For «EDRA» ,
reporting Laura and Matleena, EVS volunteers
As EVS volunteers in EDRA, we participated in
the Seminar: «Civic Help for Anti-Racism Measures in youth work – CHARM II»,
which took place 19th September 2014, in Ilion, Athens. Our trainers were: Katerina
and Argyris. In the seminar participated about
20 workers and
volunteers from NGO EDRA (coordinators, psychologists, mentors, and us, the EVS
volunteers).
The day started with a fun warm up game "I
am special because..." where we got to know each other better. After that
there was a short movie about human rights, the history and development.
"What are human rights?" and "Is it utopic to believe that one
day everybody can have equal human rights?" These questions and many more
were discussed in the conversation. "Is being homeless matter of personal
choice?"-this was a topic that many people disagreed over. Also there was
a discussion that water and food are human rights, but many people don't have
it, because they don't the have money for it and if people with disabilities
have the same rights like everybody else.
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| The workers of EDRA enjoying the fun warm-up game |
After a short coffee break people was divided
into different 3-people groups. It was time for an outdoor activity. The game
was that one person in the group had to be blind and other two couldn't speak.
Each team was given a task. For example they had to go to grammar school,
social pharmacy, church and ask there
questions or take a picture. The blind person was the one who had to
speak and the other two had to escort him to the right place. In the exercise
people used a lot of body language and body signals. The purpose of the task
was to make people more conscious of the difficulties blind people face in
every day life and to make them more tolerant about it.
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| outdoor activity |
The last activity was role play game. Each group
had to make a small play related to the topic about disabilities in EVS. For
example, how prepared are organisations to host a volunteer with a disability,
what volunteers think about it and how ready they are to help the person in
need in everyday life. In conclusion people agreed on that Greece doesn't have
the best conditions for people with physical dissability - all the houses dont
have lifts and escalators, too narrow pedestrian streets, accessibility for all
the buildings, even to the public institutions.
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| role-playing exercise |
One of the trainers was Argyris. His everyday
job is in Kalamata where he is EVS coordinator and soon also a mentor. He has
given the seminars for 1,5 years and explains that the main pont of the
seminars is to see if the youth organisations respect human rights. In the
seminars they also focus on volunteering and EVS. He says that they have visited very different
organisations like breast cancer organisation, what was a very memorable visit.
Argyris adds that usually organisations are happy to have them but there have also been the ones who have declined the offer.
EDRA’s daily care center’s supervisor, Anna, comments that
she enjoyed the seminar very much. Especially she liked the outdoor activity
because it was practical and interesting. Anna added that because she has been
professional for many years she enjoys more active exercises than theory part
of it.
EVS mentor of the volunteers, Stella, says that she enjoyed
the seminar, she liked the trainers and that it is important to meet all the
workers at Edra who work with EVS volunteers, Stella adds that there are so
many workers and sometimes it is not easy to meet them. Mostly she enjoyed the
outdoor activity, the meeting game and the video. She says that the seminar is
important because it reminds us the basic human rights what we sometimes forget
and don't appreciate enough.
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