GloVo did it again! You did it again.
For a 3rd consecutive year, we celebrated the International Volunteer Day. But this time… wow! It was huge! Why? Because we also celebrated the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3.
Three days full of action, knowledge, fun, smiles and love. More than 200 volunteers joined as at The Cube Athens, the amazing place that hosts GloVo for the past months, and everyone added their piece in order to make it happen. After all, «Every Piece Counts», which was this year’s theme.
It all started on Wednesday, December 3, a day dedicated to Persons with Disabilities, which is steadily becoming our favorite part of the GloVo family. The GloVo.4All Team was shining bright and made sure we had a great time on our first day at Sparks, through the 3 actions and 1 educational session they organized.
1. Giving «voice» to an old Greek movie
Subtitling the first 10 minutes of the Greek movie «Kafetzou», which was made available to us by «Finos Films». Of course we promised to subtitle the rest of the film, too, and share it to the Greek Deaf Community.
2. Paths4All
Volunteers walked around Exarchia, witnessed and kept notes about the accessibility of stores in the area and tried to sensitize the citizens on the issue of making transportation for persons with disabilities easier.
3. Back to senses
A big team of volunteers participated in an interactive simulation and experienced how difficult performing everyday tasks can be, when you lose one of your senses (motor disability, hard of hearing, visual impairment).
«Read the signs»
Thaleia Kiousi gave us a good taste of the Greek sign language and we recorded translated sentences.
«A day with persons with disabilities»
Demonstration of all the ways of escorting persons with motor and sensory disabilities, with the help of Thaleia Kiousi.
Thursday was the educational day of Sparks. Six workshops and talks took place in total, covering various aspects, from body language, to street working and 3D printing.
1. Touchable Moments – Theodoros Deligiannis
A deep dive into 3D printing, presentation of 3D printer models and live demonstration on how we can create small objects through 3D printing.
2. Mind the mind – Ioanna Florou, Iro Fragkaki
Presentation of a number of mental disorders and interactive team activities in order to better understand them.
3. Music-kinetic Education – Fransesca Theodoroulaki
Through various games and excercices, volunteers learnt how important and useful music-kinetic education can be for the development of children.
4. The quiet secrets of body language – Pamela Caravas
How to use body language efficiently when you speak in front of a huge crowd, or attend a job interview, followed by the most common mistakes, do’s and dont’s.
5. Street working – Tasos Smetopoulos
A very interesting talk about people living in the streets, their needs and how street workers should approach them and communicate with them, in order to provide help. Best practices and most common mistakes were also discussed.
6. Yournetwork.job – Petros Bouchoris
How utilizing our personal network can help us achieve our personal goals. The job interview simulation was the icing on the cake!
Heading to the final day of «Sparks by GloVo», you could sense the enthusiasm from miles away. The International Volunteer Day was finally there and we were ready to make it count! 9 volunteer actions were successfully accomplished through the day, thus proving that when there is will, everything can happen in just 5 hours.
1. Once upon our turn
14 volunteers visited «Koinoniki Merimna Moschatou» elderly care facility again this year, decorated the whole place, baked 200 biscuits and handed out a special crossword, created by them.
2. Painting Smiles – Social center of the SOS Villages in Kypseli
A small group of volunteers helped out with the Christmas decorations, did preservation work for 12 wall paintings and created more than 40 Christmas cards and ornaments for the children of the SOS villages.
3. Painting Smiles – Chatzikonsta Foundation
The second part of «Painting Smiles» took place at the Chatzikonsta Foundation, where 16 volunteers split into 2 groups, one of which planted 50 pots with cyclamens, while the other carried out the Christmas decorations for the whole place.
4. Missing piece: warmth! Let’s create and give some
14 volunteer «artists» created 60 Christmas cards, which were handed out to the PRAKSIS Day center for homeless, accompanied by coupons for free hot drinks at the Thinking Cup cafe.
5. Spark the beach
11 volunteers were trained by MEDASSET and cleaned the beach of the Municipality of Faliro, collecting 10 big garbage bags.
6. Mission: Save the city from all the garbage
15 volunteers in cooperation with the Planet Agents and the Salvation Army created toys along with 45 children and received educational training on recycling.
7. Volunteers’ Top Chef
15 volunteers cooked 260 meals, from which 150 were offered, along with water, bread, apples, oranges and carrots to homeless people through «BOROUME» and in cooperation with «Plision».
8. Eyecycle
20 volunteers tried to ride 3 tandem bicycles with their eyes tied, in order to better understand the feeling of not being able to see.
9. Save the World in 5 hours
121 citizens answered 2 big questions to 20 of our volunteers at the Monastiraki Square: «What does Volunteerism mean to you?» and «How would you make the world better, if you only had 5 hours?»
As for the big finale? More than 50 volunteers wearing their red t-shirts, performed an amazing flashmob at the center of the Monastiraki Square, in front of lots of astonished passers-by.
However, the dancing didn’t stop there. Right after the flashmob, everyone headed to «Fabrica», where we all celebrated the great success of «Sparks», by throwing a great GloVo Party.
Until next time! 🙂