LINK No 88 FEBRUARY 1rst, 2017
Everyone is back to Kalamata ! After a busy new year in the coziness of our families and/or friends in Kalamata, everyone is back in town and ready to get back to work. New volunteers will be coming on the 6th of february : the familly is growing ! A lot of new articles in this issue, enjoy your reading ! Editor & Designer: Tea Križanec- Laura Gimenez
with s y ta in s life, k s it! r r You you fo treat s to e ow xplain e. h n n e lear rtyna g routi Ma ornin m her
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Elfs No, tenden toch I’m ing not sw t! ea It m in Du tch. rean s to g et y you ha o v on i n le ur skat e ss t es hou hen 84 rs.
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e lin tal e i t ! s o pla o life grec n t e a ory. g Wh n st eri ove v l sco ian i D
It’s not all fla menco. Maybe chorr i-chorri could be you r thing! Get ready to explore spanish danc es with Aroa.
Missed the co nference? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back!
be cau T u o Y h your Launc is know h reeer! s e r . sha tarted s Oscar u o y get how to
l ote h a in hs? g n nt vi f li r mo bble. o am ng fo t bu e r r d lasti st tha e v y e r ou olida ill bu y Did n a h na w o rty a M
w ne p s hi ee s t we k ? i d o . t Wh tha roun ates g y gu eing vesti se in lly o M
on w a er ce in ds v sco l pla rlan i D fu he e ! r t e e d N ené e h R t th i w
Tea Križanec & Laura Gimenez
Table of contents Contact
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About us
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EVS, K.A.NE.
Youth Center - program 14 Martyna Czypicka 16
Glory of Beauty
Rosa Vernooij 20
Elfstedenkoorts!
Sara Amghar 22 Rüya Hazar 24
Interculturality through words
Martyna Czypicka 26 Tea Križanec 28 Oskar Shrattenecker 30 Óscar Villarraso López
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Aroa Liébana Rellán 34 Martyna Czypicka 36 Molly O’Doherty 40 Tea Križanec 44 Renée Hoogenboom 49 Zoom on Kalamata 50
A recipe for cold winters Inspiration Stop motion animation (From Italy, with love) The registration How to be a youtuber Traditional dances from Spain Erasmus + Interview with Vyron Social Innovation Hometown
Staff members of KANE: Filaretos Vourkos Fotini Arapi Jelena Scepanovic Nantiana Koutiva Vyron Giannakopoulos EVS: Aroa Liébana Rellán Arthur Gallagher Laura Gimenez Renée Hoogenboom Rosa Vernooij Rüya Hazar Martyna Czypicka Molly O’Doherty Óscar Villarraso López Oskar Shrattenecker Sara Amghar Tea Križanec Credits pictures: saaabrina/Luce Large/RPK LADY.D/Jessy/beatrice_bordei
Contact us: K.A.N.E Social Youth Development Youth Center of Kalamata Plateia Othonos 10 Kalamata 24100 Greece Telephone: +30 272 111 0740 E-mail: info@ngokane.org URL: https://kentroneon.wordpress.com/ http://www.ngokane.org/index.php/el/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ kentroneon/?fref=ts
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About us - EVS
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i, This is RĂźya from Istanbul,Turkey. I am 28 years old. I have studied Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering in Istanbul Technical University. Then, i started working on tanker ships as an officer. So, i was once an old mariner, than after leaving ships become a full time traveller and now i am a volunteer in Kalamata until next middle of May:). I am into sports, cultural activities and travel.
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i there, my name is Renee, I am seventeen years old and I am from the Netherlands. I arrived last monday and I will stay here for ten months. My work will be therapeutic horseriding and in the keviab. I just finished highschool and I didn’t wanted to study immediately, then I came across EVS and it turned out to be the perfect thing to do this year. Because I am doing something good and I will learn a lot from it. I hope that when I come back I will have new friends and have a lot more life experience.
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ello my name is Oskar Schrattenecker, I am 18 years old and from Linz/Austria. I am doing Evs in Kalamata. The main reason for me to do Evs was because i didn’t know what I wanted to do in my future so hopefully I get orientation during my Evs. Also since first of January in Austria you can do a long term Evs instead of your military service, so this was a nice opportunity. I started my Evs one month ago on 18. of April and my project lasts for one year, I work in the Youth center of Kalamata. Me and 6 other Volunteers live in an apartment.
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i everyone! My name is Rosa and I am 17 years old. I come from a small town called Woerden in the Netherlands. I just graduated from high school, so now I am taking a gap year before I will go to university. I like hanging out with friends, watching a movie, going for a hike and cooking. I will stay in Kalamata for 9 months to work in the Day care centre for autistic children. We visited Kalamata in the beginning of August for one weekend, so we got to see a little bit of Kalamata already. The people here have been really nice, but it is so different from the Netherlands. I hope to become more independent here and meet new friends. I am also looking forward very much to learning about autistic children and how to approach them.
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ey guys! My name in Martyna and I’m new volunteer from Poland! I’ve grown up in Poznan (west side of the country). I’m 26 this year and I try to enjoy every minute of my life! I’m crazy about Greece, this is my favourite place in Europe – however I love to travel and I take every opportunity to see the world. In my free time I like to read and spend time outside of the house. I love to eat, this is my biggest passion! I’m totally a beauty freak.
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i! My name is Laura and I’m 24 years old. I come from a small town in France called Le Thor (yeah like the north god), it’s around Marseille. I have a bachelor degree but I wanted to do something else this year, something that will give me life and work experiences: I wanted to be useful. I’ll work in KANE’s office as the webdesigner of the team and I’ll stay in Kalamata for 1 year; I’m really looking forward to it! I have quite a lot of hobbies; I love to draw, write, read, play video games, watching movies and tv show and so on.
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alimera to all of you, I am Sara, I am french and I am 21 years old. Since yesterday, I am a new volunteer in Kalamata and will stay here for a year (maybe more ...?) in order to give some help to the horse riding center of kalamata and the Kefiap as well. More over, I will give french lessons at the Youth Center of the city. I met people I will work with and I am really excited to start being part of the project. Horse riding center is a real peacefull place for anybody who needs to connect his mind with his body. The couple of therapist working there are sensitive and receptive people, so if you have any physycal pain, just go to the horse riding center :) !
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i ! My name is Aroa, I’m from Madrid in Spain but I live in Màlaga, the south of Spain. In Spain I’m working in a secondary school for dance, I’m the teacher for hip-hop, funks, break dance and classic for teens. I have 18 years and I love dance, photography and watch movies with my friends.
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reece, the final frontier. This will be the voyage of a young volunteer. Her continuing mission - to explore strange new places, to seek out new skills and new forms of art, to boldly go where no volunteer has gone before… Greetings dear readers! Tea is my name and art is my game. I will be working for KANE and leading the Creative arts workshops in the youth centre as well as teaching croatian. Please don’t let my fragile looks trick you, as I am a level 6 elven ranger of the Vanyar clan, my patronus is an Eevee and I am available for tea parties and board games.
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ello, my name is Arthur, I’m coming from France. I will stay in Kalamata for a 12 months EVS, working at K.A.N.E office. I will animate some workshops here and participate in media communication. I’m glad to be here and experiment the greek way of life.
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i ! I’m Oscar, I’m from Spain, I live in Màlaga, so close to Africa. I love the fashion world and I worked as organiser and teacher of modeling in lot of fashion shows. I’m an animal lover, I have a tiny dog called Fredy. Music is very important in my life, I’m listening music every time. I like traveling every time I can, I think exploring the world is the most interestng in your life.
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ello everyone! My name is Molly and I come from the UK. I’ve moved here from a city called Bristol in England. I am going to be working in K.A.N.E.’s office. I’ll be helping with the programming, development and evaluation of activities. I’ll also be helping out in the Youth Centre and running an English Conversation workshop. I love cooking, watching films and doing yoga. I also really enjoy helping people to connect with their local history. Before I came here I was working in museums and archives for many years. I am really excited to be in Kalamata and I feel very lucky to be here working as an EVS volunteer.
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About us - K.A.NE.
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ello, I am Filaretos Vourkos. For the last 10 years I am working in the field of Non-formal education as avolunteer, youth worker and youth trainer. 6 years ago,I decided to create the Youth Centre of Kalamata, in orderto initiate youth work in Kalamata and promote active citizenship as factor for change.
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i, I’m Jelena Scepanovic, an EVS coordinator in KANE and the volunteer of the Youth center. I came from Montenegro 2012 as an EVS volunteer. I really liked the idea of the Youth center and the work that KANE does, so I decided to stay and be part of it.
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y name is Nantiana! Im 23 years old. I live in Kalamata! I were living for 5 years in patras! I were studying there greek philology and now im teaching greek to the youth center in Kalamata.
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i my name is Fotini Arapi and I am project manager in K.A.NE. organization and responsible, among other things, for all sending motilities (sending EVS volunteers, participants in training courses, interns, etc). Apart from my work in K.A.NE., I also volunteer in the Youth Centre of Kalamata, a volunteer initiative managed by a team of local volunteers. I am very proud of and I love the Youth Centre, its dynamic atmosphere, and most of all, its natural inclusiveness that allows everybody to feel “at home” there. See you around :-D
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would describe Vyron as an imaginative fast learning and inventive generalist with a passion for remarkable food and the great outdoors. That’s enough talking about myself in third person. Hello, I am Vyron Giannakopoulos, I consider myself a curious and open-minded person. I have studied the science of Geography and as the newest member of KANE I am here to help by managing the creative projects of EVS volunteers, planning events, creating new projects and doing anything that will add value to our organisation. In my free time I like exploring new places and learning new things. But feel free to contact me on any issue if you need help. Namaste
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Hey everyone! For long time I was thinking about „beauty column” in LINK. Finally I decided to do it! I have hope that you will find some important information and you will learn something new! I would like to tell you how to take care about your skin, show you some make-up tricks and talk about good and bad habits in our daily skincare life! Stay tuned and enjoy! In first Glory of beauty article I want to tell you about “morning routine” – what you should do, to keep your face clean, shiny, moisturize and ready for make-up! I want to tell you how to makes your skin happy! First step is to wash your face – don’t use regular soup, it will dry your skin and we don’t want to make it! All we want is moisturize our faces. So use your cleanser according to instructions of the back of bottle. You can find many facial cleanser in stores. will give you few examples:
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Next step is to dry your skin. Most of people make this terrible mistake and they wipe face with regular towel – hand towel or (what is even worse) body towel. What you should definitely do, is using paper towel! If you never do it and you never hear about it, you think I’m “overcarrying”! But… I’m not! Firstly, they are disposable! So after using them we will immediately throw them away. Thanks to that there is no possibility for bacteria to thrive in them, which happen with our cotton towels that hangs in our moist and warm bathrooms. It
eliminates the possibility of dissemination of bacteria on the face and the creation of imperfections. It’s not very expensive (four paper-towels costs around 2 euro and they last for a long time). When our skin is clean and dry, we can use tonic! This step is also skipped by many people, but I will write separate article about it! Anyway, what you should do, is use tonic everyday! All you have to do, to put a little bit of liquid on cotton swab, gently spread over your face and let it dry for a minute!
Finally we can moisturize our faces! What is important, you shouldn’t use the same cream for your face and for your undereye area. Undereye skin is very thin and creams can only make it heavy! If you don’t have special cream it’s better to live it without anything. This is why I recommend you to buy one – creams like this are very efficient, because you need the smallest amount ev ery day! One bottle should last for at least two-three months! It is very important step in your daily skincare, because it will help you to get rid of bags under the eyes, relieves puffiness and make your undereye brighter. It’s very important if you’re putting make-up every day – concealers are very heavy, creamy and with full coverage, so we should help this area to regenerate!
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Now it’s time to use face cream. This step is very important, because it will be a base for make-up. That doesn’t mean you can skip this, if you’re not putting any! You have to use more heavy cream when it’s cold outside, because dry air is going to dry your skin very easy! When it’s sunny you should buy one with SPF filter – then you will be sure your skin is protected from sun. Remember that dry skin looks bad and moreover it hurts! It’s tense, red and exposed to irritants. Too much sun makes your skin more wrinkled!
Remember that skin care is not good only for present tense, it’s investment in future. Because… We all wants to be healthy and beautiful – as a teenagers, as young women or as a women in advance age! Probably you’re wondering how much time it takes! Not more than three to five minutes! Is it expensive? According to AB.gr I did “on-like groceries”: • Olay Gel, Refreshing face wash (for normal, dry and combo skin) – 3,98 euro; • Nivea, tonic with vitamin B & hydra IQ – 5,44 euro; • Bioten, cream for undereye area, antiwrinkle and firming, reducing black circles – 7,98 euro; • L’oreal, ideal moisture – 6,50 euro.
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As you can see, in total it’s 23,90 euro. Which is not cheap, but every product should last at least two months. That means you spend 0,40 euro per day! In my opinion it is worth it! Stay beauty, see you next week!
ni l e w o t r pe ! a l p e e w s o t U : r p a i l u tt g r e a r f o Sm d a ste
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Elfstedenkoorts! When the days become shorter, the nights longer and the trees are covered in a little layer of whiteness, hope arises amongst a lot of Dutch people. While frost is not the thing I’m waiting for all year, it is for some people in the Netherlands. Since there is a lot of water in Holland, the country becomes one big ice field when the temperatures drop below zero. When the ice is just a few centimetres thick you will start seeing the first fanatic ice skaters, who grew up ice skating every winter. Ice skating is part of our culture. We all learned it in front of our house behind a chair. That’s why it’s not surprising that Dutchmen win price after prize during the world championships of speed ice skating. A week ago it started freezing for a longer period for the first time this winter. Like I said, this means ice skating! Now the question was: which city/ village will have the first marathon on natural ice. For days it was the most exciting thing that was happening in the Netherlands. In the end the village Haaksbergen held the
A typical image of a Dutch father teaching his child how to ice skate from a very young age.
first marathon with an icelayer of three centimetres. With the cold weather the ‘Elfstedenkoorts’ (eleven cities fever) also started. Here I need to explain myself. In the Netherlands there is a very notorious skating marathon on natural ice called the Elfstedentocht (eleven cities tour). It passes through 11 historical cities in the North of the country. It is a very difficult
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marathon and hasn’t been held since 20 years now. The reason for this is that the ice needs to be at least 15 centimetres thick. The past years the weather was too warm for this to happen. If the ice is thick enough the Elfstedentocht is announced and will happen within 48 hours. It is a huge event and everyone heads to the North of the country to watch it.
A picture of the craziness during the Elfstedentocht.
After every winter, there is always hope that the Elfstedentoch will come next winter. We will see!
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INTERCULTURALITY Hi dear readers ! This time I’d like to show you how interculturality influences language whereever you are. Here I’m giving you a short list of words that sounds the same (or pretty much the same) or are written in the same way but have different meaning.
Fota (englis h) : an english win e barrel Fouta [pron ounced like “o”] (m orrocan) : towl
eek) : r g ( ο το άλλ r e the oth ch) : en allô (fr u pick up yo when one the ph
a pet (engli sh) : a domestic an imal un pet (fren ch) : a fart
Dori (rouma nian) : to wish Dori (in the wonderful world of disney) :
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é) n f ka row a ( έ :b ): φ κα ek) nch p re (fre sho g ( fé ffe ca co
r you ey : k) mon e e (gr ch) : u so fren ( sou ) dé é p e ε ( : fiv : a τ ν πέ eek) nch) (gr (fre dé gay e p
Y THROUGH WORDS da n ma nd e es sta bed n i a to ch li ( in) : ch) : r en (fr lit
on p a we a : e) ood iful s w e f n t apa out o : beau j ( bô made ch) ren f ( u bea
rocan) r o m ( mouch : a cat che ou une m : a fly h) (frenc
ai (j apa ne love se) : aïe ( whe french ): n yo u h you rsel urt f
nass nass (germ an (mo rroc ) : hum an) : pe id ople
chi- ? n i dar much n a Ji (m ) : how n) : to e nes orroca Ji (m e com to μπλε (b le) (greek) : blu e blé (french) : wheat / (fre nch oldfashione d slang) : mon ey
bar rt : sh) ddve i l eng h) : a ( b Pu frenc b( Pu
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A Recipe for Cold Winters Well, so far, among the people who tried when they caught by flu, they recovered within short notice than normal and made them pass it very smoothly.
per,
-Cinnamon stick or grinded -Clove pieces -Red pepper ( yes, red pepincreases immune system )
Quantity of the spices is up to So, credibility is depending you. I usually use 1-2 dessert on them and me. I made up this spoon for each. And we will put recipe couple of years ago, when the spices down to the jar. my access to the proper medicine was limited on the ship, Now, rest of the empty space in leaded me to improvise with the the jar, should be filled up with things I already have in my hand boiled water. to make myself better, without depending on drugs or synthetic Now we will close the cover and medicines. wait for 10-15 min and than we can drink the juice and eat the Here it is: more tasty apples :D We have to squeeze them and collect in one glass jar ( 1 lt I drink this every night. Eeehhh, glass jar is suitable ) it works I think :D -One orange -One grapefruit -One lemon -Half apple Hazarus Will chop it in to the juice, you can keep them big pieces, no need to make them in very small cubes.
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-Dry or fresh mint
Juice Even gets you back from a deadly flu
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The greatest idea always appears when you’re falling asleep or when you taking a shower, am I right? Yesterday, when I was in bed, ready to go to sleep, I checked my Instagram for the last time. I saw plenty of pictures of my friends, celebrities, some inspirations for new make-up and few nice outfits for rainy weather (you really don’t want to know what happen right now outside!). I closed my eyes and in heard in my had only one sentence “Inspiration – Insta-ration”, which of course doesn’t make any sense.. But when I was lying on my bed I thought this is exactly what I need right now! I want a little bit of INSPIRATION. I started to create “logo” in my head and praying to remember all this in the morning. And voila! Here it is! My new project for K.A.NE.! Inspiration/Instaration is a project based on popular “Humans of New York” idea. For many months I was thinking how to do it right, not to copy all “HNY”! In every LINK magazine you will find one or two pictures (portraits, my favorite!) of our volunteers, coworkers, friends or strangers meet on the street! I will always ask them the same question: What inspired you? What is your motivation to …? I really can’t wait to learn and maybe use some of your ideas! Vyron Giannakopoulos Q: What inspired you? Is it music, books, philosophy? Or maybe you have some authorities, like famous people or someone from you family or friends? A: What inspired me for doing what? You mean what inspires me? Well, a good book can always achieve that and definitely a person who has done something remarkable. I get excited and then I say if he/she can do it then why not me? Q: Is inspiration enough to be motivated? If not, what is usually your motivation to work? A: Inspiration is a way of living; if you are open to new things
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and are acceptable to change (even about your most fundamental views) then you will welcome inspiration into your life more often than if you were close minded and self-centred. However, you will always need many stimuli along the way, this means that you will need to be out there, to participate, to travel, to feel and be curious. Of course, as you have noticed inspiration often comes during the relaxing moments, in your dreams, while contemplating, between consciousness and sleep. This magic happens because your brain tries to segment, merge and categorise your stimuli, a process that happens mostly during sleep. If it happens and you wake up, your consciousness will grab a part of this information from your temporary memory. Dare not to replay it and it will be lost forever into oblivion. The brain has a magnificent way of coming up with solutions, with bursts of inspiration. So, next time when somebody tells you to come up with an idea about a problem, tell them “let me sleep over it”. Though inspiration is a great motivation and can move mountains, however it is not reliable. It goes as easy as it comes. So inspiration is not enough for motivation, because you cannot rely on it on the long run. Yes you need to have a goal and an idea of how you can reach it, but at the end it all comes to “a system” for making things done. A system is the only thing that will ensure the completion of a project. A system will engrave motivation into your everyday life. For example if you are a writer, a system would be everyday to write at least a specific number of pages, even though they might be crap. This will give you the mentality of completing things and the experience of making those bursts of inspiration a common thing. A system in the creative industry is the devotion of daily time and practises towards your work. So, yes following systems is what I’m trying to do with my projects, and with more experience the easier it gets. Q: Can you share with us your favorite motivational quote(s)? A: - It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen. (Unknown) - Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration (Thomas Edison)
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From Italy, with love
Moulding plasteline has been a timeless pastime for children around the globe. This is a story of one particular child who never gave it up, but instead turned it into something truly magical. Constantly fiddling with those colorful masses, Thomas Künstler started creating figures from a very early age and, led by his father, gave them life with a camera. After he discovered the world of stop-motion animation, things were set in motion... and he wasn’t able to stop. Years passed and soon he left his home in Italy to study Film Production in England. Although he was working on different kinds of movies for his studies, the passion for stop-motion never faded and it turned into a continuous side-project. While studying, he got aquainted with several Greeks and, intrigued, he explored their culture. The more he knew about it, the more it left him captivated and inspired his works. The sound of traditional music and the dances, the melodies and instruments, especially the rebetiko (ρεμπέτικο) sparked his interest. With plots based on everyday life, he carefully constructs scenes with his plasteline figures as main actors surrounded by furniture from dollhouses and various objects and materials. The hardest part is also the first one he has to do - devise a story. One that would require little movement, no dialogue and a message still clearly getting across. After that comes mixing the colours and building the characters. Everything he does, he does on his own and while professionals use bigger models, harder materials and wire armatures for their figures, he sticks to his small-scale,
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apartment-friendly sizes and soft plasteline. Of course, that means limbs fall off every now and then, dirt accumulates easily so constant restoring is needed as he moves his characters through 25 frames for every second of the movie. All taken into account, he still describes the whole process of creating this kind of animation as very therapeutic. His works are often infused with the element of love and with the eyes of a dreamer he talked about his movies. Then I finally saw the finished works of art. Thomas presented two of his animated films (which can also be viewed here: http://www.thomaskunstler.com/portfolio_page/den-les-kouventa, http://www.thomaskunstler.com/portfolio_page/rebetiko ) titled „Den Les Kouventa“ and „Rebetiko“. The way he presented a story with such little movement was stunning. The simplified mute faces told tales of love, supported by skilled use of camera, often dimmed light that shaped the atmosphere and sounds that had to represent all the noises and materials that weren’t actually present. It was apparent that he put his soul into creating these works. Greeks that were introduced to them were honoured that a foreigner felt so close to their culture and explored the potential of aspects they took for granted. Grateful for the opportunity to meet such a talented young individual, I start thinking about how many more of them, undiscovered, spend their hours ever so slightly moving fragile figures frame by frame, hoping their stories will reach our hearts.
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The registration
The Beginning of the second Semester On Thursday the 26 of January the Youth center finished its first Semester and we started the Registration for the second Semester on Monday the 30. The Program with the Workshops changed, and because we expect a few new EVS Volunteers in the beginning of February, we added a lot new Workshops. Beside Languages like Russian, Arabic, Japanese and Portuguese, also creative Workshops like Engraving, Trash Art, Photography, Graphic Design and Articles writing. From now on the Youth center will be also be open on Friday from 5 – 7 o`clock. So the Registration for the new Workshops, are going for 3 days. On Monday the first day 100 people came to register. Half of them came in the first 30 minutes, so it was very stressful, but the local Volunteers were very helpful, and we managed it quite well. On the second day around 70 people registered and, it was a very peaceful and relaxed day. Thanks to the local Volunteers no boredom came, and it was a friendly and relaxed Atmosphere. The new semester will start next week with Monday the 6. of February.
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How to be a Youtuber
Hello everyone! As you know or as you do not know, I have a YouTube channel, my user is Ă“scar Hudson in case you want to take a look. I decided to open a youtube channel because I love to record and edit videos, and while you do it you can have a great time, with family, friends, etc ... The first thing you need are three essential things: -camera -Computer -Video editor Then you have to be clear what you want to do in your videos, you can do what you want, whatever you like, there will always be someone who likes what you do. The most popular videos are: -Beauty / Fashion -Gameplays -TravelVlogs -Tutorials There are many more like dances, reactions to videos, covers, etc. When you are starting, the easiest is to make videos like challenges,
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tags, things you like and after that the people will start being interested in your life and then you can do some Tags like, the 20 Songs Tag to know your music taste, or a 50 things about me to know you better, for example, I make fashion videos and challenges, sometimes I do Vlogs Talking about something interesting, for now my channel is not very big, I only have 550 subscribers, but that means that 550 like what you do and want to continue to see you, that motivates me a lot when making videos, every day there is someone who comments on your videos writing how much they like your content, but sometimes, there are people who only comment stupid things without even watching the video, just to annoy, those you have to ignore. Youtube is one of the biggest platforms on the internet and some people became famous for this. If you really want to make a channel, why not? You have nothing to lose. I hope this video has served you something, see you !!
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Traditional dances from Spain In Spain there are 17 autonomous regions, each with its traditions and customs. I want to introduce to you some of its habits, like dance. In each of them there is a typical type of dance, I will tell you the most known dances of Spain: País Vasco “Aurresku”: is a typical dance of the Basque Country, a region located in the northern part of Spain. This dance is a kind of reverence that is usually danced in special events, such as weddings, tributes and other public acts. There may be several dancers, always men, who carry a beret or hat in their hand. And it is tradition to take as a couple the wife or daughter of the mayor. Madrid “Chotis”: Chotis is a ballroom dance that came to the Iberian Peninsula from Bohemia (Czech Republic) in 1850. and then it was danced in the Royal Palace of Madrid for the first time. It is danced as a couple (man and woman) and the woman spins around the man with crossed steps or steps back and forth, while the man always looks ahead and makes small turns in a space that is limited to a tile. Asturias “Corri-Corri”: Asturian dances stand out for their music, in which bagpipes and drums are unmistakable. They have become a sign of identity and a whole tradition in this area of northern Spain. It is characterized by a single man dancing and several women, which can be from six to nine. This dance is accompanied with sounds of music created by the players, who are accompanied by instruments such as the drum, tambourine and pandoiros, while others sing a romance and it is tradition that these women carry in both hands a branch of laurel. Andalucia “Fandango” and “Flamenco”:
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Fandango: It is an original dance of Spain that at the moment has crossed borders and has gained popularity in other countries, such as Mexico. This dance was mixed with the flamenco dance, giving place to what today is known as aflamenca fandangos. Flamenco: Of all the Andalusian dances, flamenco is the best known internationally. As for its history, the first flamenco dances date from the eighteenth century and its origin is due in large measure to the gypsy ethnicity. Since 2010, flamenco dance is considered by UNESCO as World Cultural Heritage. Behind the flamenco dance coexist some norms and unique traditions that have given rise to an own language from which terms such as the expression ¡olé! Or elf, which the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) defines as mysterious and ineffable charm. The instruments necessary to play flamenco music are the voice, the palmas and the Spanish guitar. A flamenco guitarist receives the name of tocaor and the one who dance are called bailaor or bailaora. Aragón “La Jota”: It is a dance that is accompanied by a voice and in which the dancers carry castanets in each hand, in addition to a typical regional costume. Apart from the castanets, the dance is accompanied by guitars, lutes, bandurrias, accordions and tambourines.
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Erasmus +Experience
Living in Greece was my dream for very long time. Basically since my first trip for summer camp in 2003! I was thirteen then and of course I didn’t know how to realize my plan, but year after year I was visiting different parts of Greece, just to make sure that I didn’t change my mind. In 2015 I made my first step! I sent my application to Erasmus+ coordinator at my University. When people ask me why I chose Kalamata as a destination city, I always answer: I didn’t really have a choice. Kalamata chose me. And it’s true, that time I didn’t have another option if I wanted to study in Greece. After two interviews, filling too many documentation and writing my English exam… results came! Luckily for me, in September 2016 my Erasmus adventure begun! From the very beginning it was very hard! When everything was
set up, University of Peloponnese told me, that they never accept Erasmus student before. So YES. We, me and friend of mine, were first and only. We didn’t know what to expect, we were little bit scared and excited in the same time. Then we reached Kalamata and I saw this view (after 20 hours trip), and I know it will be ok. That it have to be alright!
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After twelve months I spent here, I decided I want to live in Kalamata little bit longer. I know Youth Center and I had some friends working there. I asked myself: you should try, you have nothing to lose! Three days before my flight to Poland I sent my application.
What is a difference between being Erasmus student and Erasmus volunteer in the same city? As a student I didn’t have to worry about time. I had only private lessons, so I could spend hours sitting in the cafeteria and enjoying sun. It seems to be nice, but… after some time, when all your friends have to be at the University or they are working, you are just simply bored! You can enjoy Dolce far niente experience on holidays, but twelve months? Ugh, it was too much! Now, as a volunteer my daily schedule is busy. We have to work six hours, five days a week. It makes life much easier, because you feel useful, creative and active! After work you always have things to do – cleaning, cooking, maybe even volunteering in different places! Trust me guys, it’s nice to have things to do! Otherwise you will get crazy!
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On the other hand, I have to admit, that having spare time in the morning was… even more then great! As a volunteer, you have to be aware about other people in your house. You need a “bathroom schedule”, so you all can heat the water and take a shower. It makes morning more inconvenient. For sure you can’t eat breakfast like this (picture) every morning! Oh, and I have to say: sending pictures like this to my friends in Poland, was my guilty pleasure… Second, and very important issue was money! As a student I spent TOO much money. Erasmus coordinators are sending all your grant on one time (in the beginning of the semester). So in the October you think you’re rich, and in January you are crying, because you’re broke and new semester starts in the end of February.. It’s much easier to plan your budget when you have monthly salary. It’s more convenient, because you know exactly what do you need and how much money you spend! When your account is always full, you’re just not paying attention.. When I was a student I was leaving in the hotel for half year. First month was amazing – you don’t have to cook, you don’t have to clean, I was leaving next to the beach. But oh, it was so frustrating! If anyone of you ever thing that being on holidays for so long time is nice… trust me, you don’t want to try it! I was incredibly happy when I rent my own, small flat! As an volunteer I don’t really have a choice – I have five roommates, I share the room, and I’m crazy when I can find clean plate, because all dishes are dirty in the sink. But I love to go back home, where I have my friends, I can talk with them and spend really nice time. And, by the way, I
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improve my cooking skills all the time! I’ve hope it’s not my last year in Kalamata!
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Interview with Vyron
Molly : Hello Vyron! I’m sure our readers are keen to know more about you, so tell me, who are YOU? How would you describe yourself? Vyron : Hello Molly, I am Vyron, I’m a 34 years old guy who recently started working for KANE. I would describe myself as an imaginative open-minded and curious generalist who is passionate about food, entrepreneurship and the great outdoors. Am I a Chef or a CEO or a National Geographic explorer? No, but I cook fantastic, I have future plans for some venture of mine and I love making little field trips to nearby forests, canyons and mountains. I have studied the science of Geography in University of the Aegean and have an MSc in Utrecht University on natural disasters and Earth observation. University studies have been on all disciplines of Geography (Environment, Cartography, Geology, Meteorology, Urban Planning, Economics, Sociology, Pedagogics, Coding etc.). Is that enough? M: Yes it’s enough, but I have another question. Is it true that you are a genuine Greek human? V: I am genuinely human and as far as I know, 3 to 4 generations back, my ancestors are/were speaking Greek. But further back I don’t know. We modern Greeks are one of the most “smelted”
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people on earth. But don’t tell that to any other Greek; they all think Leonidas and Alexander are their great granddads. M: Ok, I won’t say a thing. Can you tell us a little bit about your role at KANE? What are your main responsibilities? V: No it’s classified. Well ok, I’m a project manager and an EVS coordinator of some of you. Also I’m here to support in any field necessary, from organising events and trainings to managing the new VET project. Soon we will start organising the Street Festival and I’m looking forward to be part in this too. It’s the way I like it, wearing many hats. M: Nice. And you are still a relatively new member of the KANE team. What are you most excited about doing? V: I like the diversity of roles and responsibilities. I’ll tell you this, on my first month here I already felt richer as a person due to my involvement in various projects, through my collaboration with my colleagues and the EVS. So yes, I like everything. M: Am I right in thinking that this is the first time you have worked in the youth/international volunteering field? What were you doing before? V: My working experience is very diverse; I have been employed as a researcher in a University. I was a Cartographer, graphic designer and publisher in my own company and partner in one other. I have been a freelance graphic designer and editor, a marketing designer in an advertising agency, a sales and service guy in a bike store, an office employee, salesman and driver for two “rent a car” companies, a temporary employee for the Hellenic Statistical Authority. And seasonally a farm worker in olive groves and a beach bar waiter. I should note that I was never laid off from any job and I was always in pursuit of diverse experiences. I haven’t mentioned my failed ventures-projects yet which are a lot, but this is for another interview. All are valuable experiences and lessons. It is true that it is the first time for me working for the youth and volunteering field, but I have international experience collaborating with others from my studies in The Netherlands and from doing an Internship in Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. In addition to that, I was a member of an international association of students (EGEA) and we were working and collaborating in the seminars and exchanges I took part in. But of course now that I
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work for KANE working in this field is like having no previous experience at all. M : ...and how is it for you working in this new field? V : I like it. M : Aside from the excellent conversation, how is it for you working with such a big team of international volunteers? V : As I mentioned earlier I have had the experience of working together with international teams. In Max Planck Institute I was part of a research team with weekly meetings and presentations, in EGEA I had team projects in the exchanges and in Utrecht University I was having weekly team presentations. M : Interesting. I understand that you have travelled to quite a few countries in Europe. Can you tell us a bit more about that? V : Yes I have travelled a bit. I love destinations with remarkable nature and multicultural cities. I have driven from Kalamata to Brussels. I have slept in a snow shelter that some friends and I have built in a forest north of Oulu while -40°C. I dove naked in the snow in Rovaniemi. I have found a meteorite on island Föhr. I have driven a 4x4 in the sand dunes of Dubai. I have seen the Reeperbahn nightlife. I have danced under the bright starry sky in Simos beach. I have hiked in gorgeous forests in Bulgaria and much more. But most of my trips were in relatively close destinations. What I want for my next travels is to go to faraway places like East Asia or South America. And I should mention I always try local cuisine. M : What kind of things do you like doing in your free time? What puts a smile on your face? V : “The smile on your face lets me know that you need me. There’s a truth in your eyes saying you’ll never leave me. Lalala laaa.” Well, having fun time with good people will do the thing. But I like
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many things, like spending time with my loved ones, cooking something special, going for hiking in nature, reading good literature, science or business books, creating new stuff that will one day flood the market and dream a lot. Oh yeah I forgot to tell you, I ‘m a hopeless dreamer. M : We like hopeless dreamers here. In our experience Greece is the place to be when it comes to delicious food. What is your favourite thing to eat? V : Greece has a lot of culinary influences from East West North and South but has also a native culinary plurality due to geographic diversity, more on the matter on a future post about culinary geography. With this said, it is not the only country with delicious and comforting food. I love good food from all over the world. I enjoy Asian food as much as French food or from any other culture, as long as it is well cooked of course. M : As you’ve already shown during this interview you have the ability to find the right song for every situation. What is your favourite song? V : I don’t have just one favourite song, I usually get fixated with one song for few days, having it as my favourite and then some other favourite song comes in mind and another one, and then I might remember a very old one. But about finding a song on every situation… I cannot explain it, but you should know this, if I do this it means I’m happy, so worry only if I quit doing it. M : Thank you Vyron and welcome to the team!
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Social Innovations What you’ve missed
„Rex hotel“ said the sign. Destination reached. As I parked my bike I glanced around in hope of seeing a familiar face but it seemed it was a bit too early for that. Soon enough though, the place got very crowded and one could already see that it was going to be a successful event. Registration time ended but people were still eager to get in. Some of the speakers at the conference will speak in greek but, thankfully, we have a wonderful translator and everyone could get headphones to tune in to the english version. Vice versa, she will be translating to greek for the non-english speakers. The whole event was organized by K.A.NE. under a bigger program called SILC. Some of the speakers sitting at the front table were clearly not locals – one from Tunisia, one from Egypt – both were attending a week-long seminar here about active citizenship, organized by K.A.NE. as well. All of the speakers will be presenting new ideas that are changing the society nowadays, in other words, as the headline said – social innovations. Mr. Mohamed Kamoun, a EuroMed trainer, first had the honour to present a project started in Tunis – the student entrepreneurial culture club of Tunisia. Firstly, he defined social innovation as strategies, ideas and organizations that meet the social needs and strengthen the employability of youth. The biggest problem in Tunisia was the economical situation which was, in part, due to youth unemployment (33%). There was a big difference between the needs of the labour market and what the educational system „produced“, in lack of a better phrase. Could entrepreneurship provide a solution? The local youth that started the Student’s Entrepreneurial Club thought it could. It’s aim was
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to prepare students for their adult lives and provide them a place that would foster creativity, where they could access professional life, networking opportunities and share ideas. Their targeted group were, of course, students and the Club had a range of activities: the were visiting businesses, institutions, various companies to see how they function, organizing entrepreneurial conferences and workshops for other students, participating in local and national entrepreneurial events. They held regular meetings of club members, skill-building workshops, tried to gather resources and real-world experiences necessary to start a business, connected to students from different fields, visited media companies and tried to improve life-skills related to employability. In the Q&A section, a man from the Chamber of commerce in Messinia applauded the idea of the Club and raised the question why the government doesn’t train the students appropriately and prepare them for work. There was no clear answer as everyone was wondering the same. Mr. Kamoun stated that they did make a course about entrepreneurship at the university at some point but it wasn’t successful as the students were not equally interested. Then they decided to form is as a Club, which obviously sounded more appealing. „We don’t speak, we do – that’s the secret to success.“ – he concluded.
The second speaker, Mr. Ilias Kalphakákos came from an organization that started in Kalamata and dealt with social entrepreneurship – Mataroa (named after a ship which allegedly transported some important individuals and was known for two journeys). As an NGO of entrepreneurial culture in Kalamata, it’s aim was to involve everyone interested in the city and help to redefine it’s culture. Their team consisted of 6-7 people, all with very different interests and from different backgrounds alongside others they cooperated with. Mr. Kalphakákos spoke about elements that existed in the society but which we forgot about so nowadays they can sound new to us. Some of those are: cooperation – how to decide on rules and work together, how to give and take, how to influence
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people; how to change the way we do things; extroversion – how will things that we do reach others; strategy – our society needs strategy for change! He divided society into two groups: on one side were those which had money, structures and the power to do things, while the other was comprised of NGOs, informal groups, students, active citizens. One of the loveliest sentences uttered that day (which I believe is very true): „It may sound romantic but all we need is to be open to offering knowledge without the fear of losing it.“ The n he presented the two main activities of Mataroa: „Open Tourism Kalamata“ and „CODE Girls“. „Open Tourism Kalamata“ organizes conferences but they don’t follow the convention of inviting speakers. Rather, they make an open call so everyone who wants to, can speak about the designated topic. They believe that by doing so they activate people’s minds and that is how change happens. Through time, people become entrepreneurs and start their own businesses. Their other initiative - „Code Girls“ came into being as the need for more female employers in STEM fields increased. It’s active in several cities and consists of computer programming courses for girls up to the age of 17. They can attend for free and the results have been astonishing! Not so long ago, nobody thought about benefiting from the way the female mind works and it’s potential. Mataroa also invites women already working in that field to act as role models. Their plans for the future include organizing CodeGirls all around the Balkans. Their current acquisitions include a 3D printer which they are planning to put in good use. They believe that ordinary people can create actions leading to changes in the society and using old concepts in a different way to bring change. Warning us how we don’t understand what is happening around us, they encouraged us to escape from the world we see on TV and start thinking outside of the box.
As the third speaker, Filaretos Vourkos introduced what he explored during his recent trip to Vietnam and spoke about his experiences there. For us to be able to begin to understand the current
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situation there, it’s important to keep in mind that Vietnam is one of the last 5 communist party governed countries in the world and that it also suffered substantially as a french colony. Now it’s society is changing. He introduced its people by describing them foremost as a particularly welcoming society. Through the recent years, they created some innovative organizations and one of them is „SJ Vietnam“. It gathers groups of young people in poor parts of the country and involves them in different social activities during the weekends. The groups are mostly comprised of students. Sj Vietnam gets to know the locals, involves them in developing their social skills and tries to bring their experiences to the cities. By doing do, they are actually resolving an important issue by providing new opportunities for the members of the society and bringing change. „Social innovation is about the way society can face it’s problems.“ – Filaretos concluded.
Lastly, Mr. Maged Elsamny took over the stage. Coming from Egypt, he was an architect from Alexandria, currently teaching at the University of Cairo. He tells us how he and his colleagues are trying to deal with problems in Cairo using social innovations. He presented some of the tools they created in the form of mobile applications. One of the biggest problems in Cairo is traffic and they created a mobile application through which the drivers report how crowded the streets are in hope of balancing out traffic on the streets. Another project deals with sexual harassement which is an issue that has no simple answer and has to be dealt with as soon as possible. In their app, whenever a girl gets harassed (they did not mention the male part of the population), she reports the incident on the map in the app. That way dangerous areas are identified easily. Reports are highest during the holidays and groups of volunteers then help around dangerous areas. Mr. Elsamny describes innovation as „changing steps in the process“ (of doing things). They have also created tools which are set in the field of gamification. As the concept of volunteerism and its potential wasn’t very
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well-known in Egypt, an organization from Cyprus named CEPA created a game to promote awareness. They teamed up with 5 countries and created „I Vee“ (as in „I volunteer“) It consists of 4 mini-games per every country, two relating to the culture and two involving a problem the country is facing. After you play the game, you are diverted to an organization that is tackling that problem. For example, you can play a game in which you clean a beach and afterwards you are provided with a link to contact an organization through which you can help by cleaning a beach. For now, the game is only available on Android devices. Workshops on how to gamify a problem. Another game they made, called „Tetra“ is a fun card game with an environmental element. Mr. Elsamny advises us how it’s always better to present the game as „fun“ and accentuate that aspect rather than the issue it tackles). Their targeted age groups are children from 12 to 16 as young people make up the majority of the population in Egypt. Their projects are funded by the UNDP but they are also trying to get financed by the private sector. It was eye-opening to hear about all of these initiatives, fairly unknown outside of their respective countries. I strongly believe that these ideas and approaches created by young people who believe in a brighter future represent only a fragment of those which are being created with the noble aim of changing the society. Hopefully they will inspire others to initiate the changes they want to see around them.
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HOMETOWN : Nijmegen So this is what happens to me a lot. I say I am from the Netherlands and immediately people ask me “oh Amsterdam?” And my answer is no not Amsterdam. Than if they know the Netherlands a little bit Amsterdam is followed by Den Haag, Rotterdam and on occasion Utrecht. And again no I am not from there. I am from the east of Netherlands. Than the people ask “from witch city?” Assuming that they know it, but as soon as I say the name they are disappointed because no they never heard of it. Now you are wondering which city is it, well my beautiful city, which in the Netherlands everyone knows, is called Nijmegen. It is the oldest city of the Netherlands and it has I think around 500.000 inhabitants. I love it! It is really a university city so there are a lot of young people. And what I really like is that the nature around Nijmegen it is beautiful. And we have hills which is quite the exception in the Netherlands. It is the oldest city because it already existed in the time of the romans. It was a big military camp and it was located in Nijmegen because of the hills. The Netherlands is in general really flat so from Nijmegen they could see there enemy’s coming from far. Still people find things from that time in their backyards. Nijmegen is mostly famous because of our town square which is really old. Sadly enough most of the historical centre was destroyed in the second world war. By mistake actually the Englishmen thought they had already reached Germany. So they thought Nijmegen was a German city. Now you can still see in the city that it is old, because a lot of areas have been spared and they have beautiful old houses. So I really love my city and I can recommend to visit if you are ever in the Netherlands!
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Zoom on Kalamata #ZOK #ZoomOnKalamata #January A winning picture of your January belongs to Ruya Hazar (picture: “Adaptation”). Congratulations!!! Your picture is getting its own spot on our wall, making our Youth Center even more beautiful!!!
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Theme for January is: “Love is in the air”! Kentro Neon Kalamatas invites you to participate in a photo contest which aims to discover the beauty of our city. Regardless of the technical capabilities of your camera (or even your phone!), be open to your own creativity and new challenges! Every month, all submitted works will be published on Facebook, where they will be evaluated by “likes”. The winning image will receive the title of the month and will be hanged on the Youth Center’s wall. Photographs can be submitted by the 25th of each month. Interested candidates please send your work to: kentroneon.mc@ gmail.com and add following information: • first name and last name, • title of the photo (facultative).
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The volunteers responsible for this publication are hosted in Greece in the framework of the European Erasmus+ programme, KA1/youth - European Voluntary Service. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.