Story
Hello friends. Welcome back.
Cosmo's November Marathon ritual returns on Sunday 9th November with the original, authentic, nasty Athens marathon. Pheebs and Rach are running 10km each in solidarity.
That's a full 62.2km on a sleepy Athenian Sunday.
Why?
We work in the transitions. In the asylum system in Greece, as elsewhere, men transition from a 17 year old “vulnerable boy” to an 18 year old “threatening (foreign) man” on their 18th birthday. This means: no housing, few support services and a dogged perception — from everyone, even those administering humanitarian support — that “he’ll be fine on the street for a bit, he’s a man”.
He won’t be fine on the street. That’s why we set up Mazí.
Our homes are the foundations of our lives, and this is true for everyone. If we want a more cohesive and peaceful society – we invest in good housing for all.
Create safety, maximise choice
The impact of bad and intermittent housing on someone with precarious legal status, no family and limited support networks is disastrous. The choices you have in that situation are all bad.
So we also work in the transition between long-term legal limbo to stable legal status. The transition between speaking no Greek and speaking some. The transition between being exploited by your employer to a stable, consistent job you can rely on. The transition between being afraid of the healthcare services to understanding how they work. The transition from a precarious life at the edges of society to one that is a part of it. Sometimes, in the transition from angry young man to impactful member of a community.
All this stems from that first transition –– from precarious sleep to safe housing.
This helps each resident to leave prison-like camps, precarious basements, and rough-sleeping on the streets for good. The Greek state has abdicated responsibility for doing this work. And now it is directly criminalising migration. (Including orgs like Mazí for supporting people seeking refuge).
A donation to this run is a way for you to work in that transition too.
Please donate, or better yet, run with us in 2026 ! After all, providing stable housing isn't a sprint, it's a MARATHON.