About
ABOUT
Explore Our Vision, Values & Shared Principles
Welcome to Refugee Week Greece 2025, a vibrant cultural festival celebrating the contribution, creativity and authenticity of people having experienced forced migration. The most important innovative part of the Refugee Week Greece festival is its commitment to promoting equality and diversity, and providing a platform for artists of the diaspora to express themselves and continue their professional growth.
The main objective is to support the contemporary cultural manifestations of diaspora communities in order not only to sustain links and ties with their homelands but also to facilitate the promotion of contemporary creation including traditional folk art as well as to promote cultural diversity through diverse modes of artistic creation, production, distribution and enjoyment.
Aligned with the global Refugee Week movement and World Refugee Day on June 20th, our festival takes place on 16-22 June 2025. The Festival is produced by We are Community (Greece/UK), guided by a robust mission firmly rooted in a sincere commitment to communities and the intricate fabric of diversity seamlessly woven into the arts. Our commitment extends to fostering community-powered initiatives that seamlessly weave together local and global spheres.
Our Global Connection
Rooted in the rich history of the global Refugee Week movement, Refugee Week Greece has become an integral part of this international celebration. From arts and culture to community engagement, our festival resonates with the themes of unity, understanding, and shared humanity.
Celebrating Authenticity and Creativity
Refugee Week Greece is a dynamic platform that embraces and promotes the authentic narratives, creativity, and resilience of refugees and those seeking refuge. Through a week-long program of diverse events, activities, and workshops, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by displaced individuals and highlight the positive impact they make.
Your Invitation to Participate
Refugee Week Greece is an inclusive festival open to all. Whether you’re attending or organizing an event, activity, or workshop, your participation contributes to our collective message of solidarity, inclusion, and social equality.
Building Collaborative Partnerships
The festival is a collaborative effort, bringing together prominent refugee organizations, community leaders, artists, and participants from all walks of life. By sharing messages of solidarity and working towards more inclusive societies, Refugee Week Greece serves as a catalyst for positive change.
Get Involved
Join us in making Refugee Week Greece 2025 a vibrant and impactful celebration. Connect with us on social media, attend events, and explore the dynamic program we have curated for this year. Let’s unite in celebration and recognition of the strength, creativity, and authentic stories within our refugee community.
Our Values
Celebrating Contributions
Refugee Week celebrates the contributions of refugees and people seeking sanctuary in order to challenge negative stereotypes and create a space where refugees can be seen and heard beyond their experience of displacement. We believe that everyone has a contribution to make, and reject the idea that people seeking safety should have to ‘prove their worth’ more than others in society.
Reclaiming ‘Refugee’
We use the word ‘refugee’ because of its legal and historical significance, and because we believe it is important to reclaim it from negative uses. At the same time, we recognise the danger of labels and respect people’s right to decide how they define themselves. Refugee Week celebrates the contributions of everyone seeking safety, regardless of the legal status they hold.
A Space for Many Stories
There is a Bigger Us
We are not the same. Our experiences are different and we do not have equal access to resources and power. But we are also interconnected and interdependent, part of a ‘bigger us’. We believe that the safety of each of us matters to all of us, and strive to come together around shared values of fairness, mutual support, kindness and respect for universal rights.
Open to All
Arts & Culture Create Change
We believe that arts and culture can help us see migration and displacement differently by creating connection across difference, taking the voices and experiences of refugees to new spaces and helping us imagine how we can live better together.
Leadership Matters
We believe that, wherever possible, initiatives about refugee experiences should involve people with lived experience of displacement in their planning and leadership.
Refugees are not a Single Group
We recognise that refugees and asylum seekers are not a single group and have different experiences, including because of race, class, gender, sexuality, age and immigration status.
The Right to be Safe
We believe that everyone deserves a home and has the right to seek safety for themselves and their families.