A journey with many taught lessons

My today’s story won’t be related only with my activities and former experience as an EVS but also to the current global situation, being more specific, to the fact that nowadays we are witnesses of a new kind of genocide, that is having as a result a massive migration of population from the conflict zones, besides that sad facts, we are also witnesses of the massive propaganda that is floating all around us, that is sowing into all of us distortionary information, which is growing inside of all of us the fear of the people who are in need, the fear of all kind of beliefs apart from Christianity. How is all this related with my EVS project? It is very simple and the answer will come while you are reading this.

One thing that I have noticed is that being in Moldova, in Greece or in any other countries the propaganda in all its forms will drowned you into the sui generis propagandistic torrents of lies. It’s easier to put labels, but it’s never easy to take them off. This tagged group of people will be watched, and every single mistake will be assigned not individually, but to the whole group. This is a short of introduction regarding my experience that I am going to share to you.

Being honest, firstly when I decided to move to Greece I didn’t think about that opportunity. That here I can meet, and gain experience from many refugees. But living here in the core of all, being surrounded by many stories, by people with experience into that topic, and also having so many refugee camps all over around, it made me understand that this is actually an opportunity to interact with this people with their stories, which in a while will make me more sensitive, and more social active.

If you remember, I was telling you before that my mentor is a teacher. And after few weeks of planning together with her help we could organize a trip to a refugee center located in Alexandoupoli. Ivi was able to gather a group of 30 pupils from her school to spread awareness about refugee’s problem and to make the new generation of Greece to be more sensitive and tolerant about it. How it all happened? Of course this plan wasn’t achieved in one day, firstly following all the protocols, Ivi as a tutor managed to get permission for this trip. Second there was not only a single talk about the topic, through many discussions, pupils were prepared for this visit with their mind and heart. Every kid brought old toys, books and even cooked for the center that they were supposed to visit. So on the 13th of December, from Sapes we got inside of a bus, 30 pupils, 4 international volunteers, 2 teachers from the school, and a local student from Komotini. All together with a great mood started our trip, to Alexandroupoli. It took us about one hour.

The center that we planned to visit is called ARSIS:

ARSIS – Association for the Social Support of Youth is a Non Governmental Organization, specializing in the social support of youth that are in difficulty or danger and in the advocacy of their rights. The main target is the prevention of youth marginalisation, the elaboration of policies which defend youth rights and the active social support towards disadvantaged young people.

ARSIS was established in 1992 and since then it operates in Athens, Thessaloniki, Volos, Alexandroupoli, Kozani and Tirana due to the active participation of members, volunteers and young people.

ARSIS vision is a society of equal opportunities for all young individuals with respect of their rights like those that are outlined in the Greek and International Law through the UN pact for Children’s Rights.

The center that we visited is hosting at the moment 20 amazing kids mostly from Syria. The youngest one is 4 years old. And just imagining that fact that this kids left their families behind and traveled across the seas without any adults it makes you realize how big this problem is. And how many reasons pushed them to start that big journey, that could even kill them on the way.

I can say that, we all had a very warm and sunny welcome from the kids and from the center itself. After that the whole day passed as a dream, being surrounded by many amazing kids.

We had different activities all together we drew, we shared food, we talked, we had theater played by them. I can’t have any bad thoughts about the day and the center. Another thing, that made me feel even happier is how the pupils of Sapes were reacting after the visit. How they started to reflect about it, to make new friend.

I know that maybe our visit won’t have a big impact on the center and on the beneficiaries. But it had a big impact on the kids from Greece who got inspired by the people by the stories. And I know that one day in the future our society will be more sensitive regarding the wars and the people in need, apart from the geographical aspects, historical and religious aspects.