Philip Duzdabanian
Ecogenia’s Team Leader- Chania 2025
Philip Duzdabanian, Team Leader of Ecogenia’s 2025 service project in Chania and 2022 Dorida service project alum, shares an update from the field, his reflections as a returning cohort member and team leader as well as his hopes for the upcoming weeks of the project.
Dear readers, collaborators, sponsors, donors and friends,
As we pass the halfway point of the current cohort member service project, this provides a great opportunity to reflect on the progress made thus far in the past month. This applies both for the growth of our Cohort Members (CMs) and the children receiving this atypical education through the Local Green Heroes program. The majority of school teachers and students alike are brimming with joy and enthusiasm for the activities they engage in, and the theoretical information they learn along the way.
The CMs have familiarised themselves with the educational material, and developed their own style of teaching to best suit the students they interact with on a weekly basis. Some of the younger children are so enthusiastic that they run to and hug their CM educators to greet them… a sight that pulls on your heart-strings!
It was always a plan of mine to participate in another Ecogenia program as this is an organization whose values align with my own. The goals for what they want to achieve in Greece are admirable, ambitious and I want to work with the team who are not just colleagues, but whom I consider friends, achieve these goals for the betterment of Greek society. The 2025 “Local Green Heroes” program in Chania, coincided perfectly with the timing for me to write a thesis on assessing children’s connectedness to nature for my MSc degree in Sustainable Development at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. While my initial plan was just to apply for the role of Cohort Member, the team at Ecogenia urged me I apply for the “new” role of Team Leader which would better suit my skill set and enable me to be of direct assistance to Eleni Antoniadou and Stefanos Papadosifos in coordinating the program and managing the Cohort Members on the ground. I obviously could not ignore this suggestion, both for the purpose of which role would suit me best, but also enabling me to develop existing skills in addition to learning new ones.
Having been a Cohort Member during Ecogenia’s very first program in Dorida back in 2022, I can also draw some comparisons as to how I have witnessed the organisation evolving over the last three years. First and foremost, pre-planning and organization of the programmes has noticeably improved, which can be attributed to the team now having multiple years of experience organising service projects and other various programs (Dorida, Litochoro, Chania and even a few European projects, one of which I participated in as an alumni called YEUF, the Youth Empowerment Universal Franchise.
Additionally, the onboarding training of Cohort Members has improved in being more extensive and thorough, both in the theoretical and practical aspects taught. Furthermore, the addition of the Team Leader role in these projects is a substantial aid for the management team, having someone who ensures Cohort Member duties are properly carried out, helps with reporting, and most importantly bridges the gap between the management team and the Cohort Members. On the flipside, the TL position offers an opportunity for CM alumni to develop their leadership skills and learn to take on further responsibilities.
However, we still have a full month left to go in this program with plenty of exciting material to teach, and some special upcoming events planned! A glimpse into the schedule of the following weeks includes the following:
Week 5
Facilitating of the Climate Fresk game, teaching the students about the sources of environmental pollution, the mechanisms through which these affect the climate, and the consequences these alterations will have on the climate, the environment, and people across the globe. This puzzle game requires the students to collaborate and discuss in order to connect the pieces (illustrated cards) for the causes and effects of human activities. This will help convey more complex scientific knowledge in a simple and interactive way. For example, how the burning of fossil fuels causes ocean acidification, which leads to the disruption of the shell and skeletal development of shellfish in marine ecosystems.
Week 6:
The CMs will go with each class for a walk around the respective school’s neighborhood, during which the students need to observe their surroundings and consider things that could be improved (eg: infrastructure/ sidewalks). Subsequently,upon returning to the classroom, they will be tasked with drawing a map of the school’s neighborhood, locating landmarks (eg: parks/ churches) and other noteworthy features (intersections/ bakeries). Within their map, they must then locate the spots where they identified aspects that could be improved, and begin outlining an action plan to fix said issue. The planning established by the children will then be put into action for the final week and closing of the program.
We also have two days outside of our usual program schedule for furthering the reach and impact that Ecogenia has in Crete. The first, is a beach clean-up volunteer day on March 9th, 2025, organized with the support and collaboration of the “Save Your Hood” organization. We expect many of the parents whose children are participating in the “Local Green Heroes” program to join us on this day, enabling the children to showcase their newfound knowledge on plastic pollution to their parents, while also collectively contributing to ameliorating the problem of beaches littered with plastics. If you are in Chania on the day and keen to join forces with us, you can find more information and register your participation here.
However this is more than just a clean-up. We will also have an art station where the children can create artworks out of the plastics collected. This will serve the purpose of cleaning the beaches, re-using what was otherwise considered “trash”, and most importantly, enabling the children and parents to have a souvenir of this activity they carried out as a family for a good cause. May this souvenir not only remind them of this action they did together, but also remind them of where their plastic waste often ends up…
On March 18th, we have an outdoor education day planned for a school in Sfakia, a remote village which, although willing, could not participate in our weekly program due its remoteness. During this day, the whole school will participate and will consist of the most successful and well-received activities from the entire program. As such, the activities will be fun, engaging and enriching for all age groups.
Finally, the last day of the program will be celebrated with a closing celebration event, where the whole team will gather together one final time to honor the work we collectively accomplished in this service project. I am looking forward to this moment of celebration and reflection; and look back fondly on the progress made over the last couple months both as individuals and the impact made on the local community of Chania.
