Beyond the Workshops of HR&SR – The Inside out of the “Babel Project”
I started to write this article just after the last support workshop in Babel – trying to remember most of it. Impossible. Then I looked at the guidelines for an article: short and energetic content.... Personal – this could be a place to start. I remember the...
Return of the far right: Greece’s financial crisis has led to a rise in violent attacks on refugees
Nikos Gionakis faces a similar predicament. He is the head of a mental health centre called Babel whose stated mission – until now – has been to help destitute foreigners. The problem is that the more public health spending is cut, the greater the need for aid...
AYS SPECIAL: Closed borders are damaging our mental health
The Babel Day Care Center team, has been worked with refugees, migrants and volunteers for years. One of them is Nikos Gionakis who in the interview with for AYS warns about the conditions people are left to live in, conditions devoid of hope, and they urge for...
Experts sound alarm over mental health toll borne by migrants and refugees
Nikos Gionakis, a psychologist with the Athens-based mental health unit Babel, tells the story of Hassan, 34, who fled Syria with his four children. “Passing from Turkey to Greece, he was forced to get into a boat by smugglers. Two of his kids drowned as the...
Refugees in Greece. Traumas of Babel
The second instalment of Michal Pavlásek's ‘Stories from the Babel Archipelago’, this time about the work of social and community centres in Greece.*This article is part of a five-part series, available to read here. Over the last decade many social and community...
The Psychological Toll of Volunteering at a Refugee Camp
"I would cry very often. I couldn't control my emotions." Lazar Dimitrijevic first came to Samos, Greece, last March. The 23-year-old, who was earning his master's degree in human security, took a short trip to the island to see the situation "with my own...
Babel, el único centro en Grecia para ayuda psicológica a refugiados
Babel es el único centro de atención psicológica en Grecia destinado únicamente a personas refugiadas. El espacio brinda apoyo con un enfoque multidisciplinar basado el la diversidad cultural y basado en los traumas derivados de esta crisis a nivel humanitario....
Psychological Toll Of War And Uncertainty
The children panic every time they hear an airplane or thunderclap. “They think they are going to be bombed,” says Hana, a mother of eight. “Two bombs fell over our house. My small daughter was hurt by shrapnel.” Like nearly five million others, Hana and her family...
Las heridas psicológicas de los refugiados
Las atrocidades vividas por los refugiados y migrantes en los países de origen y en los de tránsito pasan una dolorosa factura: desde la depresión y el estrés postraumático hasta ataques de ira e intentos de suicidio. Por el momento, pocos son los centros y...
