5x How do you experience the pandemic? Aristofanis Kastritseas
How do young people from different countries cope with the pandemic? How does it affect their education and their work? What about flexibility and creativity and last but not least: what about involvement in policy making? In a series of 5 short video portraits young people pick up the camera to share their thoughts and experiences.
Aristofanis Kastritseas (19), a law student and a student volunteer at YouSmile, is the fifth to answer these questions. From his home town Athens in Greece he tells us how his life has changed because of COVID-19.
(The following words appear on screen: you, they, future generation, creative, education, work, COVID and Greece. Followed by: #1 Can you introduce yourself? A young man sits in front of a bookcase.)
UPBEAT MUSIC
Hello, my name is Aristofanis Kastritseas.
My first name actually comes from an ancient Greek comedian.
I'm nineteen years old, I am from Greece
and I am currently living in Athens with my parents and my sister.
I'm studying law virtually for now, as you may imagine,
due to the circumstances that we all live in right now.
(After the words 'COVID' and 'adapt', the following text appears: #2 How do you experience the pandemic?)
THE UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES
I couldn't keep up with my university studies very well.
It was hard for me with the lessons online.
Though a positive aspect is that I found time to do other things
that I couldn't do in the pre-COVID-19 period.
(After the words 'COVID' and 'access', the following text appears: #3 Challenges in work and education?)
THE UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES
Pretty much everyone has equal access to education here, in Greece.
Every student and every pupil.
Some people who do not have equal access to education are the refugees.
Another negative aspect, as concerns finding a job nowadays,
especially for young people,
is that the employers do not have the adequate amount of money to pay them.
Not only to pay them afterwards, but to hire them.
(After the words 'COVID' and 'skills', the following text appears: #4 What about flexibility and creativity?)
THE UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES
It is widely known that in the quarantine period
a lot of people had a psychological downfall
due to the hazardous conditions.
So, this is why the NGO where I'm a student volunteer,
which is called YouSmile, as I have mentioned,
decided to create, alongside the children and the moderators, small videos
that will probably be posted on Instagram and other social media platforms.
They could describe the good news of the day with some other hobbies
that children could easily do during the lockdown,
in order to keep up with something.
This is a great example from my youth environment
that I'm very proud of and admire.
(After the words 'COVID' and 'solutions', the following text appears: #5 Being better involved in policy making?)
THE UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES
YouSmile has created a team, the Children's Rights Team.
We meet with persons from each specific field,
and then we'll participate in congresses, et cetera.
And it's amazing. You can get your voice heard through that programme. It's amazing.
(The Youth at Heart logo above #youthatheart.)
THE UPBEAT MUSIC FADES AWAY
Watch the virtual forum on YouTube
Do you want to hear more stories from youth in Africa and the Middle-East? The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs organised the virtual forum Youth at Heart on 2 November 2020. Here young people from the Middle East and Africa discussed their experiences and thoughts about education, work and participation.
All sessions of the Youth at Heart virtual forum that was broadcasted on 2 November 2020, can be watched on our YouTube channel: Livestream 4 studio's on YouTube