On Monday, April 15, the Primary School of Achna Forest, in collaboration with the Directorate of Primary Education, through the Larnaca-Famagusta District Education Office will host the Ambassador of Greece to Cyprus Mr. Elias Fotopoulos. On the occasion of this visit, the students of XNUMXth, XNUMXth and XNUMXth grade will present an artistic program entitled "Stories of People: History of Homeland - Voice of Homeland" dedicated to the common historical course of Cyprus - Greece.
Read also: The suitcase that traveled thirteen times secretly to the occupied Achna
The artistic program is based on the Museum Education Program, "From now to yesterday I go back, I am looking for answers to the refugee suitcase…"
The Achna Forest community is a refugee community located just a few meters away from occupied Achna. It was Wednesday, August 28, 1974 when the inhabitants of "with a suitcase in hand" left the village and ran to save themselves, finding refuge in the forest outside the village. The refugees lived, at first, under the trees and when winter and the first rains found them, they entered tents. The years went by hard, with a lot of problems. But the people, despite the hardships, did not bend and managed to stand on their own two feet and be reborn, turning the refugee camp into a dynamic community.
In the framework of the Museum Education Program, the children of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth grade took on the role of a researcher, searching for information, experiences and feelings behind objects and other primary sources, such as testimonies and photographs, transferred from Achna by parents and grandparents "in a suitcase ”, on the days of the invasion. Through instructional scenarios developed, the children had the opportunity to compare yesterday with today and to draw their own conclusions about life in Achna at that time, the last moments of the occupation of the village and the living conditions in the refugee camp of Achna Forest. in the first years after the invasion.
With these objects and the works of the children, an interactive exhibition of objects was created in the School area, in which the visitors will have the opportunity, by studying the exhibits and the stories they carry, to know the history of Achna and the difficulties faced by the refugees. . The exhibition will remain on site until the end of May.
Famagusta.News