Curing the Limbo, an initiative by the Athens Municipality, connects the issues of integration, housing, exchange economy and active citizenship in a complex programme that helps refugees get involved in neighbourhood initiatives, learn new skills and access the labour market and permanent housing.

In this second episode of the Curing the Limbo podcast series, UIA expert Levente Polyák explores how education and training activities within the programme help refugees. The project’s trajectory invites refugees to participate in language courses, audio-visual and ICT trainings and engage with citizen initiatives. These activities help them develop new skills, gradually enter the job market and access housing.

In this podcast, Levente returns to the Serafio building, the Curing the Limbo headquarters, located in the Western side of the centre of Athens. Here he joins English and Greek language classes and audio-visual trainings to see how the project’s unique education methodology works in practice. He meets the project’s coordinators and teachers, and interviews refugees about their experiences, combining different voices to create a more nuanced picture of the programme. By collecting testimonies during different visits and from a variety of people involved in the programme, Levente offers a highly personal account of the challenges and opportunities refugees encounter in their endeavour to find a new home in Athens.

Curing the Limbo Zoom-in #1 was produced by Levente Polyák (Eutropian, Cooperative City) in May 2020