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Fiore Poidevin from Belgium moved in Komotini and by learning new skills and knowledge will be in position to act for the favor of the local youth. |
EVS Project “YOUth Can Do it” is an EVS project taking place 20/10/2016 – 19/04/2017 in Komotini, Greece.In addition through inter-cultural activities Fiore will present her culture, and through daily life she will be integrated in the Greek society. “YOUth Can Do it” has also another meaning as promotes the youth mobility as a tool for the personal development and social change.
One of our project themes is inter-religious dialogue. Fiore’s individual task is to research on this peacefull coexistence and make a short documentary about that. Komotini, one of the largest cities of the region with a population constituted of 35% of Muslims, people live in peace side by side. Everything in the city seems to slowly follow its own course. Thus, Fiore is curious to find out what lies beneath this calm surface. What are the long-term effects of the treaty of Lausanne exemption on the Muslim community of Western Thrace? How do they feel about their current status and how does it define their identity? Do the Greek Muslims that remained in Western Thrace, as the Lausanne treaty allowed them to, feel discriminated by the policies and economical engagement taken by the Greek government still today? But also how do locals of Komotini feel about the current relations between Orthodox and Muslims? How do both communities perceive their common future in Western Thrace? Does this exemption from movement teach us anything about different religious and ethnic communities living together peacefully in Europe?
Fiore will investigate the long-term affects of Komotini’s community exemption from migration through a transcription of semi-structured qualitative interviews with members of the Greek Muslim community, locals of Komotini and scholars that specialised in this topic. Finally, she will make a report on the main effects of this exemption and summarise what this example can teach us about communities that have lived side by side for more than seven centuries. In these interviews Fiore wish to understand on the one hand how Greek Muslims perceive themselves, what constitutes their identity, and on the other if they feel discriminated or separated from the Greek Orthodox community and how they think the communities of the city could connect with one another better.
Follow the journey of our EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteer – Fiore Poidevin in video through the streets of Nafplion, Greece and in a real life for 6 months here in Komotini:
