Before I arrived, I thought I would volunteer for a maximum of 3 months. I ended up staying for more than 8. My experience with IHA was incredible.  The work IHA does is very diverse, from the Free Shop to The Community Centre to The Warehouse. 

I taught English to two levels for 6 months and it was an experience I will never forget. I gained so much and had so much fun while doing it, my students were amazing and to get to witness their improvment was such a credit to their hard work. I was always supported by IHA's field coordinator, my fellow teachers, IHA's volunteers in the Child Friendly Space and the Eductaors' café, which is a group for NGO langauge teachers working with refugees across Northern Greece, which meets once a month.

Getting to live in IHA's volunteer flat near Thessaloniki with all of the volunteers was brilliant. The atmopshere was always really chilled and I got the chance to make so many friends for life, while doing something really worthwile with my time.

The organsiation has a solid structure in place, but the coordinators on-the-ground are always ready and willing to listen to new ideas or consult the volunteers on how we as a group to approach situations, as they arose. The coordinators were also so hardworking and it was very inspiring to work with them, as well as the many determined volunteers I got to meet.