From Cameroon to Athens, then to Kansas on a scholarship

Before he had even turned 12, Chanel traveled from Cameroon to Greece, fleeing civil war in the country where he lost his parents.

He lived in Greece for six years, staying in a shelter run by The HOME Project and attending, on scholarship, a high school where his basketball talent was recognized. Now, he has moved to the United States to study at Bethany College in Kansas on a basketball scholarship.

Chanel’s story moves us, makes us smile, and makes us think about the enormous potential kids who have traveled from their home countries, alone and in search of a better tomorrow, when they have allies like The HOME Project team standing with them. Because, as Chanel himself put it in a recent article in KATHIMERINI when describing support from his friends, “I wouldn’t have accomplished anything without their help. You can do nothing on your own.”

Read the full KATHIMERINI article on Chanel’s story.

*The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) has supported The HOME Project with a two-year grant to ensure the sustainability of a shelter that hosts 24 unaccompanied teenage boys, ages 13 -18, in the Athens Neighborhood of Kypseli.