OpenSpace is Starfish Foundation’s locally run opportunity hub for education and co-working space based in the heart of Mytilene, enabling opportunities to occur and projects to flourish by making space for a range of activities for both the local and the refugee community.

Open Bike aims to introduce both refugees and locals to the benefits of cycling and through that help them gain deeper connections with the environment and between each other. We have created a bike workshop at OpenSpace and one inside the camp where people can repair their bikes themselves as well as recycle and upgrade them using the equipment and parts we provide for them.

The Starfish Multilingual Library is located within OpenSpace. Over 7,000 books line the shelves, books written in Greek, English, Farsi, French, Arabic, Somali and German. The library has been designed to be an accessible, educational and recreational tool for both local Greeks and refugees living inside and outside the camp. You can either browse the books in person at OpenSpace or online (browse here). For those living inside the camp, Starfish has set up a library station where people can borrow any books of their choice either by browsing the available selection there or by requesting specific genres or authors. In front of our library station in the camp, we also have a game station, where camp residents can play a variety of board games, such as chess, dame, UNO cards, puzzles, as well as cultural specific games such as carrom and others.

Folia, our safehouse, offers safe shelter to vulnerable single refugee women and their children. We seek to meet the individual needs of our beneficiaries by offering a holistic approach of psychosocial, bureaucratic and physical support services.

Bagforeveryone is a project aimed at skill-building opportunities for the refugee and local community on Lesvos. Our tailors are conducting weekly sewing lessons in collaboration with the #educationeveryone team in Switzerland.

This program aims to empower and connect individuals through effective self-defence techniques by learning to recognize and respond to boundary crossings, allowing us to create safer spaces for ourselves and others.

The Starfish Foundation, in collaboration with REAL, offers English and Greek language classes at our community center in Mytilene, OpenSpace, as well as inside the Mavrovouni camp, covering all levels from beginner to advanced.

Open Football Community (OFC), was founded in June 2022 in partnership with Iliaktida in response to the needs of refugee unaccompanied minors and has become a big sports family for many youngsters from around the world.

Starfish Foundation supports new mothers who have come to Greece to seek asylum with baby boxes containing essential items for themselves and their newborns while the boxes themselves also operate as baby beds.

Within days of the COVID-19 pandemic being declared, Starfish initiated a handwashing project- named SafeHands- outside Moria camp. The handwashing stations provide access to clean water, soap, and protective masks and have been designed to support the Coronavirus prevention efforts within the camp. The stations are overseen by a select few Starfish supervisors, but the majority of daily operations are run by resident volunteers. Each resident volunteer has received training from medical actors to ensure that the information regarding correct mask usage, and COVID-specific hand washing procedures are understood by all #SafeHands volunteers and are shared with anyone who visits the stations.