Together with his family, an Iraqi tailor in Trikala makes masks for protection from coronavirus.
Safar Saado is an experienced tailor from Iraq, where he owned a shop for 25 years. Safar came with his wife and five children to Greece 1.5 years ago, in search of a safe and better life. For the past four months the family lives in an apartment in the city of Trikala, Central Greece, rented under UNHCR’s ESTIA program.
From the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Greece, Safar expressed his wish to help in any way possible both the city’s refugee population and the local community in this “battle”. He offered to use his skills and started sewing masks. His family, his wife and his elder children, stood by his side.
The family 
created a dedicated space in their home and started working with material that were provided to them by e-Trikala S.A., UNHCR’s partner in the Municipality of Trikala. They are now voluntarily creating masks both for the population of the ESTIA program in the city of Trikala and for other vulnerable members of the local community.
The family’s initiative is supported by the mayor of Trikala and president of the Central Union of the Municipalities in Greece, Dimitris Papastergiou, who stated: “We firmly believe that we can overcome such a crisis only by being united and helps one another.”
In their statement e-Trikala also thanked Safar and his family: “In these challenging times, when both our country and our city are being tested by the COVID-19 pandemic, every offer and voluntary initiative has a special weight and importance for us. So we would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts Safar Saado and his family, who volunteered to make masks. ”
Source: Municipality of Trikala
UNHCR works with the Greek Government, local authorities and NGOs to provide urban accommodation and cash assistance to refugees and asylum-seekers in Greece through ESTIA, the Emergency Support to Integration and Accommodation programme, co-funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund of the European Union.
