Ways to deal with the crisis

As everyone knows, there is a serious economical crisis going on in Greece. This has affected the lives of all Greek people, their working conditions, as well as the society itself. However, this does not prevent creative people from creating opportunities for the rest of the people. If someone searches the internet thoroughly, they can find plenty of activities that they can enjoy for free and others that could let them volunteer if they want in order to help people in need.

Let's start from the social centres. These are organisations ran by each Municipality. A great number of activities is held there, completely free for the participants, such as:

• Theatrical groups. Professional actors or directors are teaching and directing these groups, where people of all ages can join. In larger municipalities, there are several theatrical groups: one for children, another one for adolescents and a third one for adults -that also depends on the number of people that showed interest in joining those groups, there is a minimum limit of ten or so, which can differ from group to group. There is a class once, or sometimes twice a week, with theatre exercices and, gradually, text reading. Some months later, a text is chosen and the group starts working on it in order to present a theatrical performance, celebrate the end of classes and show the progress that has been made. This performance is usually held in a local conference room or a nearby theatre. In summer, those performances are usually held in a local square, out in the air. The performance is always free for the public and usually a number of two or three performances is scheduled. However, if many people show up to watch it, the municipality tries to book more days.

• Dance groups. There are various dance groups, depending on the availability of teachers and the interest of the public. The most common types I have ran into in Athens are latin dance groups and traditional dance groups. I should mention that it is also common that people that are not from Athens -usually the ones from Crete that always form large groups, but also people from the North of Greece or Pontos, form separate groups, alongside the Municipalities' ones and teach their traditional dances to the public. In this case, the teachers don't have to be professionals, but they do have to be passionate about dancing and teaching others how to dance. In the case of traditional dances, this is a great opportunity for participants to learn about the culture and traditions of various parts of Greece. Folk music and dances have a long history behind them and for someone to truly know what dancing is all about, the knowledge of this history is necessary.

• Foreign languages courses: there are volunteers who are glad to help and share their knowledge unconditionally. So, they decide to teach the foreign languages they speak, without being paid. The lessons held in the social centres are equivalent to those offerred by private language schools: there are students, eager to learn, and teachers, willing to help them as much as they can. Usually, there are classes of English, French, German and Spanish, but this varies from town to town and I have also heard about languages that are uncommon and quite hard to learn. For instance, a friend of mine is studying turkish in her local social centre. She told me that most people decided to learn turkish, because there are many popular tv series from Turkey that air here in Greece and made them want to understand the language the characters were speaking in the series.

• Drawing courses: this could be about children but there are often courses for adults as well. The children's courses are more similar to pre-school activities and are a good opportunity for the kid to spend some time of the afternoon doing something creative even if their parents cannot afford after-school activities. On the other hand, the adults' courses are a bit more “professional” and they include some history of the art for the theoretical part and some instructions on how to improve their drawing techniques for the more practical part.

• Seminars. There are various types of seminars in each social centre. I have heard about cooking seminars, computer seminars or even more specific ones, like an interior decoration seminar. One period of such seminars lasts from a week up to months, depending on each one's theme and the frequency in which each seminar is being held. In the end, there are certificates and there is no difference from any other seminar, despite the fact that it is offerred to the local people from the municipality. There is even a final exam for them to verify your knowledge and give you the certificate.

Apart from the social centres, though, volunteering now plays a great part in greek society. One can share their knowledge and special skills in order to help others learn things without having to spend money: teaching a foreign language, theatre, dance etc, as I mentioned above. Because, in case I didn't make it clear, the teachers for the basic courses are usually professionals, but for those specific classes they volunteer. There is also a social doctor's office, where patients can get prescriptions in case they need them. Apart from the professional doctors who volunteer there, there are also many everyday people who volunteer as secretaries in order to help people book their appointment. They are also responsible for gathering all the medicines that are given away to patients that cannot afford them. Those medicines are kind offerings of people who could afford them and bought them especially for this cause.

Moreover, during the past few years, many interesting ideas where made reality. Among them are some original ways to help reduce poverty. Outside every greek super-market, there are some special baskets where you can put something you shopped, offering it to those in need. It could be something really simple -it doesn't have to be a whole week's lunch, it could be just a packet of pasta or rice. If everyone puts something that simple -and cheap- to the basket, in the end of the day, less and less families will be hungry!

Moreover, there are some theatre plays that let people watch their general rehearsal without paying money. Instead of purchasing a ticket, people have to give away some can goods or a type of food that doesn't go bad too soon, like pasta and rice that I also mentioned above. There have even been concerts that use this special way in order to do charity. I remember going to a concert to celebrate the 25 year anniversary of a well-known radio station of Athens (Athens 98,4) and having to give away food instead of having to buy a ticket. Many greek artists supported this event and performed in Technopolis of Gkazi: Leon, Orestis Ntantos and Idra Kane. I have the best of memories of this night and I am glad that part of it was its good cause.

What I am trying to say through this entry is that the crisis has affected all of us here in Greece -but the people who were already in need, now need support from the rest of us even more in order to cope with their reality. The crisis has showed us that, even so, we can survive and we can succeed in being creative. We should make the best out of things that are given to us and try to give whatever we can too!