Friday, 7th August to Sunday, 9th August 2009, Prespes, Greece

Balkan Amfiktionia – Association of Young people of Balkan Countries made the following announcement:

Project title: InterBalkan Youth Meeting.

Dates: 7-9 August 2009.

Venue/Country: Prespes, Region of Florina, Northern Greece, Greece.

The First Inter-Balkan Meeting of Young People of Balkan Countries includes: Prespes Declaration, Conclusion of Youth Cooperation of Balkans, Development of Youth Interbalkan Network, Meeting of common cultural points of Balkan people, Approach of Young People through the Intercultural Dialogue and Intercultural learning activities, Participation in cultural activities such as the “Balkan Symposium” where all the Balkan Countries will present their culture, society, local traditions that characterizes each Balkan Country.

Partner Countries: All the Balkan Countries as Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, FYROM, Albania, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece.

Total 11 countries

Participants: 2 persons per Country, representatives of Youth Organizations, Institutions, Universities, Associations and Youth Clubs.

Age Group: 18 – 60.

Accommodation & food: 100% will be covered by Municipality of Prespes and Balkan Amfiktionia – Association of Young People of Balkan Countries.

Travel costs: Will be covered by the participants themselves or their organizations.

Local Transportation: 100% will be covered by Municipality of Prespes and Balkan Amfiktionia – Association of Young People of Balkan Countries.

Aris and I, as representatives of United Societies of Balkan (U.S.B. NGO) participated in this first Interbalkan Youth Meeting of Balkan Amfiktionia.

- There were supposed to be participants from all Balkan countries, but there weren’t. The vast majority of the participants are living in Athens.

- There were supposed to be representatives of youth organizations, but that was only the case for the Turkish participants.

- There were supposed to, there were supposed to …

I WOULD SADLY SAY THAT YOUTH MEETINGS SHOULDN’T BE ORGANIZED JUST TO FULFILL A PERSON’S AMBITIONS.

Thankfully, all people in Prespes were more than great to us. Visiting the region, we had the chance to:

- visit the Information Centre at Pyles & Ag. Germanos, speak with Amalia, Alexandra, Christina, Pavlos & Vasilis from the Prespa National Park Management Body,

- have a guided tour around the area, visit the Prespa Information Centre and a chance to speak with Kaiti from the Society for the Protection of Prespa (info: http://www.spp.gr/),

- discuss with Eli from the Cultural Triangle of Prespa (info: http://www.ctp.gr/).

The Pelecan is everywhere…alive

or as a symbol:

Society for the Protection of Prespa (info: http://www.spp.gr/)

Prespa Park Coordination Committee (info: http://www.prespapark.org/)

Prespa National Park Management Body

Wednesday, 22 July to Friday, 31 July 2009 / Olympos Karpathos / Greece

Summer volunteer work program 2009

in Northern Karpathos & Saria Island.

Accepting the invitation from the Management Agency of Karpathos & Saria (http://www.fdkarpathos.gr/)*, we both organized a summer program for volunteers that worked in the pathways, cleaned beaches and organized on their own games in the afternoon for the children in the Management Agency Office in Diafani. For 8 days (22/7 – 31/7) the volunteers [Aspasia, Katerina, Maria, Alexandros, Giannis, George and Manos] worked for the pathways in Xyloskala, Papamina and Axordea and helped cleaning Alimouda, Palatia, Tristomo and Brykounta beach. We were lucky to witness a traditional wedding (26/7) and visit Saint Panteleimonas' celebrations (28/7). Girls where dressed in traditional costumes with the precious help of Mrs Anna Nioti. Many thanks to Yiannis V. Hatzivassilis for giving us - once more - the opportunity to learn more about Olympos tradition through a visit to the museum (http://www.hatzivasili.gr). Many thanks to my colleague Victoria and of course to George and Ntinos, all workers of the Management Agency.

* (Management Agency of the Northern Karpathos, Saria and the surrounding marine area / NATURA 2000 Network – code GR4210003)

All photos are a courtesy of Alexandros Pertsinidis

Saturday, 18 July 2009

Challenge Europe, a three-year project that aspires to make a definite and lasting impact on the climate change debate, and is ambitious in its aim to accelerate change to a low carbon future (more info: http://www.britishcouncil.org/greece-science-challenge-europe.htm). Honored to have successfully, after selection process, become a Climate Change Advocate of the British Council in Greece.

Programme presentation at Ethnos Newspaper (18/07/2009)