Successful project conclusion in Greece
The last experience exchange led the participants in the time from 21.01 until 25.01.2019 to Athens, the capital of Greece. At the beginning of the exchange, the project partner and host organisation, the EEO Group S.A., Athens, organized a final project conference and informed the participants on the objectives and the achievements of the project as well as the planned activities within this exchange.
"Accessible Tourism - Paving the Way!" Is a program in Greece that aims to provide people with disabilities with a holiday and leisure activities which are specifically tailored to their needs. Mr Evangelos Koutsianopoulos presented the program and its activities in a partly interactive workshop. What it means not to be able to see and to blindly trust another person, in the truest sense of the word, was experienced in the "Tactual Museum - The Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece". The exhibits on display here are exact replicas of statues, vessels, sculptures and artefacts exhibited in other museums in Greece, but with the difference that in a Tactual Museum, touching is expressly desired. The museum in Athens is one of 4 to 5 of this kind in the world.
To help handicapped people travel to other parts of Greece, Mr. George Dimopoulos, operator of the “Himalaya Travel”, a travel Agency in Athens, has developed a tourist guide that covers all the tourist attractions, leisure activities and accommodations of 52 cities in Greece, which are completely barrier-free. In the subsequent discussions, participants found that there is no such guide in Latvia, the United Kingdom and Germany and only partially in the Czech Republic. The question arose for the "why?" In addition to whether it would be possible to create such a travel guide in the respective country or even across Europe.
Loud sirens, hectic running around by people and the confusion of voices, so began the visit to the "School Life and Education Museum". All just "exercise", but the beginning of a very interesting and emotional workshop. The participants were divided into two groups and were to put themselves in the position of a family fleeing their homeland. The long run in unknown terrain, the fear to be arrested or to find nothing to eat and drink. All these impressions have been tried to perform in a role-play. This is just one of many workshops the museum offers. The museum was built with the background of preserving the history of Greek education by preserving and researching the history of education and the schools. Among the collections of the Museum of School Life and Education are textbooks, archives and school materials from the period between the fourteenth, the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries. These come from all around the world, such as. E.g. from France, Germany, England, America, Russia, Turkey, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Israel, Peru, Japan, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Zaire, Korea. The exhibition of the museum offers visitors an insight into the educational history of Greece through school publications, school cards and educational materials.
Another station on the agenda was the Museum of Cycladic Art. A vibrant and attractive destination in the heart of Athens, it focuses on promoting the ancient cultures of the Aegean and Cyprus, with particular emphasis on the Cycladic art of the third millennium BC. The museum also offers workshops for people with health problems. Children and adolescents with physical handicaps create exhibits from the exhibition for other handicapped people. In this way it is possible, on the one hand, to carry out therapeutic measures with fun and games and, on the other hand, to make the exhibits accessible to other people. Apart from visiting two hotels in Athens, the "Athens Marriott Hotel" and the "Athens Tiare Hotel", which have special offers for guests with restrictions, a visit to the "Acropolis Museum" was on the agenda at the end of the week.
Deeply impressed by the offers for accessible tourism, the participants returned from Athens after five very informative, interesting and sometimes very emotional days.