This is a coop­er­a­tion pro­gramme between Loud and the sports club Aetoi Thes­sa­loni­ki, which is being imple­ment­ed since 2021 in kinder­gartens, pri­ma­ry schools and high schools in North­ern Greece.

More specif­i­cal­ly, Eleft­he­ria Kas­tri­na­ki (sports assis­tant of the Par­a­lympic sport of boc­cia) and George Topouzis (boc­cia ath­lete and wheel­chair user) run work­shops at schools about peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties in our coun­try and their every­day life. Stu­dents are giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to express any ques­tions they may have on dis­abil­i­ty issues and to get to know the every­day life of these peo­ple through the expe­ri­ence of George. Then, a pre­sen­ta­tion of the Par­a­lympic sport of boc­cia fol­lows and the stu­dents have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to play — both as ath­letes and as sports assis­tants — in this sport, using the spe­cial equip­ment.

As a group, we believe it is impor­tant to raise aware­ness of dis­abil­i­ty issues among young peo­ple. We know that the only way to stop peo­ple from look­ing indis­crim­i­nate­ly at peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties on the street, is for the two worlds to come togeth­er. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, we live in a coun­try where acces­si­bil­i­ty is still very lim­it­ed and as a result, peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties remain con­fined to their homes. It is there­fore impor­tant to build a next gen­er­a­tion audi­ence that knows the right way to com­mu­ni­cate with peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, what it means to be sup­port­ive to my fel­low human beings, to facil­i­tate equal access to those who lack it and to elim­i­nate the stig­ma of dis­abil­i­ty and the stig­ma of the vol­un­teer helper-Good Samar­i­tan. We believe that par­i­ty. acces­si­bil­i­ty and equal oppor­tu­ni­ties in a soci­ety should be things that go with­out say­ing and as long as they are not, there is still a need for peo­ple to speak out loud about it.