Naomi, a nonprofit organization based in Greece teaches women sewing as a way of spending their time and being more autonomous, leading to making clothes, bags and useful cases from blankets and other items left behind in a refugee camp.

The place that NAOMI acts, creates and sews.

Back in 2011, a team of German speaking women living in Thessaloniki, the second biggest city in Greece, started supporting humanitarian actions in cooperation with active organization in the city. Their main goal is to highlight multiculturalism and how through it we can all benefit and be filled with hope. Their initiative is to create working places for immigrants as a tool of inclusion and socialization. The way to achieve that is hosting sewing classes for immigrants. It was early in 2015, immigrants started arriving in Northern Greece massively and only a few months later that the project “Remember Idomeni” was created. 

What is Idomeni and why it should be remembered you may ask. Idomeni was one of the biggest makeshift refugee camps in Greece, located just on the borders with Northern Macedonia. More than 2000 people from Kurdistan, Syria and Iraq lived there for months. After being transferred to hospitality centers, blankets – given from UNHCR but also from volunteers- , broken tents and clothes left behind where used from Naomi Center. They were creatively turned into jackets, hoodies, bags, cases and accessories. Professionals with long experience in the field of fashion, working in the fashion industry before brutally leaving their homes, designed and patroned jackets, hoodies and many more promoting the upcycling culture but more importantly, supporting all the refuges once living in the camp and reminding the consumer a very important part of modern history. 

Bassam, tailor from Damascus with many years of professional experience working on Remember Idomeni jackets.

The line “Remember Idomeni” was available for people to witness the result and of course to purchase in NAOMI Workshop Center, but also in solidarity centers across the world. In addition, the handmade products are still available online in NAOMI’s official website for all those people who want to support the projects but live far.

The importance of this initiative relies on second chances, remembering the past and claim for the future. “Remember Idomeni” is to now be synonymous with creation, rebirth and refugees.

In addition to “Remember Idomeni” project, NAOMI creates fair jobs through the Universal Refugee Workshop, that offers refugees and immigrants the opportunity to socialize and integrate into Greek society smoothly but also to feel safe and productive. Thus, they are trained to be able to manufacture or process garments and other textile products. The principles of upcycle, processing and morally made clothes make the core of any project. From mouth to mouth and action to action, NAOMI now is getting bigger and bigger offering new opportunities and space for personal growth. Through the workshops, creative employment, training and opportunities for sociability and inclusion to the participating immigrants are being provided.

In the simplest of the words, NAOMI is an organization, that through fabric and sewing, color and memories aims to empower and improve the employment of refugees. 

https://shop.naomi.gr/

Spanish Team of Eco-mmunity activators

(featured image by https://shop.naomi.gr/about-naomi/)