Wave is a grassroots organisation that has been operating in Thessaloniki since 2018, providing for the essential needs of the city’s homeless population. We have a specific focus on the undocumented population of people on the move (POM) who find it most difficult to access the asylum system; this is often because they come from “safe countries of origin” and therefore their asylum claims are largely considered manifestly unfounded. Whilst this is our focus, we also work to provide for the local Greek population. We run a community centre, where people can access a daily hot meal, legal advice, information, electricity for charging mobile devices, a laundry service, a container with five running showers and sinks, a free shop, shoes and sleeping bags.

Wave was founded to fill a gap that no other services in the city were providing and to meet the needs of those often excluded from other places because of their lack of documentation. There is currently no other project in the city that provides food, NFIs, laundry and showers on such a scale, without requiring registration or documentation. Whilst this is our focus, we are open seven days a week to everybody and anybody who comes.