Another distinction for Father Antonio of the Ark of the World – He won the European GENE Global Education Award

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The €10,000 GENE prize money is awarded to five of the EU’s most inspiring global education initiatives

His story, work and dedication Father Antonio has been more or less well-known to children for many years. Both he and his elder wife present a “cheque” of love, affection, and contribution to children on a daily basis.

A few days ago Father Antonios received an international recognition for his important work. Specifically, the Agricultural School of Volos of the Ark of the World won the European prize GENE Global Education Award of the Ark of the World 2020/202, for the innovative pedagogical therapeutic program of professional training.

It should be noted that the founder of the Ark of the World is the initiator of all the professional training programs that operate today in all the branches of the Ark of the World, in Pogoniani, Volos, Chios, Kalamata, where there are the corresponding facilities (cheese factory, apiary, orchard, winery , flour mill, greenhouse, herb garden, animal farm, olive mill, olive grove, stone mill, seed bank, pasta making workshop, traditional products making workshop, animal feed production workshop).

The GENE prize money, worth €10,000 each, is awarded to five of the EU’s most inspiring global education initiatives.

It should be pointed out that the money is intended for the support, improvement or expansion of their work, while these initiatives will not only be included in the collection of GENE awards but will also receive a certificate of excellence and recognition.

In summary, the Agricultural School program focuses on the training and then the livelihood after adulthood of the children hosted in the Ark of the World structures.

Who is Father Antonios Papanikolaou?

Priest Antonios Papanikolaou served as vicar at Agios Georgios Akadimias Platonos, in Kolonos. He began his priestly activity in 1998 in one of the most degraded areas at the time, in Colonos in Athens. The area is one of the most dangerous in Athens, as many gangs operate, while drugs are traded on almost every corner. From the first moment he settled in, he felt the need to react to what was happening around him.

He observed daily children who, while they should have been at school, frequented the streets or children who were members of high-risk groups, while they and their families were always in need. Little by little, he approached them through basketball and acceptance, humanly, trying to talk with them about their concerns, about their daily life, trying to talk to them as equals, without judging them and without admonishing them and above all to find a way to stand by their side and help them in their needs. Over time he gained their acceptance and gradually their trust.

As he says: “I sat down to listen to the children, I accepted them exactly as they are. I shared their house, the square and the field. Through sports and championships, their positive elements came out. When someone is as desperate as they are, what do you tell them? That Christ saves? He hears you».

In this struggle, always by his side is his companion and helper, his wife Stamatia Georgantis, with whom then, as now, they sacrifice and share the anxieties, difficulties and of course the satisfaction of the project.

Our goal is for the children to feel that there is another world, apart from the one they have known. Our only motivation is love and we rely on it».

The offer of the common people began after some time, since they met the young priest and realized his intentions. Local residents started coming one after the other and volunteering their services. Teachers began to come and give lessons to the children, local housewives began to bring things from their homes, food and clothing that their own families no longer needed.

The Ark of the World is an ark of love

Thus, with the help of volunteers, the Ark of the World was created, an Organization with the aim of lifting as many children as possible out of poverty and abandonment and offering them the possibility to “stand on their own two feet”.

As the population seeking help grew rapidly, Father Antonios, seeing the children and the needs growing, wanted to house the effort in a former coffee shop and began to create support programs, with the first goal of helping the older children of the area to return to school and complete their studies.

He remembers that he didn’t have a plan when he started, just one thing led to another. “We said we should have a cooked food in one corner and teach them letters in the other corner. Then the homeless came, we put up beds. Then we built baths for the children to wash and one thing led to another, things took their course, with one need giving birth to the next..»

The support, apart from the Greeks, but also the immigrants, was an important issue of concern for many citizens and institutions of the wider region, since many were those who argued that the efforts of the priest should be focused exclusively on the Greeks in need and not on the foreigners. “The embrace of the Ark accepts all those who need it, regardless of nationality and religion,” notes Father Antonios.

Despite the difficulties and adversities, Father Antonios never lost his optimism and his hope nor his commitment to the goal he had set, always finding ways to help as many children as possible.

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