“When you are a stranger in a country, learning how locals live and adapting to the culture is essential”.
Mamadou, 27 years old, Guinea
Mamadou arrived in Greece in the winter of 2016, after crossing by boat from Turkey to the island of Lesvos. Seeking safety, he fled Guinea at the age of 17. After two difficult weeks in Moria camp, where he experienced overcrowding, violence, and constant tension, he was transferred to Athens and placed at one of The HOME Project shelters for teenage boys.
“At the beginning, all I needed was a place where I could feel safe. This was the most important thing”, he admits. When he arrived, he did not know anyone. He was the only African child in the house, surrounded by boys from Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. He spoke little English, no Greek, and spent his first weeks quiet and withdrawn.
But slowly, and with the support of our multidisciplinary shelter team, things began to change. He was enrolled in school almost immediately. Staff members helped him navigate daily life, supported him with language lessons, and created routines that gave structure to days that had once felt uncertain. There were football matches, walks around Athens, and board games in the living room. Through the Youth to Youth programme at ACS Athens, he was also introduced to music and began experimenting with a small keyboard.
“When you are a stranger in a country, learning how locals live and adapting to the culture is essential”, he says. “It helped me build my life”.
Some memories remain especially vivid. The first snowfall he had ever seen. Trips outside Athens with the other boys. The shelter staff waking him up each morning for school. “They would say, ‘Get up, get up, it’s time to go to school,’ and of course we would all struggle to get out of bed”, he remembers with a smile. “That brought my mother to mind, as if she were the one waking me up”.
Although he rarely allowed himself moments of ease back then, carrying constant worry for the family he had left behind, those small gestures stayed with him. They gave him something he had not felt for a long time: stability, care, and the possibility of a future.
Learning the language became one of his greatest motivations. He threw himself into school, determined to build a life where he could stand on his own feet. “They told us: you are in Greece now, this is your home, so you will need to speak Greek”, he states. “That motivated me very much”.
Over time, Mamadou built exactly that life. He was granted asylum, moved to our 18+ transitional home for young men, found seasonal work as a kitchen assistant, rented his own home, and eventually got married.
Today, nearly a decade after arriving in Greece, Mamadou has come full circle. He now works as a caregiver at The HOME Project. Each morning, he wakes up children for school, just as staff members once woke him. “Yesterday it was me”, he says quietly, “and today it is me who has to wake others up”. The moment still moves him every time. “I tell them: go to school. Be patient. This will help you so much in the future. It will help you do whatever you want in your life”.
For the children now arriving in Greece alone, Mamadou represents something deeply important. He is proof that healing, belonging, and independence are possible. And while he continues to dream about building something of his own one day, he already knows what matters most to him.
“I wish that people understand that these children are trying very hard”, he highlights. “They want to learn the language, go to school, and move forward. In the beginning, everything is difficult. I just hope that more people can do whatever they can to help them. They deserve that opportunity”.