Prosvasis
– How exactly was the Prosvasis initiative created?
– In October 2012, we were a group of students from the University of Patras, willing to challenge ourselves, and we decided to take part in a competition for innovation and entrepreneurship. We had noticed that people in wheelchairs abroad got out and about and were active in their everyday lives. That was the reason that we asked ourselves how many of our fellow compatriots there were in wheelchairs in Greece, and the percentage in relation to the population of the country. We were surprised to find out that the percentage of disabled people in Greece, compared to other countries abroad, was high. And unfortunately, we do not see these people in our cities because there is no infrastructure adapted for them. And I am not just referring to people in wheelchairs, but to all forms of disability concerning movement and diseases that make life harder. We started our research at the Hephaistos Sports Club at Patras, asking questions to people of our age—like where they go out for example—and they told us that there wasn’t a tool for them. So we decided to create a platform with accessible spots. We started compiling places in Patras and at the same time building the platform, talking to the users themselves, because we did not know what their needs were. What I say very often is that, basically, the product was created by them, we just added the technological dimension.
InterMedi@KT
– What does InterMedi@KT mean?
Gregory – Interactive Media Knowledge Transfer. The “at (@”) in our acronym underlines the digital way of transferring knowledge. One of the main pillars of our activities is our engagement with digital tools and skills and the transfer of knowledge through them. Any form of knowledge that can be simplified and shared for free with the public we have as a target group highly interests us.
Clio Muse
– Yiannis, what is Clio Muse?
– Clio Muse is a platform, through which distinguished professionals from the field of Arts and Culture have the opportunity to create a thematic tour. This component differentiates it from other tour applications, mainly because of the quality of its content and its diverse subject matter. We attach great importance to the content and the educational message that is communicated, so there is always a scenario behind a guided tour. Through Clio, people who have a specialized knowledge of a subject – whether through their professional status or through their hobbies – are being guided by us to build a product for the global tourism market. The topics cover a wide range, from historical and archaeological to gastronomic.
Library4all
– Eleni, how did Library4all start?
– For 32 years, I have been a kindergarten teacher at the Moraitis School in Athens, and many times parents used to come asking if I knew a school they could give books to that they did not need any more. So, in the summer of 2013, we, five friends, started thinking about doing something with these books. My cousin, who lives in the USA, during a conversation mentioned Susan Robbins, the founder of Project Cicero, an action that does something similar in New York, and suggested that we got in touch. Indeed, Susan responded immediately and gave us all the information and the know-how we needed. She collects books from private New York schools, once a year at a hotel where she is given some space. There is also some collaboration with Amazon, with a range of recommended books, from which you can choose if you want to offer books but you do not have yours. Once all the books are gathered, the teachers and kindergarten teachers of the underprivileged schools in New York make an appointment and go with their suitcases to get books. After learning about all of the above, we also decided we wanted to do a similar action, which we called bookwave. Because our brand name is Library4all, which means that we are accessible to all, we wanted to work with an entity that meets this specification. The Benaki Museum immediately embraced our efforts and gave us a room in its building in Piraeus Avenue. The Bodossaki Foundation was one of our first supporters, covering some of our expenses.
Dorothy Snot
– Mr Yiannoudis, this is the first time I have seen a conference like “Play on Early Education” in Greece.
– Indeed. We wanted to bring to Greece some outstanding keynote speakers, who for three days would show how play can be brought into pre-school education. Playing, as we perceive it, has certain features, but these are not negotiable. That is, play should not be directed by adults and should be spontaneous, starting with a need, which arises from the children themselves and with which, using various elements, they can create a whole new world. This kind of play helps children from a very young age to become strong, self-reliant and independent, and they learn to recognize their emotions, to advocate and become 6-7 year old citizens. Because we believe that this kind of play is very helpful in pre-school education, we wanted to give the general public the opportunity to get in touch with some of the best in their field so that we can give back to society. On the other hand, it is a step towards our long-term goal, which is the creation of a school abroad.
Wise Greece
– Melina, have you studied social entrepreneurship?
– No, my first studies were in philosophy and then I made a shift towards marketing and communications, and I worked in this sector for several years. It had little to do with social economy, I offered my help to many non-profit organizations, but I did not think this could be my next professional step. The truth is that I became conscious that what we intended to create was a social enterprise after 6 months of work on the project. I had no idea that this term even existed and when I read it in a book, I said “Eureka”, because I realized it was what I was doing.
The Bee Camp
– Aggelina, do you have any background, and you are working on the redefinition of the urban landscape?
Aggelina – My background is related to bees. It started in 2011 from a simple curiosity and it ended up with me taking my first beekeeping diploma at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (in Athens), where I did an intensive course. At that time, I was studying psychology, but I got excited about this lesson. What stimulated my interest the most was not only how they build their societies but also how they communicate with each other. So, from studying psychology, I decided to make a shift and become an animal behaviourist. I went to Scotland where I studied, I did research on the bees in Scotland, America and Spain, as well as taking part in some educational programmes at the University of the Aegean in Lesvos.
Liminal
– Christos, are you an actor?
Christos. – I’m an actor and a theatrologist, and I have always been involved in theatre in different ways, as an assistant director, performer and actor. With the theatrical group “Emis”—meaning “We” in English—to which I belong, we always try to open our work to as many people as possible. The performances we gave in Athens were with voluntary contributions and they went very well. This was in 2013, when the results of the crisis were beginning to be visible and it was the period when we were all in a (state of) depression and feeling frozen. Later, we started to go to prisons to present our work, and a workshop with the imprisoned women in Thebes emerged. There I felt how important it was for someone to be able to come to the theatre and I realized that whatever you do, it is good to reach out to more people than the usual theatregoer audience.
GIVMED
– Thanasis, what did you have in mind at the beginning of GIVMED?
– The idea came after a personal experience, when someone from my close environment passed away. We had a lot of medications left over and they definitely had to go somewhere and not just get thrown away. I remember my mother trying to donate them, something very difficult, because she could not find a way in Tripoli, where she lives, to get these meds to the people who needed them. Having this in my mind, I tried to create something that was also of a public benefit nature. Somehow I managed to, and I found the right people and we got started.