Windows on the World
Leros 2016–2020
Windows on the World began on the island of Leros in the Dodecanese.
Working mainly in Pikpa (a refuge for vulnerable families), WOTW worked in partnership with the Leros Solidarity Network. With support from Matina and Spiros Katsiveli, WOTW regularly worked with children recently arrived by boat to the small island.
Click below to read more:
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“PIKPA” was an oasis in the desert of government treatment of refugees and migrants. Yet, it was a gloomy place, conditions were harsh. For me, a citizen of a state, a white non-muslim European free to travel as I pleased, it was deeply depressing. For them, Others, time passed slowly, doing nothing, waiting and waiting and waiting...
In the summer, things were getting better. All sorts of volunteers stormed PIKPA, some to “educate” the adults, others to “entertain” the children. No matter what, they brought some colour to this grey space, some attention and care to the neglected.
Dee was not a summer bird. She showed up several times all through the year, bearing not just good intentions and love, but also determination and knowledge. Under her guidance, children would concentrate, express themselves, communicate, and create little things that gave them a sense of pride and satisfaction.
Whether it was a minor art project or a major performance, it all gave children a goal to achieve, a purpose.
As I saw it, participating day after day in this creative process, in a way, soothed their edges and assembled their scattered pieces in a whole. They looked calmer, stronger, happier.
This was the power of Dee’s workshops: transformative and healing.”
Roo Zanou - photographer and volunteer
Pikpa Leros 2016–2020
Windows on the World -A documentary by Ian Dodds marking a year in Ritsona Camp 2022- 2023) and culminating in a concert at the Athens Conservatoire, Greece - performed by children from Ritsona and Cellos for Change