£7,500 is six months of Mazí's food budget. Please support us to keep the fridge full and the cupboards stocked, the pans bubbling over and the smell of frying onions in the kitchen.

On 13th November at 9am, some of the Mazí team and supporters (Cosmo, Milo, Rachel, Joe, Benny) will be standing in Marathon, looking nervously out along the road to Athens. "It is perhaps the most difficult major marathon race", Wikipedia tells us, with "the toughest uphill climb of any major marathon".

Mazí Housing exists to create safe, stable housing for displaced men who are homeless and unaccompanied in Athens. We do this because no one else does. Men are at the bottom of the list for all services and support.

We have been doing this for three years, and we take an approach that prioritises human interaction and genuine participation. This is Housing First, community-based housing and person-centred casework that supports residents to make informed choices about their next steps.

Food is a cornerstone of this. We provide food staples (onions, potatoes, tomatoes, oil) and give money to go to the market and buy food as residents decide together that they need. We remove food scarcity; and at the same time we create a platform for communication, cooperation, and mutual understanding.

This gives each resident a stake in the house, a stake in the organisation, a voice to participate and triggers an act and attitude of participating: doing things on behalf of other people because it is understood that other people will do the same for you. This is the basis of healthy relationships: healthy support, exchange, trust.