What we do: Grow Clinics, preventive health care, and sport

CHEERing offers preventive care and referrals for refugee populations internationally. Our Grow Clinics support mothers and babies in camps and shelters in greater Athens, and in Afghanistan. Each week we weigh, measure, and track infant growth, support nutrition, and provide basic preventive care such as vitamin distribution. Our anemia program manages iron deficiency, and our…

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Who we are:

CHEERing is a Greek-registered international NGO with the ESC Quality Label as a lead and host organization, dedicated to improving maternal child health and promoting preventive health in refugee populations. We provide direct support in refugee camps and the community; training for agencies, evaluation, and monitoring. We also operate CHEERing Afghanistan, a program supporting breastfeeding,…

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CHEER CHAMPION OF THE WEEK: ANASTASIA GOELDNER-THOMPSON

Sep 15, 2025 CHEER is proud to spotlight Anastasia Goeldner-Thompson as our CHAMPion of the Week! Anastasia is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Sheffield and the recipient of a competitive International Child Health Group (ICHG) Elective Award, granted annually to medical students undertaking international child health elective placements. She received the award for…

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CHEERing on Lesbos

Usually CHEERing works in mainland camps, but last weekend 2 of our volunteers went to Lesbos to help residents at the notorious ‘new Moria’ camp. Our Vitamin Angels program, supplied by https://vitaminangels.org/ , is perfect for providing one-time aid in extreme conditions. We gave out the classic high dose vitamin A and deworming medicines to…

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Dental days – and vaccinations!

CHEERing collaborates with two programs for dental care: SEEDS of Humanity and Good Samaritans. Access to dental care is maybe the most critical problem refugees face, living in camps that are far from cities and access to care. Or maybe, it’s lack of access to vaccinations. Ever efficient, and thanks to ongoing sponsorship from the…

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CHEERing Herat is official!

CHEERing’s program in Herat is now official! We have a license to practice health, education, and training. That means we will be able to see more mothers, infants, and provide education to many young people who would not otherwise have access to education.

Summer 2024 by Chika

It’s 8:30 am and a few of us are in the CHEERing center preparing for today’s Grow Clinic and distribution at Corinthos refugee camp on the Peloponnese. Corinth days are one of my favorites because CHEERing’s regular presence there started after holding a focus group discussion with refugee mothers from the camp to understand their…

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Football at Thiba refugee camp

Thanks to an energetic young man, Ali, and his 5 supporting coaches, CHEERing has a dynamic football program inside Thiba camp. Our team of about 40 kids trains every day. Our grant from the Barca Foundation funds their equipment and uniforms, and we also do health screenings and provide basic health care to the team…

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CHEERing and ESC

Did you know, CHEERing now has both a lead and a host Quality Label with ESC, the European Solidarity Corps?! https://youth.europa.eu/solidarity/mission_en Thanks to ESC funding in 2024, we can support 1-2 volunteers in 2024-26. We can also accept volunteers as a host organization, if they obtain funding from a support organization in their home nation….

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Beach days

It may not sound like therapy, but beach days and swimming lessons in summer in Greece are perhaps our biggest therapeutic intervention at CHEERinGreece. On Fridays, weather permitting, we do swimming lessons for small groups, or we take a full coachload to the beach. This year we brought 2 very full buses of Thiba residents…

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