In 2019, we established a Good Factory on the Greek island of Lesbos. Over the past years, we have been feeding the most vulnerable residents of the largest refugee camp in Europe.

Today, we are taking it a step further! Our project in Greece is no longer just Home for All, a restaurant and kitchen run by a Greek couple—Katerina and Nikos—but also Home Village, a farm where we provide refugees with jobs. Here, they learn agricultural skills and supply the local market with organic fruits and vegetables.

At this moment, the farm spans over 5 hectares. It includes an olive and avocado plantation, a greenhouse with a plant nursery, a vegetable garden, and an enclosure for goats, geese, and quails. People will be talking about us! We won’t just talk about turning despair into hope—we’ll bring the highest quality products (including olive oil) to tables across Europe, proving it in the best possible way!

By supporting the residents of the camp and involving them in work, we want to show their true faces. They didn’t come here to push others aside and do nothing. They want to work, learn, become self-sufficient, independent, and provide security for their families.

According to the UNHCR, 856,000 people passed through the Greek islands in 2015 in what the media called “a refugee crisis”. It took two years for the EU and Turkey to reach an agreement. In 2018, there were fewer than 30,000 new refugees. But 2019 brought an increase – more than 60,000 new arrivals. February and March 2020 saw another surge in the refugee wave. Turkey, which already had 3,000,000 refugees from the east, stopped patrolling its borders, resulting in an alarming rate of new refugees. During this time, there were up to 1,000 new arrivals a day.

The Greek island has gone from refuge to prison. Refugees wait here for months, sometimes years, for an asylum decision to be granted. Nikos and Katerina are the only locals on the island doing humanitarian work for the refugees. They’ve given up their carefree lives under the Greek sun in order to help others.