CuBuFoundation and our learning mobility to Nea Moudania, Greece
The agenda of our group learning mobility to Nea Moudania, Greece, organized within the framework of our Erasmus+ adult education accreditation (№ 2025-1-BG01-KA121-ADU-000310340), which took place within 2-8 June 2026 and was hosted by You in Europe, included the following:
3 June 2026
A working meeting with the manager/trainer, parents and sportspeople from basketball club for people with disabilities in Nea Propontida
This club was established 5 years ago as a club for typical sportspeople by their parents. The founders decided that for the community and for themselves personally it would be really important for create a similar opportunity also for young people with disabilities. Thus two years ago they established the basketball team for young people with intellectual and physical disabilities, as well as neurodivergent ones. The young people are aged between 14-24. At present the group includes 8 sportspeople with disabilities. One of those playing in the team with disabilities managed to transfer to the typical players team.
The activity is led by an expert coach, who also holds a special pedagogy master degree. The success of the lady is connected not so much with her coaching role, but with the efforts she is exerting to convert the basketball hall into a home for the young people with disabilities, where they feel comfortable and relaxed and where they can develop new skills and learn to communicate.
One of the attending players (Dimitris) is non-verbal. He did not want to participate in anything like this, to communicate with other people, to interact in any way. Currently, a year and half after joining the team, he plays with great desire, he observes the rules, he shows with gestures that he wants to be passed the ball, he communicates with the other players and with the coach.
Most of the players with disabilities were not able and/or willing to hold a basketball at the beginning, nor to pass, dribble or shoot. For the period of their participation, the development they have experienced is so obvious, that it is different to even imagine a time when certain simple things or movements were impossible to them. Basketball has developed them physically, but it has also turned into an instrument, a tool for communication, a new language, which they use for expressing themselves and for communicating.
The players visit the club twice a week and the training sessions have a duration of one hour. Within this hour the players have several breaks, because the activities tire them. Every 10-15 minutes they have the possibility to step away from the field and relax for a few minutes before continuing with the game.
Kremena from Parallel world association (Plovdiv) shared that they also have such a team and that it has 30 members. She was surprised that the players in the Greek team are so few. The explanation was that this club (situated in a small village in the municipality of Nea Propontida) is attended by people from various towns in the Halkidiki prefecture. Dimitris, who was in the hall together with his mother, travels 30 km in order to attend the training sessions two times per week. Most of the families are so busy with other therapies, which they conduct for their children, that they cannot manage to add basketball to their agenda. Others cannot cope with the aggressive behaviour of their children during training and games, they consider that it cannot be corrected and decide not to participate in the activities of the sports club.
When we arrived in the basketball hall, Lachezar from Bulgaria really wanted to play. The coach joined the game for a short while, in order to install the rules for him too and to help Dimitris feel calm with the change. After the shooting order and rules of playing were clarified for everybody, including Lachezar, who was a new member for the group, the coach stepped away and left them enjoy the game on their own. Thus she was able to come talk to us. This was a demonstration of exceptional professionalism, excellent approach, well deserved trust and at the same time justifying this trust by means of adequate actions and support at the time it was necessary.
Successful interaction and communication between groups from Bulgaria and Greece would require some adjustment time, time to get to know each other, and establish boundaries, but it is definitely in the interest and intentions of both sides to have such cooperation in the very near future.
In Greece, all state and municipal sports facilities are provided free of charge to sports clubs, including professional ones. Everyone plays sports for free.
In the team for young people with disabilities in the region of Nea Propontida / Nea Moudania, the participating coaches and supporting figures are volunteers. There is no payment of any fees. It is quite sufficient that the parents of the young people have to cover other extremely high costs for the various therapies and activities that they have engaged their youth in. Sports for them is free of charge.
Kremena said that in the team in Plovdiv, the majority of the participants are approximately in the same age range. However, there are also 40-year-old athletes with disabilities there. Training in Plovdiv takes place once a week, with most participants being from the region, but there are also some who come all the way from Stara Zagora, for example. The Greek hosts were invited to participate in a festival that Parallel World organizes every October, which is focused on both sports and arts.
In the evening we had the pleasure of being part of the Nea Moudania Ocean Festival and watched a performance by people with disabilities from the region, including some of the disabled athletes from the basketball team.
4 June 2026.
A hike to a waterfall in the Halkidiki prefecture
The day started with a hike through an open and relatively complicated terrain through the Halkidiki mountains to a small and not well known waterfall. The group of 10 participants was prepared with sports shoes, comfortable for walking and appropriate clothes.
The vehicles were left 2 km away from the zone of the waterfall. At first the terrain of the route was a dirt road, covered with dust and stones, but relatively even with some challenging denivelation at times. After passing the chapel of St. Atanasios of Athos, the path became narrow and at the end only allowed us to walk in a single file, slowly and carefully through the abundant vegetation, which surrounded us. At the waterfall itself the participants had the opportunity to dip into the cold water of the lake and to feel the jacuzzi effect of the waterfall. Some took advantage of this opportunity, others, for whom the water was too cold, went in knee-deep, in order to feel the pleasure of the cold fresh mountain water.
On site all the participants and our guide from Nea Moudania were helping each other with taking the shoes off, putting on flip-flops, drying up, going through streams and so on. We functioned as a perfect organism, in which everyone is taking care of everyone else and the communication is running smoothly, calmly and clearly.
Monika (music teacher in a private kindergarten in Sofia, singer, song writer, visually impaired) was worried to go through the stony stream, which was separating us from the waterfall zone, but with some adequate support and preparation on site, she overcame her worries and managed to take everything from the experience.
After our return to Nea Moudania we made an analysis of the experience and some of the most important comments are gathered here below:
„With some help indeed, but it was not too hard. People were helping me, I had no problem with the accessibility. It is normal to have a lot of vegetation to go through, considering that we are in the wild. It was a nice experience.“ (Angel, singer and masseur, blind)
„A group in this format makes such activities accessible – people, who help each other sustainably from the start until the end.“ (Zornitsa, accompanying person for the group)
„If every blind participant is accompanied by one sighted participant, it is ok. If we were one sighted with two visually impaired, it would not have been ok.“ (Monika)
„The group dynamics were very ok. For me (Katrin, Bulgarian national radio, visually impaired) moving in a group is ok – thus you have someone to orientate yourself on. Walking after someone else, even if no one is specifically guiding you and you are walking freely.“
„For me personally, the fact that we were minding each others’ tempo was really great. We were stopping together, we were restarting the hike together. This really showed that we are a group.“ (Monika)
„The small size of our group (in our case 10) is perfect. More people, without enough sighted supporters would not have been comfortable and nice for everyone.“ (Monika)
„An activity such as this hike cannot be planned for the start of a group mobility or a series of outdoor physical activities. The group needs to be formed, trust has to be built and the participants have to know each other in order to manage successfully through more complicated hikes or activities.“ (Zornitsa)
„It is important to know your accompanying people. Day two or day three is ok for planning activities, which require trust.“ (Monika)
„Preliminary preparation with clear instructions is always very important. For example it is obligatory to bring a hat, sun protection, flip-flops – clear, precise and exhaustive instructions.“ (Kremena, NGO Parallel world, Plovdiv)
Lachezar shares that for him the activity was really great. He has climbing experience. He needs to move. The group according to him is very ok, communicative, no worries. (Lachezar is from Plovdiv with an intellectual disability, dislexic)
Kremena adds also that for her moving together with Angel (no vision) as a guide was really interesting and useful, because she realized how important communication is for the visually impaired person. At the beginning it was harder for her to find the right words to explain to him what the obstacles on their way are, but gradually she learned how to choose her words and how to make the descriptions.
Angel «I was worried that I was slowing you down.» (to Kremena) No one from the group was left to worry or wonder how to make their participation successful and the experience pleasant and fulfilling.
Asen and Kremena from Parallel world shared that it was not uncomfortable for them (to lead someone with a v.i.), just a bit more tense, because it was necessary to think where the v.i. partner is going to step or go through, so that they are safe. They realized that what we are so used to by default “Watch out, there is something here/there” does not work for people with impaired vision. The descriptions and the warnings have to be precise and timely.
Monika for Asen “For someone who is leading for the fist time, you were extremely good and managed wonderfully.»
Asen “I led for the first time today. The tempo was much more serious from previous short moments I have shared with people with visual impairment. Today I felt and I understood that I can do this. Monika is a partner who is very easy to lead. You don’t feel her beside you. You only feel the touch of the hand and you guide.”
Kremena, as an advice towards the v.i. participants “Tell the others what you don’t like, what is not comfortable for you, because most people do not know how to help you and can actually hurt you instead”.
5 June 2026.
Visits
During this day we met the teams of educational institutions for people with disabilities in the region of Nea Propontida. The first educational institution, a part of the vertical structure, which encompasses and supports the people with disabilities, was a primary school in Nea Triglia, which shares a building together with a regular primary school and a kindergarten for children with special needs. The colleagues explained to us what the procedure of assessing the needs of the children is so that they are recommended what institution to be signed in and how the latter are being directed towards a special or a general education school. We were impressed by the fact that transition between the special to the regular school is possible, i.e. a student enlisted in a special school can be transferred to a mainstream school and vice versa. We were also very interested that the mainstream school allows multiple grade repetitions (u to 3 times), which happens frequently with students with special educational needs. According to the Greek educational system, all students attending mainstream education school have to graduate and obtain a diploma, including the students with disabilities.
Within the special school we visited there is also differentiation – there is a group, which is being trained everyday living skills (dressing, hygiene, appropriate eating habits and so on) and there is another group, which, in addition, follows the general education school agenda for academic achievements.
The school is an initiator of an annual marathon for all willing to participate, which takes place in Nea Moudania in March. On top of that, during the summer, it participates in a summer theatre festival with a dedicated performance. The last piece they demonstrate for us was on the topic of emotions, each emotion being represented by a neighborhood in a village – anger, sadness, joy, fear and so on. Each actor child is supported by an actor teacher.
In the second educational institution – a training center with top age of attendants 24 years (situated in Nea Potidea) a presentation about the institution was delivered to us by an autistic students – Michael. We were really impressed by his mastery in leading us through the mission, the objectives and the activities of the training center. He was authentic, competent, openly demonstrating his pleasure from leading a presentation and being interpreted into Bulgarian language. The students at the center showed us their greenhouse, they shared the artistic workshops they are organizing, they sent us off with gifts and wishes for us to meet again.
In the event we joined the Ocean festival again. We had the opportunity to enjoy a performance prepared by students from the center we attended. The main roles were given to Michael and his twin brother Paul. On stage they gave their best and demonstrated exceptional artistic mastery.
6 June 2026.
Swimming – outdoor activities for mixed abilities groups
On this day the three completely blind team members learned how to swim, thanks to the joined efforts of their teammates and the host. We took advantage of the calmness of the sea in order to overcome strongly established fears. Considering that we were dealing with blind adults who were never able to swim, it is only natural for us to feel proud with what our group managed to achieve during its visit to the Sithonia peninsula.
The blind participants learned different swimming technique, also how to relax, how to turn their direction in the water, and those who could swim were skillfully passing their knowledge to them and were encouraging them.
Here come some of the comments:
Monika «At the first entry into the sea and attempt to lie in the water on my belly, I experienced fear. In the end, what happened was really nice but I did not believe in myself at the beginning. I thought I would not be able to understand the movements and the techniques. I had no idea Kremena had let go of me.» (Kremena Stoyanova was assisting Monika and at a certain point let go of her macaron, allowing her to swim on her own).
Katrin «It is all about trust, just like with the hike to the waterfall. The partial fear we were experiencing, was overcome. What is important is the desire for everyone to learn together.»
Polina (assistive technologies specialist with the Blind union, total sight loss) «The trainers were very supportive and patient.» (referring to the sighted group members and the host).
Monika «It has been awhile since I have taken such a challenge in my life and I have never, never ever imagined that I can do something like this. A huge thank you!»
Angel «I never imagined I can do something like this. I am sorry that my brother and father are not among us, so that I can tell them what I have achieved. Unfortunately they did not have the chance to pass on to me their sports skills. Thank you to the trainers for the patience and the shared trust. How can I get a macaron such as this one so that I can swim on my own in the sea?»
Georgi (young artist, University student, visually impaired) «After the hike, today we were doing even better as a group» (in which all members are equal and everyone is taking care of everyone else).
Katrin «With each consecutive day we are bonding further and further.»
7 June 2026.
Reinforcement of new skills, evaluation of the week and certification
At the beginning of the day, the group visited the Fishing Museum in Nea Moudania to learn more about this ancient occupation, and visually impaired participants had the opportunity to examine by touch a wide range of exhibits – stuffed marine creatures, nets, anchors, vessels and so on.
The group then conducted an analysis of the activities carried out in recent days and outlined the following main findings:
– always start by checking whether all participants know how to lead and assist visually impaired members of the group. If there is a lack of this competence, provide quick training;
– always try to keep the original agenda to support intellectually challenged participants. When this is not possible, explain the necessary changes in a timely manner to keep neuroatypical participants at ease;
– plan the more challenging activities, requiring focused support and assistance, for the second or the third day of the event, so that the group can bond and get to know each other, but do not postpone them in time too much, so that they are implemented while everyone is still rather fresh and not worn out. At the end people are usually more tired and the chance to be not so careful and more distracted is higher;
– be more verbal and clear when explaining obstacles on the way and when giving instructions to visually impaired participants – „there is a large stone over there” does not work. We either lead and make sure our fellow team member avoids the large stone or we change the instructions „straight ahead, around three steps away, there is a large stone. You will feel it in a second with the white cane. To avoid it, you need to move a step to the right or to wait for me to assist you“;
– take frequent breaks and stops together, don’t leave anyone behind, whether they are a typical group member or a person with disabilities, because a typical group member can be a guide for someone with special needs;
– trust each other because the environment in most outdoor activities in the wild is inaccessible, but also extremely attractive with the challenges it offers, and should not be missed;
– accept that an easy route for typical homogeneous groups becomes a difficult one when the group includes people with different disabilities. For example, more time and more energy are spent searching for the safest route for the person you are guiding;
– always be ready with more than one solution/option, because the different solutions work for different people;
– constantly check with people whether they are doing alright, if they are thirsty or hungry, not too tired;
– keep the group rather compact – 10-12 persons is perfect – and try to create an atmosphere in which everyone helps everyone. Thus the level of competence rises for each group member, there is a buddy system, in which all members are buddies and everyone knows what to do and can join adequately;
– always be aware of the differences in the physical condition and the abilities of the members of the group – something, which is easy for A, can require a huge amount of effort and tension from B.
Last but not least, the participants received their Europass certificates, holding information about the agenda and the obtained knowledge and competence.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Human Resource Development Centre (HRDC). Neither the European Union nor HRDC can be held responsible for them.
