Maryam Rezaei
Chrissoula Manolakaki
Panos Chreppas
Stamatis Tsagias
Asimeni TountaChris Alefantis
Have you ever caught yourself saying nothing ever changes and that you can’t do anything about the pain and unfortunates that you see around you? I sure have! But I have news for you! Positive things happen all the time and behind these beautiful movements are BEAUTIFUL people just like Chris Alefantis and his amazing team! Chris Alefantis welcomed me with a beautiful huge smile in their super positive energy offices, right in the middle of the centre of Athens where many of us have stopped visiting… an office full of trophies, medals and beautiful pictures. I will tell you one thing if you are going to visit them please take tissues with you as no-matter how tough you maybe, you will shed tears of compassion, pain and joy simultaneously!!!
So who is this so amazing guy? Chris Alefantis is a beautiful person and very modest… he has a super smile that makes your day… he is a Crikos! A positive chain reaction who has touched the lives of so many people and given them back their lives! Chris Alefantis was born in Australia and lived almost half of his life there. At the age of 25 he pursued the career of a reporter and worked in many different jobs… it was in 2005 when he came across a sports movement for the homeless and he started researching. To cut a very long but touching story short, Chris started first a sports NGO for the homeless and latter a street magazine for the homeless. d that’s when I realised what the trophies where for! I didn’t know there even existed a Football homeless world cup!!! I love sports and believe it connects us giving us very deep feelings, but it doesn’t always happen, since its very competitive and many times it is extremely dividing and disappointing… Chris says you should see the happiness and how emotional the teams are even when they lose a game; as it’s not about winning, but it’s about being together, about having a second chance in their life and being a part of something… Chris Alefantis for the past few years is publishing the street magazine “Shedia” and it is being circulated and sold by the homeless on the streets! Chris says: “It’s not about the magazine and its content, but it’s all about the people… It’s about giving our people a chance to get self-confidence and being visible instead of sitting somewhere and begging” …! The have a homeless team of hundreds today and so many stories…
I asked him do you have success stories from what you are doing? He said depends what you mean by success; if success means a homeless person became an astronaut, then no… But if by success you mean a homeless person from being invisible became visible and built his or her self-confidence, from sleeping on the road he or she rented a house and got married… then we have thousands of examples!!! I am speechless and in tears! (even now that I writing it…).
Let us all start and do something about all the pain that we see in our communities… we don’t have to have: money or time or friends in high places or or or… we have the simplest and most powerful gift of positivity in each and every one of us; our smile! Let’s start with smiling and all will start shifting… some will move on to the next step and some even more and so on… So please the next time you see a man or woman standing on the street selling the magazine “Shedia” … stop and smile and greet them! You have made their day and improved their self-confidence and their sense of self-belonging just by your smile!!! Is that too much to ask? (please buy one of their magazines if you want to take it another step further… it cost less than a cappuccino!)
One last thing but not least, he has naturally a lovely team full of beautiful people… because after all its about humans… Thank you for all that you do!
http://www.shedia.gr
