With full support by the Club’s President and leader, Mr. Evangelos Marinakis, Olympiacos launched another important social action, since, in the framework of the UEFA Solidarity Project, the Club made a donation to the non-profit organization “With other eyes”, which in cooperation with the “Guide dogs of Greece” center, will produce a video clip to inform the world about the daily life of dog handlers and training of the dogs.
The Olympiacos U-19 players had the opportunity to learn more about the daily life of a visually disabled person who is also a dog handler, while they wanted to pose their questions and asked several questions regarding the usefulness of dogs to people with visual disabilities.
Initially, Olympiacos FC’s Director of CSR, Nikos Gavalas, took the floor, explaining the action, while he referred to the fact that the Piraeus team is the only team in Europe that offers permanent and free audio description of home games hosted at the “G. Karaiskakis”.
In particular, he said: “Since last April, Olympiacos has been offering the service of audio description to blind fans who come to “G. Karaiskakis”. With the full support of President Evangelos Marinakis, Olympiacos is the only team in Europe that offers this service free of charge and permanently. The Olympiacos Youth team participates in the UEFA Youth League, the Youth Champions League and has advanced to the play-offs. On Wednesday, February 7, they face Inter at the Rentis Sports center aiming at qualifying to the top “16” of this important competition. So, in the context of the Youth team’s participation in the UEFA Youth League and the UEFA Solidarity Project, we are jointly taking action with the organization “With other eyes”.
Then, founder and president of the Non-profit Civil Partnership “With Other Eyes”, Vangelis Avgoulas, took the floor to first thank Olympiacos FC and discuss the importance of equal treatment to disabled people:
“We would like to thank very much both the Olympiacos Youth team and Olympiacos FC. So, today we accept this money donation in order to produce an educational video that will promote the aims of the “Guide dogs of Greece” center. We thank very much all those who stand lastingly by our side for the equal treatment of disabled people; we expect no World Days or the like to hold events”.
The president of the center “Guide dogs of Greece” also expressed her own acknowledgments, stressing that people with any kind of disability are looking for people’s respect, not acts of exclusion: “I am very happy to be among young people, people who really promote so many ideals and above all create role models. We believe that this video, nationwide, will enable people to be informed so that respect be shown to this group. This is what we are asking for: respect and not exclusion. And we thank Olympiacos FCE and their president Evangelos Marinakis for once again standing by us,” she said.
Of great importance have also been the words of Ms Juliana Bussi, who as a guide dog handler, wanted to send her own message to the world and children on what life is like for a visually impaired person:
“I would like to thank you for the equal treatment and for all the respect I feel along with your offer and of course I would like to thank the “With other eyes” organization for the video; it will contribute to raising awareness because, unfortunately, there is still a lot of ignorance in our society. However, Olympiacos has been supporting our effort for a long time and thus the world has the opportunity to learn more about a blind person’s way of living”.
Finally, Olympiacos Youth team captains, Nikos Christou, Thanos Koutsogoulas and Giorgos Charalamboglou, took the floor to say how proud they were of the fact their success on the field is also materialized in another way, outside the pitch, and how important it is for these people to have the same daily life like us.
Below follow words by the Olympiacos U-19 captains:
Nikos Christou: “We are honored to have these people here today. It’s a great gesture by the Club and it’s very special because, at a young age while doing what we love, we also give joy to other people and especially the “With other eyes” people in order to continue their good work; ours is just a small aid, but with a lot of love and we are proud of that”.
Thanos Koutsogoulas: “We are proud that we can help in our own way and that our success on the pitch is also materialized in another way, outside the pitch. All people should fight for their rights and we are proud to help in this way; hopefully, other teams will follow suit.”
Giorgos Charalaboglou: “We are very happy that by this small gesture we also may help to the extent we can so that this effort develops and the entire world through Olympiacos understands that there should be no discrimination and that these people should be enabled to have the same daily life like us”.
