What We've Accomplished So Far

We at Al Itisal Project wanted to take a moment to extend our deepest gratitude to every person that had a hand in realizing our project. Al Itisal Project was developed to improve outcomes for those impacted by the migrant crisis. We directed our attention towards Greece in response to recent litigation affecting the assimilation process as well as the increasingly devastating effects from the COVID-19 pandemic which worsened holding center conditions across Greece's many islands.  

The potential we could have with Al Itisal Project was in constant motion, subjected to a second-wave of lockdown restrictions and the continued limitations brought forth in response to social distancing and public safety measures. Even though our original project was reimagined many times in order to suit current sanitary conditions, we were able to have an impact in each of our original domains: donations, volunteer, and strategic development. 

With the help of many generous donors we were able to raise 640 euros to buy materials for ANKAA Project. These materials ranged from materials for administrative purposes to up-cycled parts for the bicycle workshop. Additionally, through our book-drive in Paris, France we were able to collect 35 English literature books to donate to ANKAA's library. 

Due to lockdown restrictions in Greece, our volunteer efforts consisted mostly of organizational and preparatory tasks for ANKAA's eventual reopening. We re-organized hundreds of books in the library by language and subject. We sorted through clothing and home item donations to re-organize the donation shop. All clothing and home item donations that were unsuitable for reuse were sent to ANKAA Project's tailor atelier to repurpose the fabric scraps.

We headed four initiatives in the strategic development portion of Al Itisal Project. The first initiative was a four-part professional workshop series. In lieu of in-person classes, we created a Youtube series where students could follow our virtual lessons to create a resume, write a cover letter, and complete an interview in elevated and business-professional English. 

Our second initiative was to create a professional network in Athens where students and volunteers from ANKAA Project could participate in an apprenticeship with partner enterprises. Given our limited time and the ongoing sanitary crisis, we created a proposal for ANKAA Project to send out to neighboring enterprises looking to expand their corporate responsibility initiatives. 

Our third initiative was to conduct a survey on the labor market integration process for students and volunteers at ANKAA Project. The results from this survey will be used to inform our research and final report on Al Itisal Project. 

The final initiative in our strategic development portion was born from the realization that ANKAA Project would greatly benefit from outsourcing a number of their data analysis tasks. We found that a partnership between our masters program and the NGO could not only cost-effectively benefit ANKAA Project's outsourcing needs, but also provide meaningful class examples for students learning data management at both the M1 and M2 level.