A special event that brought smiles to dozens of refugee children was organized by the “Synyparxis” of the Church of Greece and the AEK Basketball team.
This morning a delegation of the “Queen” visited the Shelter for Unaccompanied Minor Refugees of AMKE “SYNYPARXIS”, in Aspropyrgos. The “Union” was welcomed to the Shelter by the President of the Management Committee of the Organization, Rev. Metropolitan of Iliou, Acharnes and Petroupolis Mr. Athenagoras, and the General Director Archimandrite Father Panteleimon Papasynefakis.
Athletes, coaches and executives of AEK BC, led by the president Mr. Makis Angelopoulos, had the opportunity to meet the children and get to know the work of the Church in this area.
In recognition of the important work carried out by the Church of Greece through SYNYPARXIS, the basketball coach Ilias Kanzouris offered the Most Reverend Metropolitan of Iliou, Acharnes and Petroupolis, Mr. Athenagoras, a basketball while the basketball player Dimitris Mavroidis presented the team jersey to the General Director of SYNYPARXIS , Archimandrite Father Panteleimon Papasynnefakis. Responding, the Honorable president offered everyone souvenirs and children’s drawings, while on behalf of AEK, an important group of sponsors such as Kostilata Springs, Tzelalis Group, Nature Valley, Veto, Pappas Elevators, Vivechrom, Avis and Pizza Fun, had prepared a series of surprises for the children. The children themselves, expressing their joy for today’s event, offered a drawing they drew themselves to the president of AEK.
On behalf of AEK, its president, Mrs. Angelopoulos, congratulated the children for the “strength they hide within” and “Synyparxis” for the important work it carries out. He added that vocational training scholarships will be organized for the children of the shelters, while he invited the children to attend future AEK matches, as was the case before the coronavirus.
In their short speeches, the Metropolitan of Iliou emphasized the importance of the visit of the members of AEK to the children and thanked the visitors who attended today’s event. Father Panteleimonas Papasynefakis, for his part, warmly thanked Mr. Angelopoulos, underlining that AEK is a group created by refugees just like the children who live in the shelters of the Church.
Afterwards, they all headed to the Aspropyrgos Indoor Gym “Georgios Tsokas”, where the mayor of Aspropyrgos, Mr. Nikolaos Meletiou, along with his colleagues and students from local schools, were waiting for them.
The coexistence of children from the local community and refugee children demonstrated their harmonious integration into the new reality in the last 2.5 years, a fact that was also underlined by the mayor of Aspropyrgos who expressed his joy for today’s celebration. Mr. Mavroidis and Mr. Kantzouris now being in the appropriate place, took advantage of the opportunity and spoke to the children about the value of acceptance, cooperation and sports in our lives. The event ended with AEK BC and SYNYPARXIS renewing their decision to continue similar actions in the future, which everyone is looking forward to.
