Verein SAO

Our Mission

SAO is committed to helping particularly vulnerable displaced women and mothers in Greece. In our Day Centres we offer them shelter space where they can find refuge, assistance and new perspectives. The work of our specialist staff focuses on trauma-oriented, psychosocial support. In cooperation with other humanitarian actors and partner organisations, SAO also provides women with access to medical and legal assistance. --- SAO Association is a tax-exempt Swiss relief organisation. SAO was founded in 2016 by Raquel Herzog who was very moved by the refugee crisis and therefore travelled to Lesvos in Autumn 2015 to volunteer actively on site. Through the intensive contact with four young Syrian women and their 92-year-old grandmother, Raquel became aware of the specific needs of displaced women. Since 2017 SAO has been focusing on the work with particularly vulnerable displaced women and has been operating two on trauma-oriented, psychosocial services specialised Day Centres on Lesvos and in Athens. In the spirit of sustainability, SAO also accompanies the clients with the "Back on Track" programme to promote individual skills useful for their professional or academic paths. Displaced women receive specific and individual access to information, assistance and consultation.

The primary goal of SAO Association is to support the most vulnerable displaced women in strengthening their resilience, in breaking through isolation patterns, in developing coping mechanisms for their experiences, in building new social networks and in strengthening their self-determination and independence. SAO achieves those goals through a professional programme for trauma relief which is offered in a protected space where individuality is appreciated and religious, cultural and ethnical values are acknowledged and respected. In this way, SAO creates conditions to mitigate the effects of fleeing on body and soul, to point out individual possibilities and abilities to act as well as to promote inclusion in the society of arrival. The strengthening and implementation of women's rights and of the legal entitlement to international protection are action guiding.