Act together, stay united!
It has been seventeen years since the cercle of Friends of Paros has been created. At the beginning there were 11 people who loved the island and its inhabitants : 2 women and 9 men, 6 were born on the island, 2 others lived there permanently, 6 were living abroad. Our project could not have developed without the generosity and openness of the mayors and the Region. These few figures illustrate the project of our association: to co-operate with people from here and elsewhere to animate and nourish the public debate, then to act together for a sustainable and solidarity development that respects the cycladic nature of the island. At the same time our annual ceremonies valued actors who acted in a disinterested if not always voluntary way, for for the good of the island and its human community, thus developing a culture of the recognition of the other’s actions.
The dissemination of our debates, as the illustration of our actions, can been seen through our periodical, our website, social networks, with thousands and thousands of people. Their quality is appreciated more and more, while our approach is not commercial but associative and is based on the relatively modest contributions of our 150 members and supporters. At the beginning our activities were concentrated during the summer. They quickly became all-year round.
The cooperation between all the inhabitants of the island, whatever their origin, was therefore from the outset perceived as an asset, a strength. This cooperation has a two-fold dimension: on the one hand it is carried out with the inhabitants of the island, their associations, the local authorities, in short the civil society as it is shown, on the other, it concerns cooperation within the association itself, where progressively a collective cooperation logic prevailed, allowing to act together with more impact and in a more diversified way. It is this approach that we must today preserve and promote.
Georges Vlandas President FoP
Tassos Zacharas General Secretary FoP
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