IRC responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises & helps people to survive, recover & gain control of their future.

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their future. In more than 40 countries and in 26 U.S. cities, our dedicated teams provide clean water, shelter, health care, education and empowerment support to refugees and displaced people.

International Rescue Committee

The International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH)

Protecting heritage to build peace 
 
In response to the massive destruction of cultural heritage, the world has decided to come together.  Created in 2017, ALIPH is the only global fund that is solely dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage in conflict areas. ALIPH is a unique international cooperation initiative designed to meet the challenge of protecting cultural heritage in conflict areas.  To carry out this mission, the foundation finances preventive measures, emergency interventions and concrete post-conflict rehabilitation projects, all around the world. ALIPH's three areas of intervention are: 
	 
 preventive  protection to limit the risks of destruction,  
	 
 emergency  measures to ensure the security of heritage,  
	 
 post-conflict  actions to enable local populations to once again enjoy their cultural heritage. 

ALIPH 

We empower refugees by helping them reclaim access to education, develop modern media skills, and pursue professional employment.

At ReFOCUS Media Labs, our mission is to empower asylum seekers and refugees by equipping them with modern media skills to overcome the challenges they face, such as limited access to education, language barriers, financial constraints, mental health support, skills training and job placement. 

US-BASED DONATIONS ARE 100% TAX DEDUCTIBLE

Through our three Media Labs (Lesvos, Athens, Krakow) workshops and original content productions on location (Amsterdam, Berlin, Athens, Krakow) we provide comprehensive education in photography, filmmaking, audio engineering, and graphic design. Moreover, we actively collaborate with our students in the production of impactful dramatic films and documentaries.

Established in 2017 in Lesvos, Greece as a pilot project when we supported the residents of the infamous Moria refugee camp. in 2019 we officially registered ReFOCUS Media Labs as a foundation in Poland, and started formalizing our work. In 2022 we expanded our efforts by adding new media labs in Athens (GR) and Krakow (PL).  Athens was established to support refugees who struggled to secure access to education and job placement in the Greek system, and Krakow was created to support the massive influx of Ukrainian refugees who fled to Poland after the full-scale Russian invasion. Our work throughout our global network of media creation labs demonstrates our commitment to empowering our community members, and ensuring they have a seat at the table in determining our present and future direction. 

Our mission is to transform lives through education, career training, and psychosocial support, and ultimately sustainable employment. 

In Greece, we primarily work with minors and young adults, who are either stuck in the asylum system or struggling to integrate after receiving minimal asylum protection.  In Poland, our focus groups are women and young adults who fled the war, and now put down roots in Poland.  A key highlight of our training is the creation of professional portfolios, an essential tool that enables our beneficiaries to effectively showcase themselves to potential employers. This part of our program is particularly important as many refugees arriving in Europe have faced educational disparities due to conflict, poverty or discrimination in their home countries. Even those who have a university degree often struggle to be recognized in Europe as education systems in their home countries often fail to meet EU standards. As a result, many higher education graduates are forced to adapt and accept employment well below their skill and education level. In most cases this leads to exploitation on the European labor market.

Our programming aims to break the cycle of disadvantage that refugees and asylum seekers encounter in the labor market. By providing a platform for our students to showcase their original work, share their stories, and employ them as teachers, lab coordinators and co-creators we empower them to become skilled professionals within the global media industry. But our work goes beyond the technical training by providing foundational support and safe spaces for people with refugee backgrounds to be accepted and flourish. Put simply, we treat the whole human being. 

Since our establishment in 2017, we have successfully certified hundreds of media students, produced feature films and music videos; internationally published original photography and graphic design, and collaborated with mainstream media partners on investigative reportage.

We've been featured in National Geographic, collaborated on investigative reports with Forensic Architecture, Human Rights Watch, BBC Newsnight, Aljazeera, the Guardian, and BBC Panorama, and also produce our own original podcast "Fractured", which focuses upon refugee issues and human rights violations in Europe and around the world.

What sets ReFOCUS apart is our dedication to mentoring students beyond the traditional classroom setting. We actively collaborate with our students to create compelling films and documentaries based on their own scripts and concepts. Since 2019 ReFOCUS has produced several films directed, filmed and edited by our students and alumni including  “Even After Death”, “Nothing About Us Without Us”, “Dancing Bells”, “Dead End”, Interview" and "Erantzun", all of which were written and directed by community members. 

“Stitches” - our latest film is currently in post production and will premiere in March 2024 at Movies that Matter Film Festival. Our films and work has been internationally recognised and showcased at prestigious film festivals worldwide, including the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin (DE), Movies that Matter Film Festival (Hague, NL), CPH:DOX (Copenhagen, DK), Melbourne International Film Festival (AU), Rotterdam International Film Festival (NL), IDFA (Amsterdam, NL), New Delhi International Film Festival (India), the World International Film Festival (Amsterdam, NL), and the (in)Justice Film Festival (Chicago, US) and many more. 

In recent years we have expanded to reach larger audiences and provide even more community members with employment and pathways to develop their own careers as freelance media creators. We also take a local approach to ensure the settled communities we work with have foundational support. A great example of this local approach is our Art Under Pressure Arts Festival, which was inaugurated in Athens, Greece (May 2023). The festival provided a platform for artists from Athens, both from within our community and the greater cultural community, to showcase their music, art, performance, design, photography, films and critical reportage on issues the community faces. In 2024 the festival will travel throughout Europe and North America in an effort to activate new local communities of artist who can learn from one another and create together. 

At the heart of our organization is a fundamental belief that individuals can make a difference in the issues they see in the world. Our extensive experience in the field working on the front line of the "refugee crisis" in Europe proves that civil actions can have a massive impact in the lives of people at risk, especially when media and governments claim otherwise. These challenges are not intractable, rather they are opportunities for us to think creatively, and work collectively to ensure we build the societies we know are possible. 

And so we remain committed to helping people with real lives in crisis develop the real skills needed to pursue the real futures they envision. No matter how many times the fast news frames people in need as "takers" and "burdens", we are proving every day that it is possible to cultivate givers who enhance and power our society into the future. 

Fundacja ReFOCUS Media Labs

We provide housing and support to deprioritised asylum seekers and refugees.

**History**
From the first idea of Mazí in a kitchen in central Athens, residents have been at the heart of what we do. 

An asylum system is hostile by design. In this context, however, it was also inefficient, arbitrary and violent. As the state withdrew access to basic services (healthcare, legal, bureaucratic) in 2019, tens of thousands of people became trapped in dangerous and unsanitary overflowing camps on the Greek islands or across the mainland; stuck in cold and dirty and overcrowded basements of community centres or religious centres; or stuck in travellers’ houses: notoriously unclean, insecure spaces. Working frontline at a community centre and information point, we met people every day with an urgent need of housing for an indefinite period of time. People were stuck in the asylum system; stuck without legal status; stuck without access to healthcare; stuck without the status or tools to rent an apartment, find fulfilling work, and build their own pathways out of their situation in Greece.

We decided to use safe, stable housing as the prime lever for residents to unpick these issues, and to move on. Every day we saw young men come into the centre, up to the information point and ask for support. Typically, state and humanitarian actors distribute aid based on the vulnerability of different groups of displaced people. Someone can be “vulnerable” if they fit within a defined social group (old, young, pregnant, ill). Solo men are always bottom of this list. It is remarkable how quickly you internalise the knowledge that there are no services for a young man as he asks you for help; how quickly you internalise a belief that he will be fine: he is young, he is a man, he is strong. The unspoken thought behind this is: he will be ok sleeping on the street.

**Goals**
We are a small charity, and that enables us to provide genuinely impactful support to each resident we work with. We measure our impact in its depth as well as breadth, and aim to achieve five key goals, increasing each resident’s:

- Stability and access to safe spaces
- Feeling of ownership of living space and the city
- Ability to access services
- Ability to support himself financially
- Feeling of strong mental health

With these five keys residents leave Mazi equipped to support their own independent housing.

**Mission**
Mazí Housing exists to end homelessness and social exclusion for displaced people in Athens. In a world where displacement is a reality and resources are limited, we provide viable housing options and holistic support to those who face barriers to social inclusion. We demonstrate the potential for humane, cost-effective and inclusive housing responses to migration that facilitate positive interactions between all communities, and use our voice to advocate for better policy.

**Activities**
Mazí’s model is unique. We have three years of experience in using housing, safe community spaces and livelihoods support as a lever into inclusion in European societies. We have a strong track record of enabling residents to move on independently from our services: sixty-eight residents have arrived at Mazí without a job since 2020; fifty have left with the tools needed to work and forty-six have left in sustainable employment. Behind these figures are 113 asylum service visits; 38 positive asylum decisions or renewals; 65 legal information sessions; 303 doctor appointments; 24 referrals for psychological support; 3429 hours of language study. There are many indicators of inclusion, self-reliance and independence beyond these: including confidence speaking at house meetings, sense of ownership of living space, ability and willingness to navigate the neighbourhood and the city alone.

**Next Steps**
In three years, we have learnt a lot. We are constantly evolving our programme to reflect the changing context and the needs of our residents. We cannot anticipate the external triggers of these adaptations, but this flexibility ensures that we are making the most of our skills and resources to support residents to be self-reliant. The changes we have seen since the Athenian kitchen in 2018 have not, however, been solely driven by the context in which we work. We have pushed ourselves to become more effective, sustainable and replicable. Looking at the next two years, we have a clear vision of what Mazí looks like:

1. **STRENGTHEN**
• In 2023, to recruit a board with broader experience in different areas relevant to our work, e.g. advocacy, finance, funding, housing, lived experience
• To maintain a more stable core team: this means, in 2024, four members of staff for our current operations (average 40 residents over a year)
• Broader and deeper partnerships with other organisations to amplify impact we have

2. **CODIFY**
• We measure impact meticulously
• We communicate successes and learnings clearly, both internally and externally
• We maintain and uphold clear internal systems
• We document our approach clearly and charmingly, ensuring it is easy for others to see and understand how we work, and the impact this has

3. **GROW**
The work that we do is as needed as it has ever been.
• We will grow to support more people: we will open more apartments, sustainably (one housing manager per three houses)
• We will open up community space to non-residents to meet the shortfall in services as organisations close across Greece

4. **ADVOCATE**
• We will build on our track record to speak about housing; to articulate the weakness of camp-based solutions; and to advocate for better access to rights
• We will collaborate with existing partners, and search for unexpected partnerships, to amplify our voice and its impact
• We are a voice that people listen to about housing and integration in Europe

 Mazí Housing Project

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International Rescue Committee

Mazí Housing Project

ALIPH

International Rescue Committee

Fundacja ReFOCUS Media Labs

International Rescue Committee

Afghanistan