AUTHOR: MARIA CHRONOPOULOU | PHOTOGRAPHY: GEORGE STRAVOLEMOS
– 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.
– You are one of the first entities to support youth entrepreneurship.
Panagiotis – We saw that there was a gap. So far, the majority of young people have had one kind of entrepreneurship in their minds, and we have been interested as an NGO to show that there is something else—a different model of growth such as that of social entrepreneurship that has developed successfully abroad. In many of the workshops we hold with teams from universities, analysing social corporate responsibility and social entrepreneurship, many young people come and ask us more. It’s very interesting planting a seed in someone’s mind and watching it sprout.
G. – In recent years, Patras has become a major development and entrepreneurial centre and a strong player, apart from Athens and Thessaloniki. In our case, everything started with a big chatbox on Facebook among 4 people. I was in Australia at that time, because I had begun a course of study. We were talking about how we knew the field and that we had a trusted network with which we could work together, knowing the quality of their work. So we ended up (thinking) that if not now that we are in our 20s, then when? So in August 2012, I booked a one-way ticket to Greece, deciding with the others that we would do it and whatever will be, will be. We wanted to do it because it is something we love and we have ideas for how we can bring the best practices from abroad to Greece. Even today, when someone comes back from a trip, we gather in our office lounge to hear about what they have seen. In addition to the programmes we deal with, we also love travelling. And you see that bit by bit things start happening.
– As for “things happening”, what are you doing now?
G. – We are aiming at investment projects, which concern specific categories, by submitting project proposals based on Patras, where in many cases they are emerging throughout Greece. In the event that a proposal is funded, we will carry it out as partners, with the person who had this idea acting as project manager. In all the proposals we submit, there is always the common element of digital tools and the transfer of knowledge in an interactive way. Some of the European programmes we run are Erasmus +, Europe for Citizens, YES for Europe and COSME for proposals that cover a wide range of subjects—from autism to programming.
P. – One of the projects we are very proud of is the project “Accessible Paths”, carried out by the Prosvasis team and our collaborator Efi Daskalopoulou, which was given the award of “Models of Excellence” by the President of the Hellenic Republic, within the framework of the Pan-Hellenic Volunteering Competition. Something very interesting in relation to this initiative is that some entrepreneurs, on the occasion of this effort, embarked on the process of making accessible toilets in their stores, a fact that is greatly appreciated as a gesture. Perhaps someone has not thought of a problem, but if you express it, they may get into the process of change.
– If someone wants to submit a proposal, do they need to be a member of your team?
G. – They don’t have to be a member. We also don’t care so much about what someone has studied, as what they love to do. Because someone might have studied engineering, but maybe they are interested in graphic design.
P. – As an organisation, we belong to non-formal education, as defined by the EU guideline, and our objective is the development of soft skills, because there is a gap in this part of education. One of our goals is to give to young people the opportunity to do a seminar, to go abroad and acquire skills in the field that interests them. It is something we see from our own volunteers, how they are, before travelling through our programmes and (how they are) after they return. They really change and evolve. They flourish.
G. – We believe in the butterfly effect, according to which an infinitesimal change in the flow of events may lead to the dramatically different evolution of the history of a system.
– Which is the element that had a big impact on your own evolution?
P. – The people who are with us. Our volunteers, our partners, and the organisations we work with. Without them, we could not have achieved all of the things we have accomplished so far.
– Antonela, when did your involvement with InterMedi@KT start?
A. – I started out as a volunteer, I saw how InterMedi@KT worked and later I also wanted to submit a proposal on intercultural education. Back then, I was 22 years old and the truth is that sometimes many people are reluctant to trust such a young person, even if they theoretically support the youth. Nevertheless, they said, “Go ahead, we’re here, and we support you.” And then various things happened.
G. – One was that her proposal was given an award by the Youth and Lifelong Learning Foundation in the field of Youth, in connection with Education, and Antonela has made the most of this experience by doing a Master’s degree in Denmark, an internship at the UN offices in the US and travelling to Peru. In addition, she also forms part of the team for the Education and Research Programmes of our organisation, having taken the part of Youth and Volunteering. Similarly, Nikos, who started as a volunteer in the frame of YES Europe, has evolved as a leader of a sports programme.
– Do you think it is important to be given an opportunity?
P. – The 30% is the chance someone will give you, but the other 70% is how you handle it and what you are willing to do, according to your potential.
– If you imagine yourselves in the future, how would you associate the present with your future self?
P. – We were talking about this with Greg on a trip to Dublin. We were saying that we do not know how long InterMedi@KT will exist, or where we will be in the future, but that since the beginning we created it as an experiment. For me personally, what matters is the effort from the whole team that step by step achieves long-term goals. I would like to look back and have beautiful memories and feel that I have given something—however small—to the society of Patras and to all these young people I have met, either from Greece or from abroad.
– Thank you very much.
P. – Thank you for the invitation, it has been a very pleasant discussion.
– And for me it has been very nice meeting you!
