Recently AEGEE-Europe announced that Nicosia is a new shining contact of our Network. This progress is a very positive step for our AEGEE family.
The reason is – Nicosia is located in Cyprus. Most probably, most of you know that Cyprus is an Mediterranean island which has two communities: Greek and Turkish Cypriots. At the moment there is only one antenna, AEGEE-Mağusa, which is situated on the northern part of the island. Now AEGEE contact in Nicosia has been established in the southern part of the island.
The AEGEEan got in touch with Marios Efthymiou from Nicosia to learn more about them and their future plans.
How did you come to the idea of creating a contact of AEGEE in Nicosia?
I am also the president of another organisation who participated in a youth exchange. One of our partners was an AEGEE antenna and we started to speak about AEGEE. I liked the idea of the organisation and I was very surprised that there was not another one in Cyprus apart from AEGEE-Mağusa. As we have a lot of students in Cyprus I felt that AEGEE was needed to keep our students active and involved so I started the procedures to establish AEGEE-Nicosia.
What are your future plans connected to AEGEE in Nicosia?
I have many plans for AEGEE-Nicosia. I hope to unite the students of Cyprus through AEGEE-Nicosia with an abundance of events and activities that are both fun and informative. Of course we also plan to do projects of a more serious nature. We will be looking at two main themes over the next year, namely environmental issues and employment issues. For next year we have International Summer Weeks planned for participants all over the world and we are also hoping to have at least one Summer University. We are already in the process of applying as partners with other organisation in Europe and abroad for youth projects for 2013. We are also planning to undertake a bi-communal project.
Can you describe yourselves and tell us what is special about AEGEE contact in Nicosia so far?
I think the best word to describe us is “active”: we plan to be as active as possible in order to make changes in our community that are so desperately needed. We already have a good network of partners on an international level and with AEGEE we can do so much more.
How many people are there who started the contact?
There are five people who were active in setting up the future AEGEE-Nicosia but so many more eager future members who contributed in so many ways.
Do you plan to be upgraded during Agora Budapest?
If this is possible then yes, we will do everything in our power to go as far as we can with AEGEE-Nicosia.
What do you think about the cooperation with AEGEE-Mağusa in terms of any kind of projects?
I am very interested in this cooperation and as mentioned above I already have some ideas for bi-communal projects and it is our hope that we can be partners with AEGEE-Mağusa on these. It is organisations like ours that will pave the way for a better future for our people.
Written by Erman Berkay, AEGEE-Mağusa