The people of EXELIXI ZOIS all share a common vision. A society that gives to all children equal opportunities for smooth development in their lives without injustice. The scientific team communicates, designs, implements and evaluates the programs, making its contribution to the achievement of the vision unquestionable.
The specialized staff consists of teachers, psychologists, psychotherapists, career counselors and social workers. Everyone works daily, so that the beneficiary children, adolescents and young adults living in the cooperating closed child protection structures can be provided with the qualifications and the appropriate influences which will shape and determine their course.
The people of the Organization are carriers of experiences, interactions and feedback information to be processed, which are utilized for the benefit of the beneficiary population. The special conditions of recent months have laid new foundations in the educational process and require more effort, flexibility and adaptation to new data. In this context, our scientific staff were asked to describe their daily experiences and challenges they have faced during distance education, while they were also asked to refer to the relationship they have developed with the beneficiaries and the experience of their cooperation with the EXELIXI ZOIS.
"I feel proud and excited working with " Exelixi Zois " because I am involved in reaching its high level goals and cultivating its vision to provide equal opportunities in education and psychosocial empowerment of children, adolescents and young adults in need. In terms of Vocational Guidance, I am glad to be given the opportunity to try to instill hope in the beneficiaries. Hope, that many professional paths are opened before them that they can choose to go through with their valuable companion and tireless supporter, the "EXELIXI ZOIS". Any challenges that exist due to the distance implementation of the Programs, are being overcome thanks to the high motivation of both professionals and beneficiaries to maintain the warm relationship that has been created among us. After all, as the famous philosopher and politician Machiavelli states: “Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great."”
Aristidis Lorentzos - Psychologist - Vocational Guidance Counselor (M.Sc.) & Psychosocial Empowerment
"Exelixi Zois, seeks to be a family for the children of the structures but is also a family for all of us who are part of its team. Good communication, human contact and collectivity dominate in the daily cooperation with the other team members. Everyone is motivated to develop as wide as possible the beneficiaries at all levels, and offer as open a perspective as possible. It is an environment where there is a lot of common space and coordination, and at the same time is open to the creativity and personal stigma of each of us.
For this population, educational activities as well as psychosocial support seem to function as a window to the outside world; as a transitional space between their hosting structure and autonomy.
In services whose focus and the most basic axis is communication and relationship, it is inevitable to face deficiency while operating in distance mode as no means can completely replace the face-to-face interpersonal contact. However, where there is prior cooperation and an established relationship there seem to be very few difficulties. Actually, it is important in this volatile situation that we all experience, the fact that there is a sense of sequence of interventions even by other means and ways. "
Sofia Papatheodorou - Psychologist - Coordinator of the Psychosocial Sector
"In every session I conduct with the beneficiaries of Exelixi Zois, I understand more and more the importance of this team and multidimensional project. For me, the importance of connecting and establishing healthy relationships of trust with teenagers stands behind new knowledge. The relationship that is born and built is not only an integral part of the learning process, but also of the whole formation of their personality.Every teenager is unique and once we connect and trust his uniqueness we will be able to co-create a better future than the past."
Elpida Marinou - Special Educator - Ed. Drama therapist
"My collaboration with Exelixi Zois started last September, and I am pleased about this, as the work offered by the Organization to the collaborating structures is very important and substantial. The approach of the beneficiary children regarding the educational and psychosocial part is not always easy and requires time and patience. But the beneficiaries show more and more that they want our presence and the help provided to them.
A great challenge for us, the teachers, is the fact that due to the pandemic the lessons are implemented from distance and in addition to the objective difficulties that must be overcome, there are also the difficulties related to the psychology and the social and emotional development of the beneficiaries.
So there comes the challenge for us as educators to keep the child's interest alive in order to achieve the educational process smoothly. However, in spite of all the difficulties that exist, the beneficiaries of the structures constantly express their joy that even under these conditions, Exelixi Zois and all its collaborators remain by their side, as companions and helpers in their daily efforts. "
Dilena Blana - Literature teacher
