Cemeli raised € 2,000 by selling the Cemeli motivation bracelets to directly fund scholarships offered to refugees in the frame of the scholarship program "Education Unites: From Camp to Campus"
Cemeli founder Christina Mahjouri Economou with ACG representatives Ms. Maria Edipidi and Kathleen McaDonell
At Cemeli, staying true to our values is fundamental as they constitute the primary reason of the brand's existence and compose the essence of our mission.
In completing Initiative 2018, we aimed at fulfilling particularly the values of Driving education initiatives for underprivileged youth as well as of Standing up for refugee youth and their rights to a better future.
While to come up with the particular fashion piece to raise the funds for the scope of the initiative we honoured the value of Promoting talent and boldness seen in female owned small businesses since the custom motivation bracelet was produced by IMISI bracelets, a fashion company run solely by creative and persevering women, based in Athens, Greece.
As far as the scope of the initiative, we wanted to acquire an active role and make an effort to revive hope and inspire as many young refugees that had to flee their country due to conflict and danger. Their chance to obtain a degree and build a career was at risk; with the amount raised, we were able to offer optimism to these youth and give them confidence and motivation for a brighter future.
The program was developed in 2016 by the he U.S. Embassy in Athens, in collaboration with the American College of Greece, the American College of Thessaloniki and the American Farm School in Thessaloniki.
The goal of the program has been to give opportunities to displaced students to continue their education; to provide them with knowledge, skills, and academic credits and degrees they can use either in Greece or in any other European country they move to in the future; to help them move beyond their identity as refugees and begin to be integrated in the local community; and to offer young refugees hope for the future, a chance to begin to prepare for professional lives.
Learn more: the end-of-year film made by filmmaker Stathis Athanasiou in June 2018. https://vimeo.com/275897845