WHO WE ARE
Khora is an Association based in Athens, Greece. We run a community centre and radio project throughout three buildings in Kypseli and Exarcheia, and provide services to anyone that needs them. We value solidarity, autonomy, community, and the right of everyone to access the basic means to live in our city.
We are an international collective with members from all continents and backgrounds. Some of us rely on the services that we provide and some don’t. We are affected differently by the European border regime: for example, some of us have papers and some of us don’t. We work together to overcome the power imbalances within our community that this brings. We are a part of an international solidarity movement and collaborate with comrades in other assemblies and grassroots groups.
We provide things like hot food, asylum support, creative workshops and clothes - for free and without discrimination. We aim for shared ownership of our spaces by those who use them and the local community. In our community, people from different backgrounds can learn, work, create, socialise and relax together. We are a place for movement building as well as support.
Many of us in Athens have been displaced by poverty, oppression, climate change and war. Many of us face violence and deprivation at the hands of governments and corporations that put nationalism and profit above human life.
At Khora, we stand for:
Freedom of movement for all
Everyone in our city to have choice, autonomy, dignity, community and the basic means to live.
Alternative ways of surviving together
Background
The original Khora collective came together after meeting on Lesvos in 2015. We rented and renovated a 7-floor former printworks in Exarchia, to house our community centre and opened our doors in October 2016.
In the 20 months of Khora's first home the building included an information desk, a freeshop, a kids and family space, a kitchen and cafe, a language school, a licensed dentistry, a legal clinic, a women's space, a library and study room, activity spaces and a workshop. In December 2017 our Freeshop moved from the basement to its current premises across the street
In June 2018 we sadly had to leave our first home. The Freeshop continues to operate from its new address and early in 2019 we rented two new buildings in the Kypseli neighborhood.
In the spring of 2019 the Khora Asylum Support Team opened their doors on the ground floor of our new building, Aiginis 9. On the floor above, we started up the Beehive and our co-working space.
On Kastalias 13 we officially opened the Khora Social Kitchen on the 2nd of December 2019.
How we organise
We are a non-hierarchical collective. Our legal entity is a registered association. We make decisions through consensus. Our consensus method is inspired by Seeds for change. Consensus decision-making is a tool we use in order to make sure everyone gets a say in how we run the project.
We have several working groups, each making many decisions independently. Big decisions that affect the whole of Khora are made in weekly delegates meetings and monthly general assemblies.
At Khora we organise our work in this way because we want everyone to be heard. We want to show not only that it is possible to work without bosses, but that it is better.
Funding
We are funded by donations and grants. We have a fundraising policy to regulate who we accept money from, which you can find here.
Our core funding value is that we do not request or accept money from funders who cause or contribute to the border crisis in the first place (for example, the EU). We also do not accept funding from anyone who imposes restrictions on or tries to control our work.
Our projected budget can be found here
If you are interested in supporting our work, please go to our donate page
