AMAMÉ Initiative

💜 It takes a community to care for mothers. As a small grassroots organization, every helping hand makes a difference.

Last month, we were incredibly lucky to welcome three amazing volunteers who became part of our safe space and our community!

Emma and Chiara brought warmth and energy into every corner of our center. Whether interpreting for our multilingual support groups, helping mothers feel understood, organizing our Freeshop, supporting activities, or simply playing with babies while a mother could take a breath, they were always ready to help wherever they were needed. More than anything, they came with open hearts, learning not only about our work but also from the incredible mothers themselves!

We were also honoured to welcome Cameron, Maternal & Infant Nutrition Educator - Lactation Support Senior Food, Nutrition and Health Student from Canada. Throughout her time with us, she shared invaluable knowledge on breastfeeding, infant nutrition, and early child care through group workshops, one-on-one consultations, and practical guidance tailored to each family's needs.

What touched us most was her approach: listening first, respecting every mother's choices, culture, and personal journey, and empowering women with evidence-based information rather than judgment. Her dedication doesn't end here, we're excited to continue collaborating through online consultations until we have the pleasure of welcoming her back to Greece.

To Emma, Chiara, and Cameron: thank you for your kindness, professionalism and generosity. Thank you for choosing to spend your time with us and with the mothers and babies!

We hope that you also take with you the strength and stories of the incredible women you met along the way. 💜

On Tuesday, 9 June, we had the privilege of participating in a roundtable discussion with researchers from the University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam UMC, exploring a topic that is often overlooked but deeply transformative and of course, our passion: the power of care during pregnancy and early motherhood.

During their previous visit to our center, Dr. Marjette Koot and Dr. Loes Loning met with mothers supported by AMURTEL Greece & AMAMÉ Initiative to better understand how our services have impacted their experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood. Through interviews and conversations, mothers shared how emotional support, practical guidance, safe spaces, community connections, and trusted relationships helped them navigate one of the most vulnerable periods of their lives.

The emerging findings of the research project The Effects of Invisible Support in Refugee Care for Intergenerational Health highlight something we witness every day: care is not a luxury, it is essential. Find the initial Impact Report in our bio!

Research shows that support which reduces stress, creates a sense of safety, strengthens belonging, and helps women access services contributes to healthier pregnancies, safer births, improved maternal wellbeing, and better developmental outcomes for children. In other words, investing in mothers today is an investment in the health and resilience of future generations.

As one researcher shared during the roundtable, "The future of humanity is shaped by the environment we create for them today."

In our center, we remain committed to providing holistic, mother-centered support that recognizes not only immediate needs, but also the long-term impact of every act of care.

A small gesture of support for today's mothers can have a profound impact on tomorrow's children.

Thank you to all the participants to count with us in this important research!
Dr. Marjette Koot, Dr. Loes Loning, , and all the mothers who generously shared their experiences and voices in this project. 💜

🤝 Working Together for Mothers and Babies

Over the past few months, we have been meeting regularly with a network of incredible organizations coordinated by the amazing team of Christian Refugee Relief - CRR Together, we are exploring practical ways to strengthen collaboration and improve support for vulnerable mothers and their babies across Athens.

One of our current joint initiatives is the development of a coordinated diaper distribution system. The goal is simple but powerful: to reach more mothers, distribute resources more efficiently, increase the availability of diapers, and reduce the burden on women who often have to visit multiple organizations just to receive a few essential items.

Our most recent meeting was hosted at our space, and it was inspiring to sit together with so many dedicated women and organizations working tirelessly to find solutions for the everyday needs of mothers and babies.

A huge thank you to all the organizations involved in this effort:
🚼 Christian Refugee Relief
🚼 Victoria Community Center
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🚼 The Congolese Church Community
🚼 CRIBS International
🚼 Love & Serve Without Boundaries
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And a very special thank you to Anna from LSWB, who has generously volunteered her time and expertise to create an amazing tracking app for this initiative!

Watch this space!💜

🪟This may not sound like a shocking story but for us, it is a daily shock.

This pregnant woman travelled from Oinofita Camp to the hospital, at least 1 hour away, for a simple blood test.

She paid for transport, something already not easily affordable. She arrived and was sent back.

Not because the test was complicated or because she refused care, but because there was no way to communicate.

🛑 This is not an isolated case.

Every week, we see women turned away from care because they cannot speak the language.
We have even seen English-speaking women refused for the same reason.

Some hospitals try to provide interpreters, but they are far too few.
In many cases, women are expected to bring their own.
Sometimes, we are called on the phone to translate, if a doctor or nurse is willing to take the time.
Many times, that does not happen.

So she goes back. A tired, pregnant woman, returning to the camp. To try again another day, to pay again, to find someone to care for her children again. All for a basic medical test.

This is what lack of access to care looks like.
It's exhausting, to say the least.❤️‍🩹

Athens

Last week and this week, we had the joy of welcoming Mary Wenker to our center at AMURTEL Greece for a beautiful and inspiring storytelling workshop. ✨

Mary is an activist, director of CHOOSEHUMANITY , and children’s writer. She shared her book “Juma Listens with the Eyes”, a touching story about a deaf child who expresses himself through dance. Through her reading, she opened a space for connection, imagination, and inclusion.

But this activity went far beyond storytelling. Together, the mothers reflected on their own roots, traditions, and memories, sharing pieces of their cultures and personal histories that they wish to pass on to their children. 💜

These stories will now come together in a special illustrated booklet, created by Mary, that children will be able to colour and bring to life. A meaningful way for each mother to preserve and share her story with her child.

It was truly a pleasure to have Mary with us, all her generosity, honesty, and warmth created a safe and creative space for everyone involved.

We were also very happy to welcome mothers from the amazing team at CRIBS International, who joined us in this beautiful activity.

💬 “In the story I will tell you, Mirana talks to her child about her roots. And you: what would you like to say to your children?”

Yesterday was a very busy day at our center and a truly special one! 💛

We are so grateful to receive two incredible donation. Christian Refugee Relief - CRR delivered their monthly support of diapers, wipes, and essential supplies for our mothers. On top of that, they coordinated the transport of a huge pallet all the way from Samos Island, filled with clothes, blankets, socks, shoes, and so much more for our free shop, donated by Samos Volunteers!

Thanks to great teamwork, we managed to unload and bring everything up to the first floor quickly and efficiently. Of course, we couldn’t avoid a few impatient (and unfortunately racist) comments from passing drivers, but sadly, that’s part of the reality we face.

A huge thank you to Christian Refugee Relief for making this possible, and to Samos Volunteering for your generosity and open hearts! 🙏

A. is in the third trimester of her first pregnancy. She is very young.
This should be a time of preparation and care. Instead, she is carrying stress, fear, and uncertainty almost as heavily as her pregnancy itself.

Her body hurts constantly. Back pain. Exhaustion. She is told this is "normal pregnancy discomfort". But nothing feels normal when you are facing it alone.

At the same time, she must prepare for her asylum interview, one of the most stressful and decisive moments in an asylum seeker's journey, while pregnant, physically unwell, and without stable legal support.

She arrived at AMURTEL already quite advanced in her pregnancy.
Lost. Overwhelmed. Exhausted.

We helped her book her hospital appointments with the gynecologist and started searching for appropriate legal support. But fear and exhaustion can take away a person's capacity to organise even the simplest things.

You can see it on her face. Not every case moves forward smoothly, no matter how much encouragement we try to provide. Sometimes survival itself takes all the energy someone has.
Recently, with enormous effort, she managed to attend her gynecological appointment.

When needed, she calls us to help interpret between her and the doctors. Not every hospital has the time or capacity to provide interpretation support.

When she returned to show us the tests she needed to complete, we discovered something important had been missed: She had not been prescribed a Doppler ultrasound, a critical examination in the third trimester.

Without support, she cannot properly follow her pregnancy.
She cannot communicate easily with doctors.
She cannot fully understand what tests are needed or what is happening with her body and her baby.
And sometimes, she simply does not have the mental space to manage all of this alone.

To add to this overwhelming situation, last week she was kicked out of where she was staying, she slept in the streets 8 month pregnant for a week. Finally, together with another organization we found her a room where she can breath for at least some months, a room where to welcome with dignity her newborn baby.

We try to accompany her as much as possible, while respecting her pace and her willingness to share her story. Trust takes time. Stability takes time.

So we move step by step.
Every week we check in.
Every week we help her organise what needs to be done next.
We hope that little by little, the weight she is carrying so quietly will become lighter.

And if it doesn't, we will still be there, to support her, to hold space for her fears, and to connect her with the specialised support she and her baby may need.

Because no mother should have to carry this much, this quietly, on her own.