Fundacja ReFOCUS Media Labs
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.