The Randal Foundation is proud to support Refugee Biriyani & Bananas with a Chios Humanitarian Emergency Response Project, a community-led, lifesaving and life-improving programme providing urgent aid to people arriving by boat to the Greek islands, with Chios as its main operational base.
Since 2017, Refugee Biriyani & Bananas has been delivering population-wide food distributions on Chios, ensuring that no one is left without access to food or essential items. Alongside this, their 24-hour crisis helpline and rapid-response network operate across Chios and neighbouring islands such as Rhodes and Samos, responding to distress calls from people abandoned at sea, stranded on uninhabited islets, or at risk of illegal pushbacks. These pushbacks often result in people drowning, dying from exposure, or disappearing without trace. Their interventions, including coordinating rescues, preventing returns to danger, locating missing persons, and ensuring safe registration into the asylum system, have directly saved countless lives.
With increasing arrivals from Sudan, Palestine, and Afghanistan, and worsening conditions due to conflict and climate change, this support is essential for survival.
The Randal Foundation’s funding will cover the provision of food, hygiene items, emergency supplies, and essential logistics for crisis responses, as well as the staffing and management of their helpline and field operations. Each year, this project reaches approximately 16,000 people, saving an estimated 7,000 lives by preventing deaths from drowning, starvation, or untreated illness, and improving the wellbeing of a further 9,000 through consistent access to food, clean water, and protection.
Over 80% of their team are from displaced communities, ensuring culturally appropriate, trusted, and dignified aid delivery. This grant will enable Refugee Biriyani & Bananas to continue acting swiftly when lives are at risk, helping people reach safety, protecting dignity, and strengthening community resilience in times of crisis.
