25/09/2026
Who We Are — A Vision Through the Years
More than 850,000 refugees and asylum seekers arrived in Greece by sea. At a time when no organized NGO response were present, volunteers from around the world came together to found Lighthouse Relief as an emergency response alongside residents of Skala Sikamineas.
LHR offered warmth, food, medical care, and rest alongside training 24/7 spotting teams to monitor Greek waters for incoming boats.
LHR also launched ECO Relief for a large-scale clean-up on Lesvos’ shores helping to restore the environment and support local communities.
The closure of the Balkan route and the EU-Turkey Statement left nearly 50,000 refugees prompting LHR to provide support at the border in Idomeni.
As a result, operations at Lighthouse Relief were amplified and adapted to provide relief for these most vulnerable on mainland Greece. We worked mostly at EKO station in the Idomeni area, which was home to over 3,000 refugees, most of them families.
Recognizing a need for sustained support, we expanded to Katsikas, Filippiada, and Ritsona camps on the mainland.
After opening our Female and Child Friendly Spaces, Lighthouse Relief facilitated the Tree of Hope mural. This was the first youth-led creative project inside the camp and a symbol of resilience within the stark camp environment which led to the creation of our Youth Engagement Space.
Our non-formal education and recreation programmes grew with the implementation of English workshops, the youth-led Ritsona Kingdom Journal, and a UEFA-licensed football initiative—placing community voices and needs at the center of our programmes.
In March 2018, our team launched the first phase of our Resident Volunteer programme, designed to encourage leadership and self-determination for people seeking safety.
A formalised version of our sports programme was later established in August 2020 in order to increase the number of RVs and offer them structured training to help them develop skills they can use in building their new lives after leaving the camp.
Summer 2019 saw the highest number of arrivals to Greece since 2015, nearly half were children under 18, many travelling alone. Volunteers wor
