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Program Assistance

The name Helio-Polis was chosen to reflect Paralimni’s location on the easternmost point of the Island, receiving each day the first ray of sunlight, and hoping to turn it into the blazing fire of Culture. By the same token, Cyprus is the easternmost point of Europe, and one of the Program’s objectives is to assist similar initiatives in the eastern Mediterranean basin, from Lebanon to Greece, by way of coaching instructors, as well as by sharing academic resources.

Interview with Founder

Suggested Method

In order to raise a small community's awareness to the importance of Emotive Culture in Youth and help those Youths, there are 4 steps.
Present to the local ecclesiastics, academic educators and community leaders/government the benefits of such Culture in their youth and the moral dangers of its lack.
Show them how an organized program does not compete with any of them, but on the contrary serves as a faithful bridge between all three as it grows and takes root in the community. And seek both, their direct (material) and indirect (moral) support.
Create a first artistic collaborative project for youth to help the ones needing emotive expression and support from culture surface and call others like them.
Identify through this first art project a few teenagers and call forth more through the other programs (philosophy and global issues), making sure all along that the goal of the cultural programs remains Emotive and not Intellectual.

HYC’s purpose is to create Emotive cultural growth in teenagers through a synthetic and overlapping approach to Art, Philosophy and Global Issues. That is to say, an unbiased cultural program, that provides a solid link between western academic education on the one hand, and Cyprus’s Christian cultural heritage on the other. Youth are generally fortunate in our days to have access to strong educational systems, which are of paramount importance in refining the Intellectual component of their psyches. Moreover, through the fast pace of life, sports, etc… our psyche’s Motor/Instinctive component is also finely tuned. What remains lagging far behind these two and left to hazardous growth, and the dangers of mass media, is precisely the Emotive component of our psyche. Unlike prior generations and centuries, in this day and age, it is of little importance insofar as education is concerned, since education’s primary goal is “success” as opposed to “conscience”. 

In this respect, HYC’s focused and enjoyable cultural program targets this by raising conscience and non-material aspirations through:

  • The appreciation of beauty as found in Art
  • The understanding of spiritual things through Philosophy
  • The recognition of the necessity of altruism today by immersion in Global Issues

Moreover, the program aims to integrate youths from various segments of the community.

The eastern Mediterranean region, usually avails, besides the above mentioned Academic Education, an adequate ground of Faith in an active local Spiritual setting. However since pure Faith and pure Intelligence tend to be distanced from one another, they require a middle ground and dialogue to bring them together, which is precisely the role of Emotive Culture.

Note: Whereas HYC’s Program is relating to Cyprus’s Christian cultural heritage, it can easily be adapted to a Muslim cultural background, as when the founder taught its philosophical elements in Cairo, Egypt, during the first years of the millennium.

Interested parties are asked to send an introduction and letter of interest to

info@didaskalex.org

Replies to applicants will be within 8 weeks.