This summer I took part in a remarkable event, a summer school for refugees living in Greece.
The summer school “Beyond the Refugee Crisis – Studying in Europe” was held in Olympia on 18-28 August and was a unique opportunity for Greek university students and young refugees to come together. The initiative was supported by Sia Anagnostopoulou, Greek Deputy Minister for Education, in partnership with the European Council and with the support of the Faculty of Philosophy of Athens University, http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9047-2016-INIT/en/pdf .
The location of the summer school made a symbolic point about the importance of peace. The summer school took place in Olympia, where the Olympic Games were held in ancient times and for which any ongoing wars were halted. Even the dates of the event coincided with this year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where for the first time asylum-seekers and refugees were represented by a team of refugee Olympic athletes.
The courses, which were held at the International Olympic Academy, were attended by 29 students, aged between 18 and 30, from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Mali and Greece.
The courses were led by tutors sent by the European Council, who held sessions on human rights and citizenship, and by lecturers from Greek universities, who volunteered their services to hold courses on the Greek and English languages, European history and culture and, in honour of the venue, even sports lessons.
We did three sessions in English and had the chance to talk about themselves, their studies and their ambitions and dreams.
You can see the video from the news of the National TV ERT1 from 35.00 to 38.00, and my comment 36.28-36.58, HERE .
You can also have a look at the article written by Roberto Morea who attended the closing ceremony at http://www.transform-network.net/blog/blog-2016/news/detail/Blog/beyond-the-refugee-crisis-studying-in-europe.html
