Objective
Our goal is to provide access to computers for the under privileged children of the Dendropotamos community in Thessaloniki, Greece, who -due to a variety of social and economic reasons - are isolated from the rest of the urban area and live under extremely deprived conditions.
Why It Matters To Me
-
Going to school is a fact of life for most kids. It
provides for a basic education, a social environment, and serves as the
starting point for a young person to get integrated into his/her community.
But it is not that simple for the kids of
Dendropotamos. The difficult conditions and lifestyle in the area deprived many
children of the joys school could bring.
-
It all changed when Father Athenogoras- in search, at
the time, for a mission in Africa- embarked on his own “mission” in
Dendropotamos.
I met him and the kids four years ago doing volunteer
work over my spring breaks. I was taken over by Father Athenagoras’ dedication
and the results of his work.
-
This experience has influenced my thinking and how
I look at life. His passion inspired me to try and make a more long-lasting
contribution to the Faros community. With the help of the Indie community, I
want to help set up a computer lab to serve as a “Window-to-the-World” for the
children of Dendropotamos.
What is Faros Tou Kosmou?
Faros Tou Kosmou , or the translated “Lighthouse of the
World” in English, is a non-profit
institution in Dendropotamos, Thessaloniki set up by the local church with the
purpose of offering a warm and secure family environment and to provide for the
needs of children and teenagers who are deprived of family care and do not
attend school. Faros Tou Kosmou plays a large role in the lives of many
children in the area, taking care of their personal development, food, shelter,
education and job rehabilitation.
One of the greatest problems in Dendropotamos is that the
area has a “trapping” effect on the individuals who live within it. There are
children who know very little about the Thessaloniki area surrounding them
(Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece, named for the sister of
Alexander the Great), and even less about the larger world around them. This
isolation and the lifestyle of their parents result in many of them not
attending school and, worse, getting involved in the various drug & crime
related activities that are quite prevalent in the area despite being good and
kind kids at heart.
My First Visit to Faros
The long awaited “Spring Break” had finally arrived in March
2012 of my freshman year in high school.
Severing passed traditions, I was not going to spend this spring break
with family. Instead, I was making my first trip to help out at Faros. I knew
that the children in Dendropotamos did not live in a typical Greek suburb,
however, I never imagined what I saw on Monday, March 5th,
2012. I had been to Thessaloniki many
times before, yet never knew that such a place existed there. Dendropotamos is
a slum, and considered to be one of the worst, if not the worst neighborhood in
all of Greece. Furthermore, it is one of Greece’s premier places to purchase
drugs, firearms, and heroine. That’s why the first ride into Dendropotamos is a
memory that has stayed particularly potent in my mind, despite iy occurring
over three years ago. The shelter itself, which is located underneath the
church, has seen better days, and was in drastic need of a renovated kitchen, technology
center and sleeping quarters.
Meeting Father Athenogoras
Father Athenagoras, a 38-year old priest, ex-basketball
player and former Greek Marine, founded the shelter in 2005. The shelter is involved with approximately
400 children. Father Athenagoras started
by doing some very basic things like going around in the neighborhood every
morning to wake up kids to go school. The shelter serves them breakfast, lunch
and dinner but most importantly gets involved with kids. Its volunteers try not
only to inspire the children to keep going to school but they also try to fill
the children’s day with various activities so they have the least amount of
time to be influenced by their surroundings challenged by crime and poverty.
More than 100 kids have daily meals at the shelter and spend a good part of
their day after school there. Of them about 15-20 kids live in the shelter as
they have no meaningful family or place to call home.
It is also important to note that he does not accept money
directly - this is what made the difference in my mind: it is easy to give
money to a cause as it makes your conscience “check your charity box” but it is
much harder and more fulfilling to roll up your sleeves and help yourself even
if it only involves deciding what contribution you will make in kind. While the
former is valuable, the latter is invaluable!
It was not hard for someone to see the huge effect that
Father Athenagoras has on this community. He is always enthusiastic and always
laughing--putting all his energy into helping the kids. His ambition is to help
some of the program’s early entrants make it to college so they can serve as
role models for the rest and, indeed, the first succeeded last year. Through
his commitment to education, he opens new horizons for the kids and enables
them to dream for themselves. This is at least as important as putting food on
the table for them. Father Athenagoras’
efforts seems to pay out despite the fact that his work has become a lot more
difficult due to the economic crisis in Greece over the last 5 years. Last year,
Faros’ kids represented Greece to the Lego Robotics Olympics in St Louis; two
other kids continued their education beyond high school to the equivalent of a
community college.
My Experience
On March 5th 2012, after getting over my initial
shock, I began to carve a role for myself. As soon as I got there, around nine
o’clock, I began helping a group of volunteers cook food for lunch and dinner.
Appropriately, the food is something that can be massed produced like
spaghetti, or lentil soup. Before the
children arrived from school, I cleaned.
Then, when the children returned from school around one o’clock – pour into
the cafeteria like a pack of hungry wolves assaulting a defenseless deer -- I
served and entertained the children with stories. Last of all, I played with
the kids and provided them some insight into those “strange American sports”
like baseball and football until it was time to depart.
Ever since then Faros has come to hold a special place in my
heart. I like to visit at least once, but usually twice a year, and the Faros
children have really come to welcome me and make me feel like part of the family.
Also my role there has expanded over the years as I have somewhat transitioned
from manual labor to tutoring English. The kids especially appreciate these
lessons, and to many I am the first “American” that they have ever met.
As my involvement continued, two things in particular caught
my attention. Although I tried to give them a perspective of the world outside
of Dendropotamos, I realized that my contributions were only limited to the
week or two that I was actually there. While any manual labor, kitchen work,
cleaning or tutoring I did hopefully was helpful; I wanted to make a
contribution that would make a much more significant and long-lasting effect on
the lives of the Faros children.
Our Goal
That’s why with the help of the IndieGoGo community I want to
try to give to the kids a tool, computers, that would open a new “window” in their
daily lives. Today, more than ever in the past, children are fascinated with
technology. The kids in Dendropotamos are no exception, yet they often get
little to no access to any meaningful time with technology. There are roughly four
desktops to be shared amongst the 150 kids that visit Faros daily, and to be
frank they are somewhat obsolete. Access
to a computer can open the door to numerous opportunities for the children to
get connected with the world around them. A computer can not only serve as a very
powerful educational tool but also serve as a source of entertainment. The sheer
capabilities of the Internet enable users to explore vast amounts of
information on practically whatever topic interests them.
With the funds that I
target to raise, we will be able to, hopefully, buy 4-6 desktop computers and a printer in order to
create a real computer lab. I would be extremely grateful for any type
of contribution, and with your help we can make the children in the Faros
community feel more like normal kids.
