers of Eleonas and Skaramangas, at the ELIX training center (20 Patision st, Omonia) as well as at the 51st Elementary School of Athens (40th Akoimnatou str.) and 48th Gymnasium of Athens (Koraka 44, Kato Patisia), and 20th Gymnasioum of Athens (Koraka 44, Kato Patisia).
ELIX educational centers hosted at the 51st Primary Schooland the 48th Gymnasium of Athens have been allocated for this purpose by the Municipality of Athens under the Open Schools program, an initiative of the City of Athens, funded exclusively by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
