Mission

Echo is a mobile library, educational hub and pop-up community space for refugees, displaced and vulnerable people in Athens and the surrounding area. Our aim is not only to provide books in mother tongue languages to those most isolated but to act as a source of information, a facilitator of language and music classes, and a space for conversation, play and support. We operate in refugee camps and community spaces in Athens and the surrounding Attica area, loaning books in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Kurmanji, English, Greek, German, French and Turkish, as well as providing language learning resources and attempting to respond to the specific needs of each space we visit. Our goal is to allow displaced and vulnerable groups to access the resources that many of us take for granted. To allow each person to gain some autonomy back through personal reading and learning decisions. We hope to support people on their own journey, to enable individuals to make their own decisions. We support self study through helping students access online university courses, providing Greek lessons and language learning materials, and suggesting learning apps and classes around Athens. Our ethos is that time is valuable and that each person who is stuck waiting, in a refugee camp, on the street, in a squat, should not allow their time to be devalued. We welcome men, women, children, old and young, and hope to support each person in every way we can, to show respect and solidarity while encouraging personal growth through education.