Charity across the island: A reach out to Deryneia!
On the 1st of July, 2015, the Andrey & Julia Dashin’s Foundation visited the B’ Primary School in Deryneia to witness the progress of renovations works of the main children’s play room, which the Foundation kindly offered to support.
Near the end of 2014, the school’s Parents’ Association, approached the Foundation with a request to help them with fixing up the main children’s room, which was then just an open-air space veranda, into a proper and safe recreational area for the children!
During the cold winter season the children need a proper room, with insulated floors, windows and of course electricity and heating, to pass their time before the afternoon classes or even gather for an assembly. Despite the fact that public education in Cyprus is free, most of the time, local schools are dependent on the parents’ own initiative for any constructive development to take place. However, during these difficult economic times, many parents may struggle to offer funding for such invaluable but costly endeavors. Consequently, the Andrey & Julia Dashin’s Foundation decided that it shall offer its help and support for this project, especially since the new school season is just a couple of months away.
Deryneia is a large village near Paralimni, and the B’ Primary School is located literally only meters away from the ‘ghost town’ of Famagusta. The nearby buffer zone and the empty city, so easily visible from the school’s main entrance, serve a live history lesson to the little pupils – a reminder of the past and a cautionary tale for the future.
The renovation works started in the beginning of June 2015 and are due to complete by the end of July. Overall, the Foundation has kindly offered a healthy amount of 6,115 Euro for fixtures & fittings for the room’s renovation. Today the Foundation met with the school’s Parents’ Association members to take a small tour of the school’s premises and ‘inspect’ the works in progress. Beginning of July – the room is already looking brighter, but there is still much to be done. We have visited the carpenter and chose the new flooring, as well as the curtain store and discussed the best possible design together with the Parents’ Association. Next, the parents gave the Foundation a short tour of the village with its beautiful one-of-a-kind museums, the village square and, of course, a tour from afar of the ‘ghost town’ from the closest view point. Spectacular it was indeed!
The school shall welcome back its pupils on September the 14th, 2015, with the new room up and running. An open-day event is scheduled for October, where the Foundation shall once again visit the hospitable village of Deryneia to witness the renovated room which will hopefully welcome dozens of happy smiles!
For the day’s tour we cordially thank Mrs Andri Ailioti, Mr Christos Nicolaou, Mr Stelios Vardakis and Mr Nikos Lilis, for their time and volunteer work.