At one of The HOME Project’s homes for unaccompanied refugee children in Athens, two young children were once overheard arguing over which movie to watch.
It was a small moment, but a telling one. “I asked a caregiver if someone was going to step in,” says Stelios Vellis, who witnessed the scene before he joined the organization as its chief development officer. “‘There is no need,’ she told me. Bickering over a movie is what ordinary children do.” It was a sign of progress, he says, that these children finally felt comfortable enough to act their age.
The HOME Project was founded in 2016 by the Libra Group, in response to a call from then-US president Barack Obama for the private sector to help address the refugee crisis. CEO Sofia Kouvelaki has led the organization since its founding.
Since 2016, The HOME Project has raised more than €40 million in support of unaccompanied refugee children living in Greece. The organization’s funding is 52% from the public, 42% from trusts and foundations – including the IKEA Foundation and the Shapiro Foundation – and about 5% from individual donors.
The HOME Project now runs a network of 13 homes across Athens, having offered shelter, education, legal and psychological support to more than 1,200 children from over 40 countries. A fundamental goal of the organization is to help children reclaim the childhood they were never allowed to have.
