Welcome Family and friends,
Thank you for your continuous support and efforts in donating and sharing our mission. We are grateful for the donations received over the past year, which have enabled us to provide food and hygiene packs to those displaced in Vial camp and apartments around the island of Chios. Additionally, we have also been able to continue providing supermarket vouchers to those displaced in Athens as well. Your contributions are invaluable to our mission and we would not be able to carry on without your support.
In September we distributed 622 food and hygiene packs in Chios and 1860 Euros worth of supermarket vouchers to those in Athens.
In October we distributed a total of 900 food packs in Chios and 1200 Euros worh supermarket vouchers in Athens. As you can see the number of people we are distributing to is rising and it will only get bigger with so many crises happening in the world. We urgently need help.
Read on to hear about our new Qalbi centre!
Our long-term readers will remember our old Qalbi centre, which acted as a free shop in the heart of Athens. Unfortunately, we had to leave the building we had, leaving us without a centre and a safe space for people to come and collect food, supermarket vouchers and personal and household items.
The RBB team didn’t back down when faced with difficulties in getting aid to those in need. So, we came up with new ways to help, like doing outreach programs and giving aid directly on the streets of Athens. However, this wasn’t a long-term solution, Which is why we opened a new Qalbi to keep providing help.
Although our new centre won’t have a free shop for now, we remain committed to our mission of providing support and assistance, with a strong focus on providing choice, by providing supermarket vouchers. This means that people we are supporting can buy whatever food and hygiene products they would like and choose. In addition, we stock supplies of other food and non food items as and when needed, Our new centre provides a secure and cosy space for individuals to come and receive their supermarket vouchers, with snacks, hot and cold drinks. We also have a children’s corner, equipped with pencils, colouring books, reading materials, and toys to keep children entertained while parents speak to us.
As well as aid distributions and a social space, Qalbi also serves as a community hub whereby we are able to asses and refer people for any other assistance they may require, such as legal support, medical aid and livelihood services through our networks of grassroots organisations.
Qalbi will not only provide aid to those in need, it is also a dedicated safe and study space for our field coordinators on the Community Humanitarian Leaders to study, focus on their tasks, and learn on-the-job training.
We were fortunate to receive laptops and educational supplies for this. Additionally, we were gifted a foosball table, which our ‘brothers’ from the community who come to visit us, for our dedicated males only activities sessions, will Love! We want Qalbi to also be a social space, for people to come and feel welcomed and home.
Check out or socials to keep updated with our progress and the Qalbi centre.
