Greece: Marta Segou, general director of the Barça Foundation, last week visited the refugee camps where the Barcelona Foundation works with refugees based on its own socio-educational and sports methodology, “SportNet”, in addition to collaborating with other actions focused on prevention and health improvement, access to non-formal education; and workshops on personal development and environmental skills.
The mission followed the project carried out jointly with the local Greek organizations “Cheering” and “Organization Earth”, two NGOs with which it works in various refugee camps in and around Athens. The project benefits more than 650 children and teenagers living in various camps (Malakasa, Schistos and Ritsona) or the Greek capital.
Fundació FC Barcelona has been working since 2017 in various sectors both in mainland Greece and on the island of Lesvos. In the case of Cheering, an organization dedicated to preventing and improving the refugee population’s health in Greece since 2018, one of the goals is to facilitate access to health services (medical examinations and referrals to free specialized medical services such as dentists, optometrists and vaccination centres).
The project benefits more than 250 children and teenagers from the refugee camp in Malakasa and their families, including babies and pregnant women who, in some cases, have not received prenatal care.
As a result of these reviews, it was found that over 50% of children and adolescents have dental problems, 16% have eye problems, 26% have head lice, and 16% describe or live with families experiencing symptoms due to intestinal parasite infections. Which often cause anaemia and chronic malnutrition.”
