Thank you for all donations !

Yesterday the team cleaned and sorted a lot of toys that we’ll distribute one of the days. The spring is coming so the weather is getting warmer. The team wanted to go for a swim. We went to Karfas beach 🏝. Afterwards, we went to Limoni Taverna for a late lunch. A great taverna in Karfas.

Today the team distributed kids clothes to more than 200 kids in Vial, kids clothes to people in two locations outside Vial. The kids was so happy to get nice summer clothes donated from the German “Refugees Foundation”.

We visited the mother with the new-born twins. It turned out that she didn’t have any milk powder or food 😓 So we went and bought it for her.

I’m so happy that the Iris center team are able to react and fill the gaps when we discover them.

Thanks to all the donations from the amazing Iris center team supporters, we can do our best for our sisters and brothers on the run – EVERY DAY 🙌💗😃

Janne Hegna,
Iris Center, Chios

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Hard working team and friends

The hard working Iris center teams goal yesterday was to empty one of our containers.

The team have received a lot of aid from our German friends, “The Refugees Foundation” and also from Ruhi Loren’s organization “Refugee Biriyani & Bananas”. The team have distributed a lot of this tings to the apartments, the Albanian families and in Vial. So we was able to reduce the amount of containers. We pay a monthly rent for the containers so by empty one container we’ve more money to spend on the refugees.

The plan for next week is to distribute as much as possible of the summer clothes to Vial, the Albanian families and the apartments. We’ll also give out crocs to women and children.

The Iris center team will follow up the single twins mother and probably already today a woman will come and help and live with her and the lovely babies 🙏👶💕👶💕

So many to thank just now:
– Thank you so much amazing Shirley for making this happen.
– Thank you so much to Amir Sharify, Prince Baktash Hadis, Zuhor and Abu for emptying the container.
– I’ll also use the opportunity to say a thank you so much to the Norwegian support group, “Støttegruppa for Iris senteret” for a lot of aid and also donations.
– Thank you so much to HÅP and Sølvi for following up the twins mother.
– Thank you so much to Selina Ingram for donating her birthday gift to the Iris center teams work.
– Thank you so much to Inger-Lise Gabrielsen for donations so we can distribute Crocks to women and kids in Vial.
– And also all the other Iris center supporters.

TOGETHER WE ARE DYNAMITE !!!

🙌✨🌷🙏💗

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Newborn twins

Yesterday, Mette and Inger-Lise  visited a refugee mother with newborn twins, and this is their summary:

“We have been visiting the mother with the small newborn twin boys today. The mother seemed to be quite okay after her caeserian. She was smiling, giving her boys all the attention they needed. She asked for some clothes for herself, and it is being taken care of. The boys need something for the stroller when they are to be taken out, but they are too small and tiny for what is available at this time. We have gotten some money from friends for buying what they still need, and we will do so next week.

It was a pleasure to visit her. Some pictures here, published with the mother’s blessing.”

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Iris Center filling gaps in the refugee work

The Iris centers policy is to help those who needs it and fill gap concerning the refugees crisis on the island of Chios and also others in need.

Wednesday 24th April the team prepared and distributed clothes for women and men at two locations outside the camp. It’s about 30 families that for some reason is moved from Vial to an apartment or actually in many cases only a small room. The reason can be new born baby or babies, some kind of illness, disabilities of different kinds, war wounds etc.

Because it’s not so many people they’ve more time to choose items and we’ve more time to talk with people which is very nice.

Many of the families in the apartments feel forgotten… In Vial they’ve their community, friends and volunteers helping them with clothes and toiletries.

The Iris center team will follow up the apartments closely with aid and also help with other things if it’s needed as the twins mother.

While distributing to the apartments we found out that a mother didn’t had any food… We went to the supermarket and bought what she needed.

Yesterday 25th April we distributed women’s clothes to the new arrivals in Vial and also some more summer items to the women that needed.
Amir made a list over the new arrivals that needed strollers and baby clothes. We went back to the container area and prepared and picked up what was needed and went back back to Vial to distribute it.

The strollers to the new arrivals in Vial and the food to the twins mother are donated by Kristin Omnes and Thora Lise Roppestad. The clothes are donated by the German team Refugee foundation and The ripple effect, Lancaster.

To be able to help our sisters and brothers on the run – we’re completely dependent on the amazing Iris team supporters. The team needs donations but we also appreciate so much all the good words from you. It gives so much energy and makes us go on every day.

THANK YOU SO MUCH ☺️🙏🌷

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Clothes to all the kids in Vial refugee camp

Yesterday the 22th April the Iris center team distributed clothes to all the kids in Vial refugee camp on Chios island, Greece.

We gave out –
– Underwear
– socks
– skirts
– trousers
– t-shirts
– jumpers
– shorts
– jackets
– tights
– summer hats
– caps
– shoes
– baby clothes

The mother or father could pick 5 items to each kid. Some kids came as well and was so happy to have the opportunity to pick summer clothes. We also visit the 6 Albanian families that lives in plastic bags houses close to Vial.

We visited our faithful supporter Sølvi – with her amazing Iris center support group – HÅP. She and her group help us whenever we ask. Thank you so much.
The wether is getting warmer and it’s very sunny when we do the distribution, so the team decided to buy sunglasses 😎 🕶

We also distributed clothes and stroller to a new born baby in Vial refugee camp. The new born babies and the mother was transferred to apartments before – now many of them have to go back to Vial only 4 days after they have given birth…

The clothes we gave out yesterday is donated from our German friends Refugee foundation and the UK team the Ripple effect Landcaster.

We ended the day with dinner paid by donations from Big mama and Kristin Omnes.

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much to all Iris center team supporters for supporting us – without you we would not have the opportunity to help our sisters and brothers on the run.

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Women clothes distribution

Iris center team distributed clothes to all the women in Vial refugee camp on Thursday.

The clothes was given by the Refugee foundation from Germany.

We gave out
– trousers
– leggings
– scarfs
– tops
– abajas
– jumpers
– bra
– underwear

Thank you so much to all that made the distribution possible!

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Biggest distribution of toiletries

Today we have prepared and bought toiletries for the biggest distribution of toiletries we have ever had!

Since we have had some weeks off and distributed toiletries only to new arrivals last Saturday, we want to cover all the families, couples and single women in the camp this Saturday. We usually give out to 70 families/couples/single women in total every week with a system where we take section by section. It will probably take the whole day to distribute on Saturday, just like it took the whole day to prepare today. We know how important and needed this is for the people in Vial, so it is absolutely worth it to use some days on this! We are just happy we are able to do this!

Pia Simonsen and Kristin Gjelsvik bought most of the toiletries we will distribute on Saturday, but we also had some left in our container that other people have paid for. In addition to Kristin has brought toiletries that students from Rothaugen school in Norway has donated and Valerie Van Harten has brought toiletries from Netherlands that we also will give out as well. We really appreciate that they make it possible for us to distribute to so many people! They really deserve a BIG THANK YOU!

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A new week

💙 There will be 434 children and parents coming to Iris Center this week! This is more weekly visitors than usual, but there have been many boats arriving in Chios lately so the amazing team wants to try and do everything they can to see the usual visitors and the new arrivals.

💙 Every Saturday morning, Iris volunteers go to the Vial camp to register visitors for the next week. They try their best to find and make sure the new arrival families have an appointment. It’s very urgent for them to come to Iris Center as soon as possible because it’s the fastest way for them to get the hygiene items and clothes they need right away. Vial camp has a small warehouse and does some distributions but they don’t give all the items we do and usually cannot get the items to the families as fast as we can because they have to follow more restrictions than we do.

💙 It’s equally important that the families come to escape the harsh conditions of the camp as soon as possible so that they can see some of the people around who care about them and want to help them before they could start to lose hope. It’s the beginning of growing relationship that Janne and the different volunteers at Iris will have with the families as long as they are stuck in Chios.

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Urgent need of donations and volunteers

💙 We are in URGENT need of all kinds of donations and supplies
We currently only have enough of some supplies to last for the next two weeks. We most urgently need children and adults underwear all sizes, children and adult socks all sizes, deodorant, toothbrushes, razors, shampoo and laundry washing powder.

Some more supplies are on they way to us and those will help a lot but they will not arrive until two more weeks. If you can donate funds, please use this paypal me account. Hannah, a dedicated Iris volunteer, has kindly offered to collect the donations until the paperwork for the Iris NGO is approved and a bank account can be opened for it.

If you can send supplies, please email us at Iriscenterchios@gmail.com and we can arrange it together.

As of June 22, 2018 CESRT has stopped sending us supplies and funds so if you have contributed to CESRT on behalf of HOPE/Iris in the past and would like to continue, please contact us at Iris directly for that going forward. Thank you.

💙 We urgently need volunteers on the ground and remotely
Due to the support of some of you directly and your referrals, we should have enough volunteers to run the center through the end of July (and we are always happy to have more). We would really appreciate your help in spreading the word to try and get more volunteers on the ground for the rest of the year.

We also have a small remote team supporting Iris and would love for more people to join us. If you have time to contribute from home in the areas of operations, volunteer recruiting, social media, video editing, fundraising or legal advice we would be very happy to hear from you. You can email us at iriscenterchios@gmail.com.

💙 About Iris
Iris helps more than 1,200 visitors and distributes more than 13,000 items each month!

We support refugee children and parents in Chios by giving them a place to get distributions of clothes and hygiene items and have showers, relax, have a snack and play while they wait. It’s an absolutely critical service for the refugees, especially now that they are stuck in Chios for longer and longer. It provides them with a place to get supplies they need to survive there for long periods of time and with a place they can go to escape the harsh conditions that they live in every day.

The Iris volunteers run the center by each taking a specific role for a shift (you can change roles each shift or each day). The roles are about giving hygiene supplies for the shower area and to take with them, helping to pick clothes from the donated clothes wardrobe, doing planned activities with the children and parents, playing outside games with the children and parents, welcoming and registering the visitors to Iris, stocking and managing the supplies and coordinating special projects.

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