Athens, Greece, 28 March 2024 — The new project, "RAISE EU- Rights Awareness and Information Services for Enhancing EU Values", has been officially launched. “RAISE EU” aims to empower international protection beneficiaries and meanwhile inform local services and public actors on refugees’ rights, through awareness-raising activities. RAISE EU focuses on the daily challenges and barriers that recognised refugees may face in exercising their individual and social rights enshrined in international, European and national law.
The ten-month-duration project (March 2024 - December 2024) is implemented by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Hellas in Athens and Thessaloniki, in partnership with NGO A.S.P.I.DA. in Ioannina, and is carried out in the framework of the “BUILD” programme coordinated by the Bodossaki Foundation in Greece in collaboration with the NGO Support Centre in Cyprus.
The project’s main objective is the empowerment and the social and economic integration of recognised refugees, focusing, on the one hand, on informing them about their rights and obligations related to their legal status and, on the other hand, on informing and raising awareness of the services that undertake the processing of their daily needs.
The project’s activities will enable the beneficiaries of international protection to acquire a clear knowledge of their rights and obligations and empower them to enjoy their individual and social rights equally, with a view to their smooth integration and inclusion in Greek society. Furthermore, the project’s actions will contribute to the local and public institutions’ -especially the ones related to integration- awareness of the recognised refugees’ legal status and the rights deriving from it.
The project includes the following activities:
- Legal informative sessions and optional provision of psychosocial support to recognised refugees to empower them and inform them about their rights and the values of the European Union.
- Advocacy activities through bilateral meetings with local institutions and service providers and the organisation of a round table with the participation of relevant policymakers.
- Monitoring of legal changes and publications on legislative developments.
- Organisation of a conference in Strasbourg for an exchange of good practices between civil society organisations and EU representatives.
IRC Hellas will focus on providing group legal informative sessions to recognised refugees in Athens and Thessaloniki and performing advocacy activities. NGO ASPIDA will undertake legal information meetings for the recognised refugees living in Ioannina, assist with psychosocial support services, and contribute to the advocacy-awareness-raising actions with local institutions.
The project "RAISE EU" is implemented in the framework of the BUILD programmme, by the International Rescue Committee Hellas and NGO A.S.P.I.DA.
The programme "Building a robust and democratic civic space" (BUILD) aims to protect, promote and raise awareness of EU fundamental rights and values by supporting civil society organisations (CSOs) in Greece and Cyprus and strengthening their capacities and sustainability. BUILD is co-funded by the European Union, through the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV*) programme, and by the Bodossaki Foundation and the NGO Support Centre Cyprus with a total grant amounting to €2.9 million. BUILD is coordinated by the Bodossaki Foundation (Greece) in partnership with the NGO Support Centre (Cyprus).
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), or the Bodossaki Foundation. Neither the European Union nor the EACEA can be held responsible for them.