KENTRO NEON KALAMATAS LINK

NOVEMBER 2012

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EditorialThe second fan-zine of the Youth Centre of Kalamata is here! After a very

intensive month the Youth Centre of Kalamata is having around 30 work-

shops and more than 1000 members!!! Isn’t it fantastic?

All these are the result of the volunteering spirit which seems to create a

movement of sensitive and active citizens in the city of Kalamata. This

spirit is the one which is offering an open space for the local youth, a point

for meeting each other, for interacting, learning, cooperating, loving and

creating together.

EEverything happens in the Youth Centre is the result of the efforts of the

active citizens. Recently we fixed the floor of the dance class and this

wouldn’t be possible without the contribution of our friends and members!

The new floor was financed by the party we had in Speakeasy the last Feb-

ruary, by Athanasia and her face painting fund raising activity, the people

who donated money during the registrations and KANE organization which

for the last years is supporting this project with own funds and lot of vol-

untary work…

For all of you who are participating at the activities of the youth centre, is

obvious that the building needs more things to be fixed in order to be com-

plete and safe for all of us, so we will remind you that we are based also in

your contribution in volunteering or donations or efforts in order to find a

building for free… Don’t forget that the Youth Centre is a totally private,

non political, non religious organization, which is not receiving any funds

from any national or European organizations. Our target is, with the power

of the people and the of the people and the fantastic group of volunteers, to manage to make

the Youth Centre a self funded project.

That’s why this year we will have an open monthly meeting for all the vol-

unteers and our members in order to put on the table the new ideas, new

projects and new smiles!!! You are invited to join the first open meeting in

Friday 24th of November… be there!!!!

Filaretos Vourkos

... Youth Centre Is Open (page 4-5)

... Organic farm in Kalamata (page 6-7)

... interviews with interesting people (page 8-9)

... Introducing of new volunteers continues (page 10)

... upcoming events (page 11)

...EVS seminar in Athens for volunteers (page 12-15)

... EVS - what it is & how to do it (page 16-17)

On This Issue


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Youth Center is Open:


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What Has Happened


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The workshop - it is a place for the people to learn a lot of

things (how to play an instrument, learn languages), make cul-

tural exchange with other volunteer, and promote the values of

non formal education.

The Youth Center of Kalamata opens it’s door for a new season

with new workshops, like Swing dance, Islandika….

The registration was very intensive, during 1 month, around 800

people were registered in 26 workshops (Latin dance, French,

do it yourself, hip-hop ….).

The workshops started on the first week of October after 2 reg-

istration weeks.

In the beginning it is a little bit difficult, beacuse there are a lot

of people, in a small place. For example more than 140 people

for the first lesson of Latin dance, more than 100 for Spanish

lesson and approximately 70 people for French lessons.

After one week, in order to finish with the registration and to

make the workshops groups, all the workshops started the

second week of October in a good mood.

Now aNow all is ready for creating a shared space and welcome the

Kalamata citizens.

Enjoy!!!

by Loic

Farma Fifa Permaculture


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NO COMMERCE!

FFarma Fifa is like a little peaceful island separated from the messy, fast-moving capital-

ist world. Our goal is not money, profit or fame. I like to call it a Farm-Museum. We

don‘t have objective to grow as much as possible, we aren‘t sellers. We just want to

keep the variety of plants, create a visible example of an urban farm, which people (

kids, students, community excursions, etc ) could come and explore any time. We want

to spread „green ideas“, highlight the importance of agro-cultural mentality creation in

community, also, we‘re always open to discuss such issues as Kalamatas dump problem,

fforest fires, etc.

NO CHEMICALS!

It’s an organic farm, which means we do not use any fake fertilizers. Instead of them

we help vegetables to grow better using our Pure Love, Sincere Care and well, we add

some compost at the end too. Nevertheless, our compost is 100% natural, and we pre-

pare it ourselves. Farm is also responsible for composting boxes all over the Kalamata,

which is an important project for spreading environmental awareness and more ecologi-

cal way of living over the locals.

NO RULES!

Mother Nature has no codex, no concrete frames. Its faces and moods changes every

day, so successful collaboration can be created only through constant observation, as

well as some experimenting. Nature gives us a lot of hints: we plant vegetables accord-

ing to the moon calendar, collect seeds after noticing their colour change, arrange the

garden evaluating the movement of tree shadows, different soil condition, plants in-

ter-relations, etc. We might do mistakes, but that‘s just a part of learning process!

Labas!(: I‘m Ieva, 18 years old girl from Lithuania. I work on Environmental Aware-

ness & Natural Farming project. It takes place in Farma Fifa Permaculture, which is a

perfect place for a green minded nature kid like me. I have only one month working

experience so far, but I can already introduce you to three main things, which I ab-

solutely love about my project!


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InterviewWhat is your work in the Youth Center?

What do you teach? For who ?

- I'm a local volunteer and I teach the guitar

for children, teenagers and adults during the

workshops on Monday and on Wednesday.

- How did you know the Youth Center ?What do

yyou think about this place ?

- I get to know the Youth Center from my friends

and from the various events of the center. I think

it's an amazing place where different cultures can

meet and communicate with each other.

- How long have you played the guitar ?

- Since I - Since I was a child, I played the guitar for a long time but I have systematized my

studies the last 3 years. My teacher's name is Thodoris Panagopoulos and he is the

person who helped me a lot with the guitar and he is kind of mentor for me...

- What do you do now ? What do you study in Kalamata ?

- I study the guitar and theory of music.

- Do you like to teach, and why ?

- - Yes, I like it a lot, because I love offering my knowledge to other people especially

when we are talking about music. It's a really wonderful thing.

- Who are your favorite compositors ? What kind of music do you like ?

- There are many that are my favorites. Some of them are Leo Brower, Villa Lobos

etc. My favorite kind of music is rock, metal and classical music for guitar and in gen-

eral.

- What would you like to do in the future, what are your projects ?

- I want to be a solist guitarist. I know this is very hard but I will try to achieve this

goal.

Volunteer: Οδυσσεας Φωτοπουλος

Interviewer: Inés


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Interview1/ Who are you?

Hi ! My name is Inès, I’m 18 years old and I come from Vierzon, a small city in the center of

France. Actually, I’ve just finished my high school studies this year and I chose to do my EVS

in Kalamata.

2/ What is your project here, and how many months will you spend here?

IIn the Youth Center, I work in the info point and I am going to teach French and classical

guitar for children. I will stay here for 10 months, till August.

3/ Is it your first time in Greece?

Yes, I have never been in Greece before. That’s why I wanted to go to Kalamata;; in order to

know a new culture and a new way of life.

4/ What is the first thing you put in your luggage for coming here?

I put I put my sleeping bag because I would really like to travel in Greece, Thessaloniki, Athens,

Corfu…

5/ Tell me one thing you really don’t like in Greece, and one thing you really like.

Greek people drive so fast, I have to be careful at all moment! However, I like the rest. Here,

people are very friendly, welcoming, and you can talk with them easily. Besides, the life is

quite calm and I like it very much.

6/ Is there anything from your country you think you will miss during your project in Greece?

I mI may miss food like “croissant”, “pain au chocolat”, cheese, bread and our French newspa-

pers.

7/ Are you member of a Youth Center in your country?

No, I am not, but I have already done voluntary works. For

instance, I have been to Germany to do landart in a park for

children, and last summer I went to Italy where I was a

volunteer in a music festival organized by an alternative radio.

I met a lot of people from all over the world, so they were

great experiences.

8/ Tell me two important things that we have to know about you.

I need to sleep 10 hours per night;; otherwise I am angry or


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Volunteer: Inés

Interviewer: Manuela

Introducing of new volunteers


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continues

Hey!

My name is Hrafnhildur, but

you can call me Raven (like the bird) because that’s the meaning

of the first part of my name.

I come I come from Iceland. I’m 20 years

old and just graduated secondary

school. I will be staying here for

nine months and I already love

this town! I will be working in the

youth center and giving Icelandic

lessons.

I’m I’m very excited to learn about

Greek culture, Greek language

and experience new things.

Giasas!

My name is My name is Leonard Pristl, I come from a little city in central Germany called Bamberg where I

have passed the last three years of my life. Until my

15th year, though, I was living in Greece, in a little

village called Ag. Dimitrios, and for this reason I

speak really good Greek. As a volunteer, I will be

working in the KEKIKAmeA in Kalamata this year.

Now I am 18 Now I am 18 years old and I love going for skiing in

the winter, I love the white mountains and the

nature but I also fell in love with the sea and the

beaches here. I decided to come again to Greece to

make my EVS project becaused I missed the good

weather and the Greek lifestyle and because I like

to work with children.

Future Activities


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The youth center has been open for three weeks now and we already have an extra workshop, Swing and Rock & Roll, which is on Mondays. A lot of people have already registered and I personally can’t wait for it to start. Dorian, an EVS volunteer, has won competitions for his Rock & Roll dancing so he’ll be there showing off his talents, I urge you all to come and see. It’s almost No-vember and that means that the ‘Do it Yourself’ workshop vember and that means that the ‘Do it Yourself’ workshop is starting soon, I’m very excited to see how everything will look in that workshop. Our amazing Greek volunteer Athanasia will take care of that workshop which will be without a doubt really fun because our EVS volunteer, Irene who you all know for her Greek skills and awesome Spanish lessons, will also help from time to time. I can’t wait for this year to kick off with a really good start wait for this year to kick off with a really good start with these exciting workshops.

Hrafnhildur

Like all new EVS volunteers also this year's bunch working in Greece gathered in Athens to learn about and share the start of a volunteering experience. 43 volunteers from 18 different European countries spent six days exploring the various possibilities, aims and obstacles, that a youngster doing longterm EVS should be or is likely to get acquinted with. The four trainers responsible for the daily workshops made sure the learning process would not be another made sure the learning process would not be another boring school lesson. They instead prepared activities which kept us interested and alert throughout the day.

On-Arrival Seminar


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In Athens


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Apart from games, that took place at the hotel and were supposed to help us understand the purpose of European voluntary service and our role in it, they also presented us with some challenges, that were to be completed in the busy streets of Greece's capital. By interviewing Greek people, finding the old parlia-ment and figuring out how tall the guards are, we were getting accustomed with Greek culture and their were getting accustomed with Greek culture and their daily life, which would hopefully soon become a part of our life as well.

Although our timetable was filled with activities, we managed to find time for some touristic strolling and one or two ouzos at night's crowded squares. Our list of things to see and do in Athens is nevertheless still long. Luckily we're returning in a couple of months for our mid-term evaluation seminar. In the meantime we are hoping to make some trips and visit other vol-unteers, who are spread all around the mainland and unteers, who are spread all around the mainland and Greece's islands.

By Kaja

On-Arrival Seminar


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In Athens


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ARE YOU BETWEEN 18 AND 30

YEARS OLD? ARE YOU READY TO

HAVE AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE

ABROAD? Do you want to collaborate

with an organization in another coun-

try being helpful to other people and

developing your skills? THIS IS YOUR

MOMENT!MOMENT!

EUROPEAN VOLUNTARYSERVICE


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I am Spanish and I came here to Greece thanks to

a volunteer European programme for young

people, and YOU CAN DO THE SAME IN A FOR-

EIGN COUNTRY!! It’s not difficult, you can achieve

it in really easy steps… and I am sure it will change

your life!

So, to start, you need to have a look to the website

of YOUTH IN ACTION PROGRAMME (http://ec.eu-

ropa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/europe-

an-voluntary-service_en.htm) and search for a

project you could be interested in.

TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY NOW!! If not…WHEN??


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There are a lot of projects all around Europe and an easy example of them it’s my

sending organization in Spain: “ASOCIACIÓN INICIATIVA INTERNACIONAL JOVEN”

(http://www.info-europa.es/). This is an organization created by a group of young

people in 2003 after they had some experiences abroad. As a result of this, they de-

cided to help other local young people to have the same experiences they had and to

create this young space in Malaga, on the south of Spain (Andalucía) with a really

useful information point called “INFO-EUROPA”. Their more important aims are to

ppromote plans, programmes, and projects related to the youth which could help them

to improve their personal development as active citizens, increase the knowledge in

the young field and to contribute with the relationships between other countries of

Europe and also with countries in other parts of the world (they have an open project

with Guatemala). Right now, the organization is run by two members although they

carry out all the activities they promote thanks also to the help of local volunteers

and foreign volunteers coming from other countries of Europe who can be you! It’s

been mobeen more than 10 years they are working as a hosting organization receiving young

volunteers from Youth In Action programme to take part in projects of several

months ending in summer.

Last year eight volunteers from Belgium, Denmark, Bulgary, Lithuania, Estonia and

France went there to collaborate in a volunteer project and they shared their experienc-

es in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bSeKX-

qKTlc8&noredirect=1#!. The volunteers not only learn about Spanish culture, enjoy the

Spanish environment, and have contact with the community and young people of the

area, but they also take advantage of this wonderful experience to show their own cul-

ture to other people and to have a beautiful exchange of ideas, thoughts, experiences,

and knowledge that could change the view of the world and your personal and profes-

sional future for sure!

So... why not to do it now?? Europe is waiting for you!!

By Irene.


NOVEM-‐


NOVEM-‐

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publica-

tion [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


NOVEM-‐

Fotini

Filaretos

Maria

Panagiota

Dimitris

+ a+ all the other people

helping in any way creat-

ing this fanzine LINK

autumn edition

KENTRO NEON KALAMATAS L

INK

NOVEMBER

1st november 2012

LiNK


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link 28

Documents

youth centre of kalamata

kalamata page

open page

youth center of kalamata

local youth

new volunteers

new workshops

volunteers page