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“Life changing opportunity” CFP attendees share their experiences


 

Cyprus Friendship Programme is a volunteer grassroots organisation whose mission is to promote and strengthen friendships between teens from divided communities and extend those friendships to their families and friends.

It provides young adults a learning opportunity about the other community, understanding different perspectives and realising that friendships can develop despite significant political and cultural differences.

CFP relies solely on gifts from individuals, charitable foundations and businesses who wish to make a difference for peace in the world to run their programmes.

Participants to the CFP Kormakitis camp shared their opinions and experiences with Voice Cyprus News

Maria Andrianou “I didn’t know that the Cypriot flag was designed by a Turkish Cypriot”

Our school education system is very one sided. We focus a lot on Greece’s history. We focus on the older years and don’t really learn more recent history because it’s still controversial. We talk about ancient times, a little bit about modern history, but only one sided modern history. For example, we never learned about what happened in the 60s. I learned about the 60s through CFP. It was the first time I heard about the conflict of the 60s. When I went home I did my own research and actually asked around. In school, we don’t really learn that Turkish Cypriot people are people, kind of. We don’t mention them, we don’t talk about their contributions to society. The Cypriot flag was designed by Turkish Cypriots, we never learned that.

There’s no difference to me if someone is a Greek Cypriot or a Turkish Cypriot. Obviously there have been some Turkish Cypriots that I met and didn’t like, but it’s not because they were Turkish Cypriots, it was about their personality, similar to how I become friends or not with Greek Cypriots. I’ve formed some very strong friendships and I have a Turkish Cypriot best friend here now. I don’t see her as anything other than just a person like me.

When I don’t know a lot about something, I don’t speak, I sit and listen. I didn’t know about the 60s, I couldn’t give an opinion, I didn’t have anything to say, simply because I didn’t know.  But I don’t feel afraid to say controversial stuff or things that might be uncomfortable because I think that’s the important part. If we just create echo chambers and say what we want to hear, that’s not constructive conversation, you don’t learn anything from that. I like when I hear people say things I disagree with, because it gives me a chance to hear another side, another belief, and it makes you think, or even more firmly establishes your own beliefs.

I did three years at CFP. After attending the first camp, I felt like my world had broadened. I met so many new people and learned so many new things. Before the camp, I felt like I was trapped in a closed society. I knew like 50 people, and this is the 50 people I interacted with. When I came back from camp, I felt like a whole new part of the world had been unlocked to me, because I hadn’t previously been exposed to that. For the US, my area coordinators and CFP did a very good job of enabling us to build some important leadership skills. Coming back from the US, I felt a lot more independent and centred in myself. I knew how to have a conversation constructively, how to calm my emotions as we did a workshop about that too. I learned how to work towards a goal, how to properly research, and how to make connections. I felt I’d matured a lot in that month, and in the following two years.

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 Yudum Tamel “I just feel at home here”

The school doesn’t give enough information about the Greek-speaking Cypriot community. One of the things that I do not like is the fact that even our Cyprus history books are not made by Cypriots. It is always on the basis of blaming the other side. CFP not only gives us the right information about the political climate but they also inform us on the innocence of many people instead of blaming a community.

When I joined this camp I knew everybody else applied to this program with intentions of wanting to build real friendships in peace. I’m very satisfied with all of the friendships that I made because they’re very welcoming, they’re very kind and they’re very understanding of my culture and this is a very diverse place for me. People here are acting so kind to me, they’re very nice and I just feel at home.

I was really nervous when I first joined CFP, the first camp at Troodos. I’ve always questioned myself will I ever fit in or will they accept me. Everybody was so welcoming even on the first day, from the first minutes. We especially talked about how is life in our side and how is life in their side in this comfortable place where I know that people are in the same intentions as me, I became more comfortable expressing myself in my opinions.

I want to make changes in my country and not only in my country but I want to make changes in people, I want to make changes in the World. By using my voice and the information I have gained throughout this program. We have journals to write things that we did not know about, I wrote many things. This makes me realise how much more I am educated now.

Angelina Sophia Ambrosiou “I had never met a Turkish Cypriot prior to CFP”

We get the opportunity to talk to figures that we otherwise would never have met, that are from organisations that we would never have known about if it wasn’t for CFP. Whether those are grassroots or civil society or politicians and just whether they’re regular people who have lost members of their family and they’re missing or they are figures of authority.

Some of my closest friends are from CFP. I went to a public high school in the southern part of the island and I never felt like I had like-minded people around me throughout all the years. It was quite hard to find people that would be on the same page as me, more open-minded to these types of activities and programs. I have managed to involve a lot of my friends in these types of organisations and political issues more broadly but as far as the friendships I think the fact that we all gather here for this cause and we have this common goal, allows us to cultivate something really special that continues beyond the program.

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I’ve been to the US with the CFP in year two and we always arrange a reunion whenever we are in the same country with that group of friends, we still keep in touch.

What I was taught has improved a lot throughout the years compared to what kids 10 years ago were being taught. I feel like the education system has improved, definitely not to the degree that it needs to be and to the standards that we should hold it to, but I’ve seen that improvement. I could compare with what we did in school and what we haven’t done and what gaps need to be filled in our school system, because I’m the only one in this program that finished from a public high school, so I have a different perspective, I believe, to bring to the table, and I think I was able to express that.

I had never met a Turkish Cypriot before, four years ago, prior to CFP. Not only has it changed, but it gave me the opportunity to devote myself to something I’m passionate about and work on. When I’m in the United States studying at university, I tell all my peers about this program and everything it offers and we go into deep conversations about the Cyprus problem.

Ada Olgun “CFP changed my life”

In school, we learn what they want us to learn in history. Here, we learn everything from different perspectives. We learn their history, our history, and the combined version. We learn that only we have missing persons, only we have pain in school. Here we learn they also share the same pain. We form empathy.

We make friends with people from the same communities, sharing the same religion and same collective thinking back in school.  We become close-minded actually. We don’t learn about any other culture, religion or language. When I first attended CFP in 2022, to the Troodos camp, it was a wonderful experience.

It might be the first time I met with a Greek Cypriot person, and made friends with them. I still talk with my friends from the Troodos camp. Some of them are here at the Kormakitis camp this year as well. I feel more connected to the friends I met at CFP, because I feel we share the same cause.

I was so shy when I first came to the CFP. I started talking to people and then I felt like it’s my place, I can talk, I can say whatever I want, I can think whatever I want and if I’m wrong, they can correct me. If they are wrong, I correct them. We both learn here, so we can speak freely about our thoughts and opinions unlike the friend circle I had at school when I was younger. Our coordinators make us feel like we are family, we share our thoughts freely with them as well. We know we might have wrong opinions but it feels safe to freely discuss them here.

I had social anxiety prior to attending this camp. Joining CFP was something I thought that could help with that,  and I continued joining more camps. I went to many activities at home for cooperation and I also got involved in politics. I feel applying for the 2022 CFP camp changed my life.

 Voice Cyprus News-2024

 


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