5th Friendship Walk 2018 – Athens 2018

For the 5th consecutive year, the Best Buddies Friendship Walk-Athens 2018 took place and was a great hit!
At Syntagma square youngsters and adults had the opportunity to visit our booths, to be informed about our organization and our events, to meet our buddies and peer buddies and to play with our stilt walker Pipi PafPouf & with our facepainter “Messi”.

During our remaining at Syntagma Square, the band Alter Ego entertained us with their Greek and other International music hits & along with the youngsters from the ”life values” group, they sang the song “We are fabulous” which was written by the youngsters and volunteers and was synthesized by the band Alter Ego.
We saw a very interesting show by the Capoeira Athens, which travelled us to the mystical expressions of this culture, and all the participants had the chance to interact and to dance with this team.

The final tally of the event was given to the drums team Quilombo, who gave the signal of the commencement of this year’s Friendship Walk, under the protection of the crisis safety management team (ODIK). Ermou street, suddenly was full of colorful banners with messages of love and acceptance of persons with disabilities. The purpose of the Walk is the transmission of the message that “Friendship is a Gift” and we make friends with persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Upon our arrival at Monastiraki Square, all persons who joined us during the walk increased and all together with the teams, we closed this beautiful day with a big hug and with the expectation that the future for persons with disabilities will be positive and hopeful, without discrimination and social exclusion.

We are thankful for the greatest participation of the volunteers and walkers, for the support of the various companies and the great hug and love of all participants in our event. The importance of promoting the equal rights for persons with disabilities is our stepping point to go forward and to make change in our society and to fight discrimination and stigmatization of persons with disabilities.