On Saturday, October 30, we had the pleasure and honor to be invited to the wonderful event “Mind the Heart of Dyslexia” organized by the SOS4Love Project at the Serafio of the Municipality of Athens. We thank the creator of the organization Mrs. Aggeliki Pappa and the contributors of the event from the bottom of our hearts for giving us the opportunity to contribute with our small forces in promoting through our websites eatdessertfirstgreece.com and elladamouglykia.com and all our social media, their so important purpose.
In our new article of social content we attend the event “Mind the Heart of Dyslexia” organized by the SOS4Love Project at the Serafio of the Municipality of Athens, together with Aggeliki Pappa, Fotis Chalkidis, Katerina Gagaki, Georgios Stamatis, Georgia Paraschou, Stavroula Voutirakou, and the Paralympians Alexandra Stamatopoulou and Giannis Kostakis, as well as many other friends and guests. Everyone’s goal was to raise awareness about the charismatic brain of dyslexia!
The aim of the event, as pointed out by Mrs. Aggeliki Pappa, who organized all these beautiful things we watched, was to travel through the charismatic brain to the stars… Because when we can bear to understand the difference we can go up high and get lost in love!
Contralto Mrs. Marita Paparizou together with the Santa Barbara Guitar Orchestra took us on a journey through the song Imagine of John Lennon, one of the famous dyslexics, and two other songs that honor man and freedom. The surprise of the night was the interpretation of our favorite Imagine by Mr. Fotis Chalkidis together with Mrs. Paparizou! This year marks 50 years since the creation of Imagine… It still inspires us, diversity inspires us, children inspire us.
After such a melodic musical introduction, Mrs. Aggeliki Pappa, President of 3Dlexia Cosmos and an innovative educator, shared with us the journey of dyslexia. Mrs. Pappa, herself dyslexic, is the creator of an innovative way of learning English. We were looking forward to learning more about it!
The truth about the charismatic brain of dyslexia concerns us all! That is why Mrs. Pappa shared her personal experience with us. She told us about Nicholas, a painter with dyslexia, who was her spiritual teacher about what love means. He could not stand this hard world, and left it early… She also told us about Stergios, who changed ten schools and left our country without a diploma, because he wanted to listen to music when he had to follow what the educational system dictates… These children can help us open our hearts. 25 years later, Mrs. Pappa talks for the first time about all this…
She started her journey with these two children and decided to become an English teacher. She wanted to become a citizen of the world and help children become the same. 1 in 5 children cannot learn English at school and 80% of them have dyslexia. Teachers need more training to be able to meet their needs!
The different organization of the dyslexic brain can cause mistakes, but it can touch the love in the right hemisphere; the dyslexic is the person who shakes the systems and creates better ones with his love. The king is the heart, while the mind is the servant -this was pointed out with love by Mrs. Pappa.
The children imagined and painted Einstein and Agatha Christie, Pablo Picasso and Bill Gates, Prince Charles and Princess Beatrice, the dyslexics who changed the world. Albert Einstein was the worst student -unbelievable? Greek magical dyslexics, Panos Mouzourakis, Olympic medalist Spyros Gianniotis and many others. The interactive event “Mind the Heart of Dyslexia. Who killed John Lennon’s dyslexia” got based on these projects… but we’ll talk about that later.
Writing and reading is an unnatural function for all people, Mrs. Pappa told us. No man on earth is made to write and read! Didn’t you expect it? The human brain is a miracle -it uses different domains to reproduce language and create the gift of reading and writing. Therefore, dyslexia is not a disease or a dysfunction! It is scientifically proven!
Mrs. Pappa shared her personal story with us: she was fired from all the language schools and tuition centers where she worked. But she did not accept this crime… She knew that she would not become an accomplice. She spent 8 years locked in an office to make her own method. She took it to a university in England and made her first publication. Then she timidly opened her first organization, the SOS4Love Project (SOS stands for Students Organize Solutions). After many obstacles, among 50 others, she was twice nominated for the World Teacher Award, the most important award -the children’s award. Her dream is to bring it to Greece and we wish it from the bottom of our hearts! She is also a candidate citizen astronaut and if she succeeds she will be the first Greek woman to climb into space… She will touch the stars! Per aspera ad astra, which means you reach the stars through difficulties…
Then Mrs. Pappa pointed out some statistics: almost 50% of prisoners in America are dyslexic -in Greece 36-40%. The money spent on each prisoner is much more than what is invested in each student. This concerns us all!
Love will succeed! This is how Mrs. Pappa closed her speech. With love we can do it all!
Then, the student and “teacher” of Mrs. Pappa, Mrs. Alexandra Stamatopoulou, Paralympic of Swimming, with a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, World Champion and fighter for the rights of athletes spoke. She also made us the honor to share her personal story with us. At the age of 5 she was adopted and came to Greece, where she immediately had to learn to speak Greek fluently. But it was very difficult for her… She was jumping in the classroom and she was not a good student.
She started doing sports and had to go to foreign countries. So, she turned to I Love Dyslexia; the director, Mrs. Aggeliki Pappa, reassured her and told her that her brain just works differently and that she will succeed; she will even get a medal, as she did! And in addition to winning the medal, she managed to give her first interview in English! Mrs. Stamatopoulou closed with a wish: schools to change the way they think and to love children, to listen to them, to give them opportunities and to let them become what they want!
After the shocking personal stories of Mrs. Pappa and Mrs. Stamatopoulou, we all watched ERT’s honorary documentary “The Gift of Dyslexia”. The personal confessions, the strength of the students and their love were something else! We also learned more about Mrs. Pappa’s 3Dlexia teaching method, which is based on the charismatic dyslexic brain and now extends from teaching English to other fields.
We felt incredibly happy and excited watching this documentary, seeing the difficulties the children faced, but also how Mrs. Pappa’s method changed their lives! Looking at the guests around us, we saw the tears alternate with the smiles -this is exactly how we felt…
The culmination of the event was the awarding of students with dyslexia. These are the winners of Greece, who were awarded the very important Charlemagne Youth Prize 2021 of the European Parliament and the Charlemagne Academy.
Mrs. Pappa read the letter of the Deputy Minister of Education Mrs. Zetta Makri, in which she expressed her congratulations to the with dyslexia, pledging that she will always be by their side! Mrs. Pappa also read the letter of the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Mr. Domna Michailidou, who referred to the important people with dyslexia that changed the world and stressed that diversity is required -the charismatic brain of dyslexia enriches and changes the world! Also, Mrs. Michailidou pointed out the need for early intervention and cited as an example the program “Kypseli” of preschool education, which puts an end to stigma based on the differentiation of students. The Cyclades MP of New Democracy, Mrs. Katerina Monogyiou, sent a video to tell the children not to give up their dreams, say well done to themselves and know that dyslexia is a divine gift!
Mrs. Katerina Gagaki, Deputy Mayor of Extroversion and Civil Society of the Municipality of Athens, awarded the first prizes to the winners of the Charlemagne Prize, in a very moving moment of the night… Among the children was the son of Mrs. Pappa, who has inherited the gift of dyslexia from his mom. Mrs. Pappa thanked the Mayor of Athens, Mr. Kostas Bakoyiannis, who a few days ago shared with them his own experience as a dyslexic. The award was continued by the Paralympic Swimmer Mr. Giannis Kostakis. Mrs. Stavroula Voutirakou, President of EKO of Special Education and Lifelong Learning presented awards to the winners. Georgia Paraschou, Director of Culture and Youth of the UNESCO Group and founder of Humanity Greece, gave the following awards. Mr. George Stamatis, Secretary General of Social Solidarity and the Fight against Poverty completed the award ceremony.
Then, Mrs. Natasa Pentagioti, who is a collaborator and represented at the event the MEP Mr. Alexis Georgoulis, also dyslexic, talked about her experience with him. She stressed that people with dyslexia do not have a problem, they just think differently.
Finally, Mrs. Pappa thanked those who helped create the event “Who Killed John Lennon’s Dyslexia”. She especially thanked the National Museum of Modern Art for hosting the children in specially designed creative workshops and invited the artist Alexandros Georgiou, who inspired the students with his artwork “Love”. Another surprise of the night, the little son of the artist who took the microphone in turn! Then, two gifts, two works “Love”, were distributed to Mrs. Stamatopoulou and Mr. Bakoyannis, which was received by Mrs. Gagaki. And another surprise: a draw between all of us, so that one lucky person can receive the artwork of Mr. Georgiou. Even greater surprise was the first lucky one, who happened to be Mr. Georgiou himself, a fact that caused a lot of laughter!
So, after all the beautiful things they had organized were completed, we toured the Serafio room and played with all the interactive games that were scattered in the space. We took photos, laughed but also got thinking… It was honestly a unique experience! We mind the heart of dyslexia!
Read first each of our new articles!
Find us on our social media:
- Instagram: @eatdessertfirstgreece
- Facebook profile: Giorgos Eliza Vlachakis
- Facebook page: eatdessertfirstgreece
- Twitter: @eatdessert1stGr
- Pinterest: eatdessert1stGr
- WordPress: Eat Dessert First Greece
- LinkedIn: Eliza Neofytou
Follow us by filling in your email in the field at the bottom of our website, so that every new article will be emailed to you as soon as it is released. Do not forget to confirm your registration, in the email that will come to you! 🤗 Those of you who are wordpress bloggers, just click follow.
Eat Dessert First Greece 