Tag Archives: Dali

by | May 11, 2012 · 1:24 pm

PPI-CY Holds End of the Year Tournament

140 Cypriot children participated in the End-of-Year Basketball Tournament

This past Saturday PPI-CY celebrated the completion of a great year by organizing its End-of-the-Year Basketball Tournament. The tournament hosted over 140 Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot children from PPI-CY teams across Cyprus. Youth ages 11 to 16 gathered at Poliproponitirio Gymnasium in Nicosia to play basketball in an inclusive and fun-filled environment to celebrate the completion of another year of bicommunal activity and sport interaction. Boys and girls from 10 different cities and villages across Cyprus (Kalosi, Larnaca, Kiti, Dali, Engomi, Nicosia, Kyrenia, Lapithos/Lapta, Lysi/Akdogan and Trikomo/Iskele) came together to play 3-on-3 basketball in mixed teams, listen to music, enjoy food and special activities together.

For Greek-Cypriot Alexi (left), and Turkish-Cypriot Omac (right), this was their 5th tournament together

Tournaments are a great way to promote the sport of basketball and bring out a message that cooperation and collaboration through sport is possible by encouraging Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot youth to interact with each other. Saturday’s tournament was one of the biggest and best PPI-CY has ever had, and included a mixture of ages and experience levels. For some of the kids, this was their fifth PeacePlayers tournament they have attended, for others it was their first. This created an amazing environment where experienced children could lead by example, helping to break down social divides and create a comfortable playing atmosphere for the newer children.

Despite a delay at buffer zone, all Turkish-Cypriot children were able to participate in the day’s festivities.

But the morning did not go without incident. While the Turkish-Cypriot children were attempting to cross the buffer zone to get to the gym, border police stopped them and made each of the 75 children go through the checkpoint one by one, requiring not just their IDs, but the IDs of both parents as well. While this information is supposed to be stored in a computer, for some reason that day it was lost, and the police even threatened to hold back several children who had crossed many times before. But the PPI-CY coaches and children showed great patience, working with the police, getting each parent on the phone to relay the correct info, and even though it took nearly 1.5 hours, every child was able to cross. When the Turkish-Cypriot children finally arrived at the gym, the Greek-Cypriot children cheered and welcomed them, and as the basketballs began flying the morning hassle was quickly forgotten.

Eating food is an important part of every PPI-CY basketball tournament

While the morning experience is not ideal, the result turned out to be alright thanks to the leadership and experience of the PPI-CY coaches who made sure no child was left behind. This experience also shows the challenges PPI-CY faces every year in order to bring the two sides together, but it is a challenge worth taking. With PPI-CY’s ultimate goal to create real long lasting friendships between the children of the two ethnically divided communities, this tournament was a great step in the right direction. The next opportunity for these kids to meet will be the PPI-CY 6-day overnight summer camp in July. It is our hope that the camp will help take the hundreds of new relationships formed through twinnings and tournaments this year and solidify them.

To see all the photos from this tournament and more, check out the PPI-CY Facebook Group here.

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by | May 4, 2012 · 1:39 pm

PPI-CY Holds Final Twinning of the Year

The group made up of Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot children celebrate the Twinning at Ledra Palace.

Last Saturday PeacePlayers-Cyprus held a special celebration at Ledra Palace while holding the last twinning of the year.  Starting in January of this year PPI-CY began partnering with the United Nations to hold bicommunal basketball games that we call ‘twinnings’ inside Ledra Palace in the UN controlled buffer zone. Twinnings are a chance for children to come play basketball together under the supervision of their coaches, build friendships and learn about peace. During twinnings Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot children are put together on the same teams so they have a chance to play with each other. The UN has supported PPI-CY’s mission by providing buses, food and an outdoor basketball court where the children from both communities can play.

“This year PeacePlayers has brought together over 200 young people from both communities to play basketball and develop friendships. Our Bicommunal Celebration on April 28 will give others the opportunity to see what we have been doing to promote peace in our island.” said Marina Vasilara, PeacePlayers – Cyprus Managing Director.

One pair of bicommunal children completes a teambuilding activity.

On Saturday morning 40 boys and girls from both the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities from PeacePlayers’ teams in Dali and Lysi/Akdogan came together at the basketball courts inside Ledra Palace in the Buffer Zone in Nicosia to celebrate the completion of this year’s twinnings. PPI-CY also invited its local board of directors, parents from the two communities, other local NGOs. New EU Representative to Cyprus, Mr. Giorgos Markopouliotis, also came by to show his support for PPI-CY. Several newspapers came as well to take pictures and write about the day’s activities.

The day was a great opportunity for some important people to see first hand how PPI-CY makes an impact in Cyprus. The kids had a great time too, playing long competitive matches on a beautiful April day. The same kids will have one more opportunity to play with each other this Saturday for the End of the Year Tournament, which will bring over 150 children from PPI-CY teams all across Cyprus for one giant in door 3 on 3 tournament.

To see more photos from both events, make sure to visit the PPI-CY Facebook Group!

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by | March 16, 2012 · 1:10 pm

PPI-CY Holds Twinning While Teenagers Celebrate Peace

The headline in today’s Cyprus Mail reads: “Turning the wall of pain to a bridge of forgiveness.” The article is about an event tomorrow where over 100 teenagers from both the Greek-Cypriot and the Turkish-Cypriot communities will stand together in the village of Dali, where PPI-CY has one of its teams, to remember the past and bring hope to the future. The group of youth plans to stand together in a circle in the center of town, exactly where the east-west and north-south axes of Cyprus meet, while a Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot whose fathers were lost during the 1974 war will together place flowers in the middle of the circle. There will then be a moment of silence to remember and reflect upon everything that has been lost by both sides due to the conflict.

The event is being organized by the non-profit organization the Cyprus Friendship Program (CFP) who PPI-CY has partnered with in the past. In addition to holding events, the CFP also sends Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot youth in pairs to live together with a family in the USA for a summer. This program has been considered very successful in the past, and the CFP is currently considering a former PPI-CY participant as one of the applicants to go to the USA this summer.

“If you share with us the belief that we have all suffered enough, that it is important to forgive each other and that we need to acknowledge each other’s pain in order to celebrate our togetherness, then take some flowers and meet us at the centre of Cyprus,” – CFP

At the same time this is going on in Dali, PPI-CY will be holding its second twinning with the girls teams from Kiti and Lapithos/Lapta. This first twinning was held on January 28, and now 6 weeks later, the girls will have a chance to meet each other again, reinforcing the opportunity for real friendships across the cultural divide. In addition, we have set up a special Facebook group, just for the girls of Kiti and Lapithos/Lapta where they can communicate easier when they are apart. Our goal is to go beyond one day interactions, but rather to try to create real long lasting friendships between the girls, friendships that can bring hope for peace not just to the kids, but to their families, communities and society as a whole.

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by | February 24, 2012 · 5:13 pm

PPI-CY Amps up its Bicommunal Programming

PPI-CY Coordinator Thanasis with one team of Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots at Saturday's Twinning

This past Saturday PPI-CY held its second twinning of the year, pairing a Greek-Cypriot team from Kiti with a Turkish-Cypriot team from Chetinkaya in Nicosia. There were a total of 25 boys in attendance who were all meeting each other for the very first time. For most of the boys, it was their first time ever meeting any child from the ‘other’ community.

The day started well as children from both communities crossed their checkpoints and walked into the historical Ledra Palace. Ledra Palace, a hotel that used to be one of the most extravagant hotels in the island, is now used as a barracks for the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces. At the beginning of this year they signed an agreement to allow PPI-CY to house all of its bicommunal twinnings at a basketball court in the back of the palace. This is very significant as it is the only opportunity for children in the two communities to come together and play basketball in a neutral area.

PPI-CY was again fortunate to have the Chief of Civil Affairs of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), Sunaina Lowe, attend the event with us. Sunaina also attended the first twinning at Ledra Palace in January. It is great to see her support and the support from the United Nations for the work PeacePlayers is doing.

We are all looking forward to our next twinning, which will be on Saturday February 25 between the kids of Lysi/Akdogan and Dali. As always you can see all the pictures from PPI-CY events at the PeacePlayers International – Cyprus Facebook Group.

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