World Youth Skills Day: UNICEF & Junior Achievement support vulnerable young people in Greece

Mahdi and Μarian, 18 years old, from Somalia, work at ΑΒ Vassilopoulos super markets, sorting and picking products. It is their first job, in the framework of the initiative “Empower Young People for better employment and entrepreneurship opportunities”, which is implemented by the UNICEF Greece Country Office in collaboration with Junior Achievement. The aim of the initiative is to reinforce skills and the creation of opportunities for access to employment and entrepreneurship for young people with a refugee and migrant background.

“I really enjoy when we do sorting because we work as a team”, says Marian “and I learn how to communicate with different people, from different cultures, with different color…”, she adds.   

Αsim, from Pakistan, 18 years old, lives in one of the shelters of The Home Project, just like Μahdi and Μarian from Somalia.

Asim works at the kitchen of the Cookoovaya restaurant and wants to become chef one day.

“Here people are very kind and they teach me a lot. I gained a lot of experience, I met new people,” says Asim.

Experiencing her first job encourages Marian to imagine her next steps and make plans:

“I imagine myself in one year, I want to study more, languages like Greek and English”, she says.

The initiative “Empower Young People for better employment and entrepreneurship opportunities” is implemented in the framework of the European pilot program “EU Child Guarantee”, in order for vulnerable youth to acquire life skills and work preparedness.