We are living and working in a space with Khora in Exarchia, Athens, for the whole month of July. Anyone who is willing and wants to conduct solidarity work and activism is welcome to join our trip- join our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SOASGoesToCalais/.

Khora have secured a large space in Exarchia and sent us this message:
"It's 6 floors, and each floor has a big open space of about 220m2. In total it's a bit more than 1000m2. There will be a lot of work to do in the building. We are planning to build a kitchen and a little cafe on the ground floor with internet. One area will hopefully offer a few computers and support to make asylum applications online. Other floors will be open for projects like skill share projects, language classes etc. We are very open for ideas and also other groups/individuals that want to use the space for projects."

More than 15 000 migrants and refugees are stranded in Athens and being on the ground is an important and effective way of helping, as well as building the activist networks which will help us continue our solidarity work and challenging Fortress Europe in the coming months.

We believe that this European manufactured crisis can be resisted by us in the following ways:
1) Engaging with the reality on the ground and providing material support.
2) Building strong bonds and relationships of solidarity is essential to our work, as we think that volunteering only goes so far as to alleviate the current conditions, but to work together and find alternatives is where a meaningful intervention can be made.
3) Gaining direct experience of the struggle in order to build resistance movements, since it's our upmost responsibility to fight Fortress Europe in our own home countries.

So, if you like our ideas and think our project will be useful, PLEASE DONATE whatever you can to the cause and feel free to contact us on facebook (Soas Goes to Calais) or by email (634536@soas.ac.uk).

Daie