On this Issue:

L o c a l L i f e

C u r r e n t A f f a i r s

E n t e r t a i n m e n t

E x t e r n a l N e w s

• Editorial

• New program

• Μικρές Αγγελίες

• Interviews with EVS &

local volunteers

• Vasilopita party

• Week In Athens

• Icland and the crisis

• Bullying (violence) in

Portuguese schools

• Teddy’s Diary - Work in Youth Centre L

NK

Nr.

34

‘Spring’ edition

1ST Of MArCh 2013

Managing Editor: Sandra CoelhoEditor: Taaniel Stoitsev

Staff members of KANE:filaretos Vourkosfotini ArapiGeorgia GiannakeaAntzela Lenakaki

Volunteers:Bjartur SteingrímssonDiana DiasDorian AgnelGianluca BarbinIeva MedinyteInes Dupont MiaultIrene Pena herranzJelena ScepanovicKaja NapotnikLeonard PristlLoic MarchandManuela GasconMarisa CarvalhoSandra CoelhoTaaniel Stoitsev

Contact us:K.A.NE., Social Youth DevelopmentYouth Centre of KalamataPlateia Othonos 10Kalamata24100Greece

e-mail: evstaaniel@gmail.com; info@ngokane.orgurl: http://www.kentroneon.wordpress.com http://www.ngokane.org (not working at a moment)facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/kentroneon

I I I I I I I I I I I IIII I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

Volunteers:Bjartur SteingrímssonDiana DiasDorian AgnelGianluca BarbinIeva MedinyteInes Dupont MiaultIrene Pena herranzJelena ScepanovicKaja NapotnikLeonard PristlLoic MarchandManuela GasconMarisa CarvalhoSandra CoelhoTaaniel Stoitsev

Carnival is coming and as every year many nice and funny activities are

taking place in several places around Greece. It is always a nice opportu-nity to take a small step out of reality, get dressed as you wouldn’t dare to do in your everyday life and have fun with friends, relatives or even people you meet for first time. 

This year the Youth Centre of Kalama-ta will participate in many of these ac-tivities. We will celebrate with children the morning of Tsiknopempti and with barbecue the evening. We will be the “Demonic made Angels” at Kalamata’s Carnival and we will visit Nedousa to attend the strange but traditional mix-ture of pagan and Christian celebration of “marriage” which is the outcome of many influences through the aeons, cel-ebrating love... with the Dionysian way! 

Carnival is also an opportunity to for-get the problems and leave a bit be-hind your responsibilities and do what-ever you want! Is it? Can we really do this in a period that everything around us is collapsing? Well... yes and no. Yes

because although the problems we are facing we have to have fun. Anyway it is in the DNA of Greeks to dance when everything goes wrong. And such we’ll do... On the other hand we need to be conscious that many of our friends, rel-atives, neighbors will have so big prob-lems that it will be impossible for them to celebrate or even smile. for that rea-son we should not forget our responsi-bility as active citizens. 

This year we can wear simple costumes or to make the costumes ourselves. The money we will save we can donate them to an organization which is facing the outcomes of the crisis, or to make a gift directly to someone we know... Spend a little less time for celebration and offer your extra time to help some people in need. 

I think that’s all for now... have a nice month and we will meet at the activities of the Youth Centre! Also don’t forget that at 15th of March the celebrations for the 4 years of the Youth Centre of Kalamata will start with many nice sur-prises... to be announced soon!!!

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

Editorial [by filaretos]

L o c a l L i f e

Program of Youth Centre (2013 March) [in English]

Program of Youth Centre (2013 March) [in English]

L o c a l L i f e

future Activities

What: TsiknopemptiWhen: 7th of March Where: Youth Center of KalamataAt Thursday 7th of March we will have a barbeque party at the roof of Youth Centre. You are couraged to bring some meat with you or just help on buying meat by giving 3-5€ to support buying things for this event!

What: Kalamata’s carnival-paradeWhen:17th of March from 16.00 o’clockWhere: Aristomenos StreetYou are welcomed to take part of every activity of the carnival - like tresure hunt (from 7th to 17th of March), what means that teams have to find the tresures in Kalamata that will be hidden by the carnival committee!And the carnival parade that will take part in Aristomenous street with our group of youth center together with other teams with lots of fun!

More info during Youth Centre’s opening hours from monday to thursday 17:00 to 22:00 (participating in the team requiers specific costume)You can see most of the costums at Pneymatiko Kentro and take an idea about it! To registrate & more info call 6970223386 George housenbelli!

Youth Centre’s announcements:

* MEDICINEWe support the Social Solidarity Clinic of Kalamata and we invite the members of the Youth Centre to bring from Monday to Thursday between 17:00 and 22:00 any medi-cine that they do not need anymore.You can also deliver them directly to the Social Solidarity Clinic of Kalamata if it is more convenient for you, which is located near the old hospital of the city of Kalamata.

* BICYCLESDo You happen to have a bike that You don’t use it anymore or is standing in a base-ment etc. and You don’t need it, then don’t let it get rusty without use & please bring it to Youth Centre - we have many volunteers who would kindly appreciate it! (Seriously, think about it and let us know, it doesn’t have to be perfect, just bike that is possible to bike with!!!)

* ChAIrSStrange as it may sound, the Youth Center is in need of chairs! As everything gets older by using it a lot, the chairs in the Youth Center keep breaking down once in a while and our dear volunteers have to move chairs from 1st floor to 2nd & vice versa all day long, in order to accomodate the different workshop. The workshops need chairs for the participants to sit & we don’t have enough to make the volunteer’s life easyer.

<<Μικρές Αγγελίες>> is periodical heading appearing on every LiNK, that delivers help requests conserning Youth Centre.

It is also avaliable for other advertisements & announcements, just let Us know during Youth Centre opening hours or writee-mail: evstaaniel@gmail.com.

Μικρές Αγγελίες

L o c a l L i f e

Near to the awesome poster anouncing the Dance Party

of last week, you may have noticed another poster, representing Teddy Bear hidding his face. In fact, our favorite bear was inviting you to the Vassilopita Party, at Speakeasy Bar, on saturday 16th of february.

Baking Vassilopita or Saint Basile’s “cake” is a new year’s tradition in Greece. January 1st (yes we were a little bit late) is the feast day of Saint Basile, a fourth century bish-op known for his generosity to the poor. St. Basile would try to help the needy by anonymously hidding gold coins in cakes that were deliv-ered to the poor. The tradition of hidding a coin into the Vassilopita remains today.

And a lot of people heard about the Vassilopita Party! Speakeasy was full really quickly of people of all the generations. Before peo-ple came, Sergios Kaisaris, who owns a bakery in Messini, gave us the two bigger chocolate cake I’ve ever seen, thanks a lot to him. After a few hours drinking

sangria and dancing with Loics’ fan-tastic playlist (yes, behind the bar, under this awfull hair, it was Loic), filaretos took the microphone and cut the Vassilopita.

We all noticed that Giwrgos, the happy winner of the Party, had to eat almost half of the cake to finally find the coin!

We would really like to thank Nikos, the owner of Speakeasy

bar for offering us the bar for the party and also the profit

from the night for the support of the Youth Centre, the bak-

ery «Sergios Kaisaris » in Messini for offering us this wonderful

Vassilopita and, of course, all the friends and members of the

Youth Centre that were there to celebrate with us 

Vassilopita PartyBy: Alice & Fotini

By: Alice & Fotini

L o c a l L i f e InterviewsEVS Volunteer IntervIewer: Sandra

IntervIewee: alIce

Hi Alice! WHere do you come from And WHy did you come to KAlA-mAtA for eVS?- I’m from france, Toulouse (in the south). When I did the first meeting to apply to EVS I was told that a girl had canceled her project in Kalamata and that they had to replace her. And fortunately it was to work with children, and that was what I was searching for. I wanted to do EVS because I was fed up with searching for an interesting job, and I wanted to do something for me, something useful for an association. I also wanted to abroad again, because I like to travel and to dis-cover new cultures.

Where did you travel before and what were you doing?I traveled three times to Central America. I was helping friends to build a house in the mountains and then I was just travelling to discover new places and new people. Then I also learned to work with amber and to make jewelry. I also trav-eled East, to Bulgaria and Slovenia, visiting a friend who was doing EVS. That was how I knew about EVS.

What did you study in France?I studied Literature and also Science of Educa-tion. Then I was having internet lessons about childhood and working with babies and chil-dren.

And what will be your project here in Kalamata?I work in the horseriding school, with chil-dren with disabilities. I will also work in K.E.K.Y.K.AmeA although I am still not sure what I will be doing.

InterviewsLocal Volunteer

for firSt, preSent A little bit yourSelf. your nAmeS, HoW old Are you. WHAt did you Study, WHAt Are you doing noW in KAlAmAtA?We are Sylvia Moeffer and ralf Moeffer. We have 54 and 55 years old. We studied accountant and insurance. In Kalamata we are teaching Germany.

HoW doeS Volunteering Affect your life?Good question. We think that it is very good to volunteer; it’s fantastic to give your free time to help the community with social problems. By volunteering, people offer their energy and transmit it to others.

HoW And WHen did you KnoW About youtH center?We knew about the Youth Center in No-vember 2012 through a Polish girl who told us about languages courses, and we thought why not! Now we teach German in the Youth Center and also learn Greek.

WHen did you become A Volunteer?We are volunteers in Kalamata’s Youth Cen-tre since the beginning of December 2012.

WHAt do you tHinK About youtH center? Yes we love this place, it’s very good and has social perspectives, what is fantastic, like the free courses. In general we like here

Interviewer: MarisaInterviewees: SylvIa Moeffer and ralf Moeffer

The 4th of March will be last for ralf & Silvia in Youth Centre teaching German. We want to say big ThANK YOU to both of you behalf of Youth Centre of Kalamata!

C u r r e n t A f f a i r s

During the week of february 18, you may have noticed that the Youth Cen-ter was quite empty, certainly because half of the volunteers got sick, but

also because some of us were in Athens for the mid-term seminar of our EVS.

So, Manuela, Gianluca, Ieva, Taaniel and I stayed with 40 other volunteers from different projects in all around Greece for one week. We lived next to Omonia square and did activities linked with EVS.

for instance, we promoted this program in the streets, in universities, metro etc, we also discussed in small groups about our own project (achievements, support, challenges, disappointments etc.) and what we learnt in a creative way such as creating a short play inspired by the texts of homer. Seminar also gave us brief information about future opportunities after our EVS project that is, to say, about LLP projects (Leornardo, Erasmus, Grundtvig, ...) and some training courses.

(continues)->

Week in athensBy: Ines

C u r r e n t A f f a i r s

Well, the best part was definitely to visit Athens, and meet nice people around the world. It was also interesting experience to observe demostra-tions in the city centre with huge crowed of people everywhere. On our spare time we managed to go out to explore Exarhia, Sintagma, the Na-tional Gallery of Art and to reach the top of the Mount Lycabettus.

We are all looking forward to come back to Athens - to the amazing city to explore capital of Greece and for sure to meet other foreigner volun-teers doing EVS there ...

E x t e r n a l N e w s

My name is Bjartur and when I

tell people I’m from Iceland

I usually get a pretty funny reaction.

It usually involves something about

Bjork, Sigur ros, polar Bears or vol-

canoes. That’s because people usually

don’t know much about Iceland. To be

fair it’s a little understandable, we are a

bit far away, and quite rare. But maybe

I can inform you a little bit.

Iceland is a isolated island nation of

320.000 people in the North Atlantic.

Although culturally European, it is geo-

graphically situated somewhere right

between America and Europe. With a

history spanning over a 1000 years, it

actually lost its sovereignty in the Mid-

dle Ages and remained a Danish col-

ony till 1944 after a long struggle for

independence. for the majority of its

history and well into the 20th century,

Iceland was one of the poorest places in

Europe and its culture still reflects that.

In the second of half of the 20th centu-

ry through fishing exports, foreign aid

and in later years a growing financial,

tourism and service sector – it became

one of the richest (relatively speaking,

of course) and most developed nations

in the world. Iceland’s hard fought in-

dependence and subsequent rapid

economical growth and development

struck a chord with the deeply nation-

alistic identity of the nation which still

remembered its glorified golden past of

autonomy, democracy and rich viking

chieftains bringing glory and plunder

to its shores.

But excess pride and recklessness is

never a good thing, and in 2008 fol-

lowing the economical crisis Iceland’s

newfound glory and pride came crash-

ing down on its people. The oversized

Icelandic banking sector (growing as

Iceland and the crisisBy: Bjartur

Iceland and the crisis

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4xb5YVooeOk/TUYcDATyaoI/AAAAAAAAC8E/b0aTstDKbmw/

E x t e r n a l N e w s

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4xb5YVooeOk/TUYcDATyaoI/AAAAAAAAC8E/b0aTstDKbmw/

much as 1000% in 10 years!) completely collapsed and brought the country itself

close to bankruptcy. Iceland’s people now faced a devalued currency, multiplied

foreign loans and perhaps most importantly a wounded pride and shattered self

image. The little country that could wasn’t invincible after all. But after the bank

crash the Icelandic people voted into office its first leftist government in close

to 30 years and has slowly but surely been making its way out of the crisis. Eco-

nomic growth was attained in 2011, unemployment and inflation are down to

low levels and the Icelandic state recently won an important judicial case against

the European Union regarding the repayment of money that foreign investors

held in Icelandic banks. While the Icelandic people are disillusioned with many

things political, they are not showing outright signs of rebellion or great social

unrest. Iceland is not part of the European Union and the Icelandic people have

historically been opposed to it, an opinion more widespread after the crisis if

anything due to the perceived mistreatment of Iceland by certain EU countries.

Iceland still has to face that without joining the EU it will have to struggle with

its unstable currency and the problems that come with it.

An observant reader will probably have noticed many similarities between the

countries of Iceland and Greece, both in its history and current social situation,

and many disparities as well. It is one of the reasons why I, an Icelandic person,

wanted to come to Greece to learn more about the current situation here and

bring some of that knowledge back home. I hope it will be a mutual exchange of

information, as I believe the two countries could learn and gain a lot from each

other.

E x t e r n a l N e w s

Every 3rd friday of November & last friday of february there takes place the International STAND UP to Bullying Day. This is the reason we

have an article about bullying in this edition of LiNK.

Bullying is a systematic process of intimidation by a child against another who is unable to defend himself. There are various types of bullying: phys-ical, verbal or psychological violence, among others.

What often leads to the practice of violent behavior is the context in which children are included, such as the family background. If there is violence at home, the child will repeat it in school. Children are like sponges: they suck everything they see.

My experience on this subject happened between October 2010 and May 2011, as a final course project. I went to a public school of Basic Education in the Lisbon area, in which there was a high rate of violence, reason why I choose this project.

This project was carried out in a class of 5th grade (children between 10 and 11 years old), where I was doing activities about the theme, with the main objective to call their attention to the theme and to change any vio-lent behavior they had.

In my opinion, the project was successful in achieving the objectives, but in changing the behavior of children it was not enough because the time was very limited. More time was needed to achieve behavioral changes. But it was a good project and I liked it, it allowed me to put my knowledge into practice and to begin to develop my professional profile.

By: MarisaBullying (violence) in Portuguese schools

Bullying (violence) in Portuguese schools

http://lagcast.com.br/lgc/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bullying-oque-e-causas-como-evitar.jpg

http://www.yukon-news.com/news_images/2012/october/31/LIfEbullying.jpg

E n t e r t a i n m e n t

Article by Sandra

You may think I am always on vacations, having fun around Europe, but that is not

true. I also work hard in the Youth Center of Kalamata! In the mornings, I come in to the office to deal with very important stuff: to co-ordinate the activities in the Center, to man-age all workers and volunteers and to have very important Skype meetings!

Teddy’s diary (Back in Youth Centre)

Teddy’s diary (Back in Youth Centre)

In such lovely days like last week, I also en-joy a small break in the sun, to relax and re-gain energies, because all work and no play makes Teddy a dull bear… here I usually think about my incredible trips to france and Spain and I am actually starting to plan a new trip (seriously??) to Montenegro!

E n t e r t a i n m e n t

Teddy’s diary (Back in Youth Centre)

In the afternoon, I like to improve my language skills (it is important when you travel so much). In the Youth Center I can choose between Ital-ian, Spanish, french, German, Estonian, Lithua-nian, Portuguese, Serbian or Sign Language! In this picture I was having my Italian lesson with Gianluca, the Italian volunteer. he tells me I am almost ready to go to Italy… Molto bene, Teddy!

Teddy’s diary (Back in Youth Centre)

After the lesson, I go down to meet all the bears who hang out at the Youth Center and I enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate with them. In the Café you can have coffee, tea, hot chocolate and sometimes, if there is a birthday, the vol-unteers let me eat cake!! It is also a good op-portunity to practice other languages, as there are always international volunteers in the Café. In this picture I am asking for Jelenas’ house keys, for my vacations in Montenegro!

E n t e r t a i n m e n t

Teddy’s diary (Back in Youth Centre)

I like to help the volunteers in the Info Point. There we can give people information about all courses and workshops in the Center, the weekly schedule and updates on extra activi-ties like parties (YEAh!). We also provide in-formation about European mobility programs abroad: do you want to study, work or vol-unteer abroad? Come to meet me in the Info Point!

Teddy’s diary (Back in Youth Centre)

By the end of the day, I must relax from all the stress. Nothing better than going for a Yoga Lesson late in the afternoon! howev-er, I have just started last week and I find it very hard to balance on my feet alone. They say it will get better with time, if I just con-centrate! Tomorrow is another hard work day, so I will go home to rest… See you bears soon!!

Wh

o We A

re

Hi everybody!My name is Angela, I am 24 and I come from Cre-ta. Some words about me: I hate sports, I love meeting new people and at this period of my life I am really interested in searching the mean-ing of life - if by chance you find it, please con-tact me. This year I am working with the volun-teers of the Youth Cen-ter and coordinating its projects and activities.

WhoWe

Dorian Agnel / 21 / Work-ing as a volunteer in horseriding school with children with disabilities and teach French and Swing dance in youth centre / My project start-ed in September 2012 and will last 1 year

Kaja Napotnik / 22 / Slo-venia / likes long walks, reading, dancing, volun-teering and eating choco-late / volunteer at Farma Fifa on the project “Natu-ral farming and environ-mental awarness” / from October 2012 to August 2013

Loic MARCHAND / 27 / French / likes penguin, origami, Turkish movies and the waffles / volunteer in K.A.NE. Youth Centre from September 2012 to September 2013 >>

Coucou, my name is Inès, I’m 18 years old and I’m French. I like music, cin-ema, Kokostavros and playing ukulele. Since Oc-tober, I work in the Youth Center where I’m teach-ing french and guitar for children.I will come back to France at the beggining of Au-gust, so I’m looking for-ward to summertime in Kalamata.

Ieva Medinytė / 19 / Lithuania / interests: nature, learning, ex-ploring (places, people, myself) / Volunteer at Farma Fifa (Αγρόκτημα Φοίφα): helping with daily farm maintenance and supporting ongo-ing projects (permacul-ture education, re:think, etc.) / September 2012 – June 2013

Are

Taaniel Stoitšev / 20 / Estonian / likes nature, different music, mean-ingful conversations and enjoys biking / volun-teer in K.A.NE. Youth Centre with e-structures - publishing of magazine LINK, evsgreece.com website,… from Septem-ber 2012 to September 2013

Hello to everyone!My name is Georgia. I am 24 years old and I live in Kalamata. I spent the last 5 years in Ath-ens doing my Bache-lor in Management and Business Administration and the last year in the Netherlands continuing my studies for a Mas-ter’s degree. I am glad to be back to Kalamata after all those years, es-pecially since I am a new member of “K.A.NE.”. I am happy to be part of this organization

I’m Bjartur and I’m a 20 year old guy from Iceland.I’m an EVS volunteer and I will be working at the youth center in Ka-lamata for the next 7 months. I’m very interested in Greek culture and history as well as politics and social change. If you have any questions about the frozen north feel free to ask me!

Hi, my name is Marisa Carvalho/ vol-unteer of Program Leonardo Da Vinci/ 23 years old/ Portuguese.I studied Science of Education and School AdministrationW Some words about me: I like music, cinema, reading, meeting new peo-ple.

Diana Dias / 23 / Portu-gal / I am a volunteer at Farma Foifa with Ieva and Kaja and I’m glad to be in Kalamata again! ;)

Wh

o W

e A

re

Leonard Pristl / 18 / 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 work in ΚΕΦΙΑΠ Μεσσηνίας from January 2013 to January 2014 as a EVS volunteer.

Filaretos Vourkos / Last 7 years I am working in the field of non formal educa-tion as a volunteer, youth worker and youth trainer. 4 years ago, I decided to create the Youth Centre of Kalamata, in order to initiate the youth work in Kalamata and promote active citizenship as fac-tor of change.

Hi my name is Fotini Ara-pi and I am project man-ager at K.A.NE. organi-sation. I started working here in September 2011 and fell in love with the Youth Centre, its dynamic and most of all its incred-ible team of foreign and local volunteers! See you around :-D

WhoWe

Hi! I’m TeddyBear! I know I look younger than I am ;) I like to hug peo-ple around Youth Center and also I enjoy to work in a office after all peo-ple have left! I’m a magic teddybear :) Most of the time I just look around the Youth Center and ba-sically am as cute as I am!! I don’t remember when my “project” start-ed, but I hope to be here at least as long as I al-ready have:)

Gianluca Barbin / 28 / Italian / likes reading narrative and sociologi-cal book, running, watch movies, use the bicycle, draw and paint, make manual works and mag-ic tricks / volunteer in Κεντρο Ημερας for the children with autism and in K.A.NE. Youth Centre for the italian lessons, from October 2012 to April 2013

Jelena Scepanovic / 27 / Montene-gro / volunteer in K.A.NE. Youth Cen-tre from November 2012 to November 2013

Are

Manuela Gascon / 23 years old / France / I like music, volley-ball, wine, cinema, laughing, long nights with my friends, eating watermelons / vol-unteer in the Youth Cen-ter – organization and communication of Miden Festival / From Septem-ber 2012 to August 2013 :)

My name is Irene, I am 27 years old and I am coming from Spain. I studied Classical Phi-lology and one of my dreams was to come to Greece, so here I am! I work at the Youth Center of Kalamata, I am Span-ish teacher and I also help with the general or-ganization of the Youth Center and its activities and events. My project started in September 2012 and I will be here until September 2013!

Hi everybody, I’m Alice, I am 25 and I come from Toulouse, in the south of France. I studied sciences of educa-tion and I work as an animator with children.I enjoy travelling. I arrived in Kala-mata a week ago, and I’ll stay since august. I will work for the horse rid-ing project and for KEKYKAmeA.

Sandra Coelho / 27 / Portugal / likes alternative media, photography, freuds’ dream interpretation, playing guitar, camping, travelling and dis-covering natures’ magic creations. Working as Leonardo Da Vinci intern at K.A.NE. Youth Center from Febru-ary to April 2013.

Diana Dias / 23 / Portu-gal / I am a volunteer at Farma Foifa with Ieva and Kaja and I’m glad to be in Kalamata again! ;)

The volunteers responsible for this publication are hosted in Greece in the framework of the European Youth in Action pro-gramme, Action 2- European Voluntary Service.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commis-sion. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the au-thor, anvd the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Thank You for Your Time!nexT issue will be launching

on 15Th of march!if You have anY recommenda-Tion concerning link, please don’T hesiTaTe To leT us know

[evsTaaniel@gmail.com]!enjoY ..

The volunteers responsible for this publication are hosted in Greece in the framework of the European Youth in Action pro-gramme, Action 2- European Voluntary Service.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commis-sion. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the au-thor, anvd the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Thank You for Your Time!nexT issue will be launching

on 15Th of march!if You have anY recommenda-Tion concerning link, please don’T hesiTaTe To leT us know

[evsTaaniel@gmail.com]!enjoY ..