MY FIRST WEEK EXPERIENCES IN PATRAS FOR HER PROJECT

Greetings to everyone from Patras, the 3rd largest city of Greece, where I have been for HER Project for about 1 week. The city I reached after a 3-hour bus ride from Athens has a very quiet life. The city, which stretches along the coastline with its horizontal architecture instead of high-rise buildings, is also a frequent destination for young people who make Interrail. We started our work within the scope of HER Project 1-2 days after we arrived in Patras. The aim of the project is to determine that women with immigrant status to how can continue their lives as in the countries they come from, to determine the level of skills of immigrant women in information and communication technologies and to help them with these skills. Because both me and my roommates who came here from Italy and Romania had to adapt to a new country while working within the scope of this project, and we had to have some knowledge about this subject, which was actually the first time the three of us were working. In this context, the task given to us for the first 10-15 days was to examine the studies on immigrant women’s employment needs, educational needs, health problems, problems in social participation and more. Of course, since there are reports about this subject, we actually had time to both work and explore the city. Since Patras is very hot at noon, a ghost town atmosphere prevails in the city especially at the noon hours. However, this situation changes very quickly after the sunset and the city is going to be like a festival sphere. Especially in the streets surrounding the city square, there are many cafes and it is almost impossible to find a place here in the evening. The city also has beautiful spots that can be seen from a historical point of view. Among them are Patras Castle and St. Andrews Church is coming, and as of the first week, I had the opportunity to visit these two historical places a few times, as they were within walking distance to the city center. Especially, the Saint Nicholas stairs that lead us to the Patras Castle and the view that welcomes you at the end of the stairs are fascinating. In addition, the Saint Andrews Church, the largest Orthodox church in Greece and the 3rd largest Byzantine-style church in the Balkans, is a very large and magnificent structure and one of the historical monuments to worth to visit for few times. This was my first week in Patras, which I came for HER Project, and I’m still excited for the coming weeks. I will continue to share this beautiful experience as much as I can for 8 weeks.

MERT KOÇ

Posted in Projects.

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