LEILA

A Confidential Lifeline for Survivors of Gender-Based Violence in Greece

ATHENS, GREECE — As global funding shifts and foreign aid recedes, our world needs grassroots movements more than ever to demand justice and drive change from the ground up.

In response to the escalating crisis facing migrant and refugee women in Greece, we have developed LEILA — a confidential, multilingual hotline specifically designed to support women facing sexual and domestic violence.

Greece continues to serve as a major entry point into Europe for migrants and refugees fleeing conflict, persecution, and hardship. Among them, women and girls face an outsized burden of gender-based violence (GBV), from the treacherous journey to Europe to the overcrowded and unsafe conditions in refugee camps and urban settings.

The recent closures of two key service providers and long-standing collaborators in Athens Diotima Centre and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)  have left a profound gap in essential services for survivors. Diotima, a trusted GBV partner of ours, ended its program for the refugee population in June 2025. MSF’s Polyclinic, which had provided life-saving sexual and reproductive healthcare since 2017, closed its doors in April.

Together, their absence has left thousands of already vulnerable women with nowhere to turn. These are not abstract gaps, they are life-threatening failures in protection.  We knew we couldn’t fill their shoes. But we could meet the moment.

LEILA was born as a result of months of strategic planning, built on a decade of field experience and deep trust with the communities we serve.

At a time when nearly half of women-led organisations in crisis zones face closure, we didn’t expand — we adapted. With support and trust from our donors, we maintained the agility and spirit of our grassroots spirit, with ten years of frontline field experience in Greece, we restructured internally, stepped up where others had to step back, and stretched every resource to meet rising needs. LEILA is not an expansion — it’s our evolution.

What is LEILA?

LEILA (Listen. Empower. Intervene. Love. Assist) is a coded, confidential hotline managed by us where women can contact it safely and discreetly, even in monitored or dangerous situations.

LEILA has been designed to break through barriers that have made it nearly impossible for survivors - especially undocumented, migrant, and displaced women - to access help. We believe this kind of high-impact, low-barrier intervention is needed now more than ever.

What LEILA offers:

“LEILA is not a person. LEILA is a promise. When a woman says she’s ‘looking for LEILA,’ she is signaling that she needs help — and she will receive it,”
Gabrielle Tay, Founder, Action for Women.

Who Can Contact LEILA?

Any woman — including trans women — can safely contact LEILA.

LEILA currently supports:

  • Hotline infrastructure and GBV specialists consisting of psychologists, social workers and GBV case workers. 

  • Emergency shelter placements

  • Sexual and reproductive health support in collaboration with Global Brigades

  • Legal assistance

  • Monitoring & evaluation systems

We are uniquely equipped to deliver LEILA. Backed by ten years of field experience with displaced women from diverse cultures, our field team have been all trained under the Pomegranate Project’s gold-standard, survivor-centered model. We are already trusted by the communities we serve.

Together with Global Brigades’ expertise in community-based healthcare and our shared commitment to gender equality and women’s rights, we are addressing the multifaceted challenges surrounding SRH. Joint training programs will empower local health workers and women leaders to continue service delivery and advocacy — building long-term resilience in affected communities.

Over the past several months, Action for Women has trained Global Brigades’ doctors and translators in trauma-informed, survivor-centric care. This ensures that women seeking SRH services are met with empathy, safety, and respect at every point of contact.

To ensure long-term impact, AFW.ngo will pursue strategic partnerships with local NGOs, the Ministry for Gender Equality, municipalities, and international donors. Our vision is for LEILA to become a permanent, nationally recognised protection mechanism.

Support Feminist Frontline Response

Feminist, women-led organizations like ours are filling the void left by a shrinking humanitarian space — but we cannot do it alone.

“Globally, nearly half of women-led groups in crisis zones expect to shut down within six months due to funding cuts,” - Source: UN women Report

LEILA is our answer to that trend — but it needs your support to survive.

LEILA is more than a hotline. It is a lifesaving bridge — linking women from crisis to care.

How to Help

To support LEILA or partner with AFW.ngo, please get in touch with gabrielle@afw.ngo 

To donate: please click here.

 
 

Previous Campaigns

 

  • Athena Centre for Women | Chios

    The lack of a safe space for women arriving on the island of Chios led Action for Women to open the Athena Centre for Women in 2016. It was the first and only exclusively-female space in Greece outside the refugee camps.

  • Women-Only Bus | Chios

    Following the closure of Souda camp in July 2017, the refugees were transferred to Vial, located over seven kilometers outside central Chios. The camp has experienced tremendous overcrowding and the limited bus service provided was always overwhelmed with demand. We launched a twice-daily all-women bus services, which allowed women and girls to safely, comfortably and reliably access the medical, legal, psychosocial services provided at our Athena Centre for Women and the city’s amenities, six days a week, The bus became a critically important component of our work on Chios.

  • Halcyon Days Project | Athens

    We opened the Halcyon Days Project in Athens to provide safety, support and hope to women fleeing persecution, conflict and violence. Participants of the Halcyon Days Project had access to non-formal English classes, legal and psycho-social support. It became a thriving community for 150 women daily.

  • SEEN Photography Collection

    SEEN was a collection of portraits taken by, and of, women fleeing conflict, violence and persecution. The workshops aimed to empower women with the skills to portray themselves and their friends in a strong, resilient, and hopeful light. The photos were a culmination of a two week photography workshop held by Zurich-based photographer Mardiana Sani, at our Athena Centre for Women, and were shown in Athens, Belgium, Straasbourg, Sweden, and Zurich.