Habibi.Works, intercultural makerspace and platform for empowerment, education and community
Habibi.Works is an intercultural makerspace and platform for education, empowerment and community. Situated across the street from Katsikas refugee camp, which hosts on average 1000 refugees and asylum seekers, Habibi.Works has worked alongside people on the move since it opened its doors in 2016. Here, each person is regarded at eye level and treated as the expert of their own life. All visitors to the space have free access to tools, material and expert guidance in 14 unique working areas.
Local
Greece
Katsikas, Ioannina
Mainly rural
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2016-08-01
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Soup and Socks, e.V. Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Esther Last name of representative: ten Zijthoff Gender: Female Nationality: Netherlands If relevant, please select your other nationality: United States Function: Project Coordinator, Habibi.Works Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: 2o klm E.O. Katsikas - Koutseliou Town: Katsikas, Ioannina Postal code: 54221 Country: Greece Direct Tel:+306942571202 E-mail:orga@soupandsocks.eu Website:http://habibi.works
Habibi.Works is an intercultural maker space and platform for education, empowerment and social encounters for refugees, Greek locals and international makers. It consists of the following working areas: metal and wood workshops; electronics and bicycle repair stations; a MediaLab equipped with a computer lab, 3D printer and lasercutter; a sewing atelier; a creative workspace; a sound recording studio; a plastic recycling workshop (known as re.works); a community garden and community kitchen; a multilingual lending library; a storytellers' lab (for the sharing of narratives through multiple media); and a gym (which houses a community-led sports programme run in collaboration with Yoga and Sport with Refugees).
Habibi.Works emerged in the context of a collective humanitarian response effort in solidarity with people on the move. It aims to provide a counter-example to humanitarian assistance models which often bring ready-made solutions and treat asylum-seekers as "beneficiaries," stripping them of agency in terms of which needs are met and how. Habibi.Works champions a solutions-oriented mindset and do-it-yourself approach where each person is empowered and supported to share and learn skills; the community is also actively invited to shape the project activities. As such, this maker- and community-space acts as a space of collective creativity, collaboration and mutual support. Besides providing tangible support to people on the move through the creation of physical items which improve people's quality of life (clothing, furniture, bicycles and more), it is also a space of solidarity and community and aims to be a bridge towards integration with the local, host society. As an organisation, one of our primary aims is to shed light on the daily realities for people on the move, providing counter-narratives to anti-migrant discourses through celebrating individual talent and resilience, as well as providing a platform for people to advocate on their own behalf.
Empowerment
Education
Self-determination
Community-led
Integration
1. Promoting awareness and models of ecological sustainability and circularity.
As a makerspace, Habibi.Works promotes the use and re-use of existing materials over the consumption and production of new items. By promoting do-it-yourself and fix-it-yourself models, individuals are equipped with know-how and tools to extend the lifespan of items they rely on. Our plastic upcycling lab (re.works) is a prime example of this: using processes and designs developed within the Precious Plastic movement, plastic waste is converted into new, practical items; this working area is entirely unique in this region. When sourcing materials for our working areas we prioritise sourcing scrap materials for upcycling; scraps from projects completed within the space are additionally repurposed in various projects. This circularity-minded approach also applies to food: produce grown in our community garden is treated as a commons from which meals are prepared in the community kitchen (often involving chefs from within the refugee and asylum-seeker community) and shared within the space; food waste feeds our (currently 7 rescued) chickens, who also produce eggs, or goes into compost for the garden. The space is partly solar-powered, with a long-term aim of providing educational workshops around solar power.
2. Promoting social sustainability.
As a community and makerspace, Habibi.Works empowers individuals to become agents of their own solutions, favouring this model over one in which individuals walk away with one-off solutions in which they had no input. As an organisation, we also look critically at our models and support structures for those involved in the running of the makerspace to ensure team members can engage with the project in a sustainable way: we hold regular reflection rounds and check-ins with team members, as well as monthly meetings for discussing overarching topics such as workplace dynamics and the psychological and emotional well-being of team members.
1. Working at eye level.
This is one of the central tenets of Habibi.Works' ethos as a maker- and community-space. Participants in the space (referred to as "makers") are not regarded as "students" to be instructed, or beneficiaries of a service, but rather as they are: individuals with their own idea, vision, and skills to bring to the table. We steer away from patronising narratives and never speak of "helping" the community we work with; instead, we speak of people as qualified experts (see below) and offer "support" to those who seek it. As stated above, each person is regarded as the expert of their own lives and the best judge of what solutions would best fit their own needs.
2. Transparency.
Another key value and objective of the project is to be transparent in our communication around operational decision-making. This stems from the understanding that besides existing underlying factors such as gender, race and class, two additional factors in the humanitarian context are often at the heart of inequality: access to resources (including information) and decision-making power. By being transparent about the information the team has access to, about the procedures and processes in place, and about the reasons for decision making, the team aims to overcome this factor for inequality and create trust with the communities we work with, as well as with each other and with our partners.
3. Sustainability-oriented thinking and design.
In our planning around activities and services, we look ahead: is this something that can feasibly continue on a long-term basis, or will we create expectations that cannot be met in the long-term? This approach frames our financial and operative decision-making. While the nature of our context requires constant flexibility and openness to one-off collaborations and events, we strive for consistency and reliability, aware of the positive impact this also has on the people we work alongside and our relationship to them.
1. Non-heirarchical, consensus-based decision making
Habibi.Works is structured in such a way that decisions are made by consensus through team plenaries held on a weekly basis. While a coordination team and key "pillar" positions (including Accounting, Communications and Advocacy, Fundraising, Maintenance, Logistics & Procurement, Greek Outreach and Community Outreach) exist, the people filling these positions do not hold over-arching decision-making authority. Each person involved in the project is invited and expected to contribute their opinions and feedback into decisions. In this way, inclusion and ownership over all project activities are promoted continuously. We see this model as a viable alternative to traditional heirarchical models, and the best approach to ensure participant- and community-led decision-making.
2. Community inclusion
We prioritise the needs and desires of the community we work with, and wherever possible aim to include feedback and ideas from the community into the decisions-made. We actively encourage members of the community to be involved in the space as working area supervisors and community team members. We also hold monthly community meetings where anyone can bring ideas, feedback and proposals to an open forum. Further, one of the key positions our team is that of Community Outreach; this position is currently filled by a member of the refugee and asylum-seeker community. We additionally have a Greek Outreach officer dedicated to creating links with and inclusion of the local, Greek community.
3. Making participation feasible for all
All participants have free access to tools, material and expert guidance in our working areas. To make participation in the project as a team member accessible to individuals of varying financial backgrounds, we provide food, transport and accommodation to full-time team members joining the project, as well as additional stipends for longer-term team members.
Since its foundation in 2016, Habibi.Works has modeled its activities and aligned its priorities according to the needs and interested stated by the population we primarily work with - refugees and asylum-seekers residing either in the refugee camp across the road, or in the urban centre at 7kms distance from the camp. While the community we work with is transient and changes to the demographics and size of the population are common, continuous outreach and built-in feedback mechanisms are prioritised in order to foster community inclusion and ownership of the project. Furthermore, we actively encourage participation from the community at the team level through working area supervisor and community team member positions, geared at having greater representation of the community we work with, within the decision-making body of the project.
As a concrete example of this, in 2019 a community survey showed that participants preferred to have time for both guided activities and open workshop time; this led to the schedule and activities of the space shifting to accommodate this preference. More recently, participants voiced a desire for short training modules in various disciplines, leading to certifications; this has since been implemented in the form of short modules within the different working areas.
Greek civil society has also played a role in shaping the project. Our team includes a Greek Outreach Manager who actively builds relationships and partnerships with local actors. One outcome of this has been collaborations such as Habibi.Works being the site of a Social Hackathon run by local organisations wherein refugees and asylum-seekers were guided through the processes of designing their own social business initiatives. Interest among the local community in the upcycling possibilities in our plastic lab have also led to collection points being set up throughout the city of Ioannina. Further, locals and students frequent the space and offer workshops.
The primary stakeholders of the Habibi.Works project are the community we work alongside, as well as the German parent entity of the project: Soup and Socks, e.V.
The role of the community in the design and implementation of the project is described above.
The Soup and Socks e.V. team founded Habibi.Works following engagement in the humanitarian response effort in 2016 in the form of direct distribution of food and clothing (hence the name Soup and Socks) to people moving along the so-called Balkan route, and subsequently in the form of a community kitchen inside Katsikas refugee camp. The founding team of Habibi.Works successfully implemented the first iteration of a makerspace applied to the humanitarian context in Greece, in 2016, setting the stage and providing a framework for further growth and developments from then until today. The German legal entity includes two chairpersons, who act in the capacity of legal representatives and tend to the legal framework around project activities, but do not make operational decisions. Since 2022, Habibi.Works is also registered as a Greek AMKE; this entity also includes two (different) legal representatives, who act in the same capacity as the German entity chairpersons.
Affiliated sub-projects and collaborations create additional stakeholders of the project. These include the Habibi.Dome project: a mobile geodesic structure (a replica of the dome situated in Katsikas, currently hosting the music studio), which acts as an open platform in public spaces in Munich and Stuttgart over the last years. Operational partners include Not for Your Distinction e.V. (collaborating on the plastic upcycling lab in Katsikas), as well as Yoga and Sport with Refugees (powering Habibi and Sport with Refugees, the sports programme housed in our space). These examples highlight the importance of open collaboration and information sharing across supposed borders, integral to Habibi.Works' ethos.
Habibi.Works includes 14 working areas, alongside specific administrative and organisational "pillars" which enable the project to continue running. As such, the knowledge fields reflected in the design and implementation of the makerspace are plentiful and range from no-tech design disciplines (crafting, gardening, culinary arts, sport) to low-tech disciplines (carpentry, metalwork, bicycle repair, sewing/tailoring, plastic re- and upcycling) to high-tech disciplines (3D printing, CNC design, lasercutting, digital design, graphic design, photography, film, music production). Additionally, operational knowledge fields integral to the project include fundraising, communications (social media management, public relations, advocacy), financial management (accounting, budgeting, budget tracking), community relations management (networking, translation, monitoring & evaluation, and people-first operational design), and strategy.
Habibi.Works has, for the six years of its presence in Katsikas, consisted of a shifting, international team where experts for different working and administrative areas are recruited from all over the world and also from within the very community we work in. Through values of trust, transparency, open communication and consensus-based decision-making, a community now totalling over 100 people have interacted closely to make this project what it is today. The process of interaction, collaboration and ideas-sharing to is one integral to the makerspace approach and is not only an added value to, but rather the very nature of, the project.
Habibi.Works has an impact at both the individual and collective, community level. Participants in our space and activities are positively impacted through:
1. Improvement of living conditions through the fabrication of objects that are lacking in their daily lives. Some examples include: repairing bicycles, an essential means of transport; making and repairing clothing; creating furniture and storage solutions; repairing electronics.
2. Provision of non-formal learning opportunities / vocational training in a range of practical fields through free access to infrastructure, tools, materials and support by experts in each working area. Individuals can deepen their knowledge, share their skills and use the spaces as a sphere of non-formal education.
3. A positive impact on mental health through providing a platform where people can regain self-confidence and regain agency in a context that often limits them.
4. A sense of belonging in a multicultural, inclusive space where people from diverse backgrounds and cultures can interact without prejudice, and meaningful encounters can take place. The communities we work with are often marginalised in the host society. Within Habibi.Works, each individual is regarded at eye level regardless of background or skill level, encouraged to express themselves, take responsibility, and make a contribution in a space of shared ownership. During creative, co-creation processes, language and other social barriers can be meaningfully overcome.
5. Awareness raised at an international level about the situation in Greece. Through the communication about the context and this project, we aim to build counter-narratives to xenophobic, anti-migration discourse by emphasising the talents and resilience of the refugee and asylum-seeker community.
In the 6 years of its existence, the Habibi.Works project has impacted the lives of more than 8000 vulnerable persons, and been the site of countless individual projects and creative enterprises.
The innovative approach of using the makerspace model in a humanitarian context addresses several needs of the refugee and asylum seeker community in Greece - many of which reflect a wider reality for this community in Europe. The system and structures currently in place to address the needs of this community do little beyond offering food, essential supplies and shelter in the short-term - and even these needs are often poorly met. Furthermore, the makerspace model puts the individual at the center of the problem-solving, design and creation process - in contrast to the approach, often witnessed in established humanitarian response systems, of presenting ready-made ‘solutions’ as a blanket approach and without regard for individual circumstances, needs or desires. The makerspace model offers an alternate approach in which the focus is not only these immediate needs but also individuals’ need for purpose, dignity and community. The absence of these, as has been evidenced in this context, leads not only to wasted individual potential but also deteriorates mental health and frustrates the integration process.
As of 2022, Habibi.Works is also unique as one of the only enduring actors serving people on the move in the Epirus region. In this region, we are the only organisation implementing non-heirarchical, consensus-based decision-making models and including members of the refugee and asylum-seeker community within the organisational, decision-making structure of the organisation.
The importance of purpose, community and dignity for a person’s identity is at the centre of our work, shaping our methodology and approach which is defined by:
Participant- and community-led design
Habibi.Works is shaped by the people who use it. Planning around our activities, while framed within fixed values, is heavily informed by feedback from the communities we work and adapts to changing demands. Participants are actively engaged to use their existing knowledge and skills to offer workshops or become involved as working area supervisors.
Participatory learning
As a space for skills-sharing, co-design and -creation, Habibi.Works acts as a space of informal education in which mutual learning takes place through the act of participation in our working areas and activities. Here, people explore non-competitive, empowering ways of working together. We strive towards the participatory, non-hierarchical transfer of knowledge and skills to civil society in an information economy characterised by exclusivity and lack of access to information. To this end, one of our guiding mottos is “making with, not for”.
Open-source
As part of our makerspace approach, the information, processes and designs implemented in the project are open-source and transparently shared. The knowledge base comprised of designs, technologies and processes is regarded as an open commons to draw from and contribute to.
Interdisciplinarity to generate new approaches
The maker movement and FabLab philosophy highlight the role of interdisciplinarity in meeting unique challenges. Habibi.Works is in itself an interdisciplinary solution, combining this background with the thought fields and principles of humanitarian response, self-organised models, art and design. Seen in this light, Habibi.Works can be considered an essential contribution to emergent forms of community-led response, social design and social engagement.
Habibi.Works' approach to humanitarian response and community-led design can be replicated or transferred in its entirety. The flexibility required of this context mean that our models are fixed and adaptable to different populations, needs and host contexts.
The methodologies, technologies and processes included in the makerspace model are open-sourced and openly disseminated. As such, they only require the appropriate tools to be implemented in a diversity of contexts. An example is our plastic upcyling lab, re.works; it is based on processes, technologies and designs which already exist in an open-source format through the Precious Plastic movement and is only one iteration of a widespread network of Precious Plastic labs around the world.
Consensus-based, non-heirarchical decision-making makes this a project shaped by the people who form part of it at any given time; this in turn grants an additional level of adaptability to any context and any team of people.
While Habibi.Works was the first example of a makerspace model applied to the humanitarian response in the Greek context, it is no longer the only example. Since 2016, makerspaces and FabLabs implementing similar methodologies and practices have emerged in very similar contexts such as the Greek capital of Athens and the Greek islands of Samos and Lesvos. This is a testament to the applicability of a makerspace community model when working with communities of people on the move.
Habibi.Works situates its mission, values and activities in response to the following global challenges:
Marginalisation of people on the move, fuelled by anti-migration rhetoric as well as exclusionary and isolationist policies.
Habibi.Works is a space of solidarity with people on the move, positioned in a shrinking space for civil society to support people on the move. Through advocacy and awareness, we inform audiences throughout Europe about the lived reality for people on the move as well as counter anti-migration discourse. This involves active criticism of political unwillingness to provide more suitable, dignified and sustainable solutions. Habibi.Works advocacy efforts take place on channels including monthly newsletters, social media channels, participation in academic discourse around humanitarian design and humanitarian response, public presentations in different European countries, and speeches at the European Parliament as part of the SickofWaiting initiative (2017), Habibi.Works further engages individuals to advocate on their own behalf.
Inequalities and power imbalances inherent in humanitarian emergency responses.
Habibi.Works addresses this by offering a space in which the individual can regain agency over their own lives, experience self-efficacy and have open access to know-how and information. Exploring and expanding community-led, solidarity-based approaches to humanitarian responses is a step towards transforming this field into one led by civil society, and by the very people affected by crises.
The climate crisis
Habibi.Works promotes environmental awareness, circularity, and renewable energy sources. Examples include our community garden, our plastic upcycling lab and an overarching focus on repair and re-use over re-purchase.
