Our Story:

In 2015, driven by war and persecution, over a million refugees began fleeing their home countries to go toEurope. We started our work in 2016 after the EU shut the European borders, leaving thousands of refugees stranded on the island of Lesvos in Greece. Our founding members volunteered to teach children and youth in Moria and Kara Tepe Camps on Lesvos to ensure that these displaced students continued to get an education while their lives were in flux.
Our students ranged in age from toddlers to young adults. There was no real classroom, so we made do, teaching our favorite hands-on math, science, and English lessons as best we could to students of varying ages, cultures, and languages. We succeeded in bringing the joy of learning to our students. As a result, we were compelled to turn our initiative into a larger project. In 2017, we formed Refugee Education and Learning International, a 501c3 nonprofit organization.
Starting with a handful of volunteers, we have grown into an organization that has recruited and sent over 150 volunteer educators to Lesvos.
In 2018 we added the Girls Empowerment Program, providing swimming and biking lessons.

We are grateful to Dirty Girls of Lesvos Island and Together for Better Days, two NGOs working to help refugees, that gave us our start.