PPI-CY Coordinator Thanasis with one team of Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots at Saturday's Twinning
This past Saturday PPI-CY held its second twinning of the year, pairing a Greek-Cypriot team from Kiti with a Turkish-Cypriot team from Chetinkaya in Nicosia. There were a total of 25 boys in attendance who were all meeting each other for the very first time. For most of the boys, it was their first time ever meeting any child from the ‘other’ community.
The day started well as children from both communities crossed their checkpoints and walked into the historical Ledra Palace. Ledra Palace, a hotel that used to be one of the most extravagant hotels in the island, is now used as a barracks for the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces. At the beginning of this year they signed an agreement to allow PPI-CY to house all of its bicommunal twinnings at a basketball court in the back of the palace. This is very significant as it is the only opportunity for children in the two communities to come together and play basketball in a neutral area.
PPI-CY was again fortunate to have the Chief of Civil Affairs of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), Sunaina Lowe, attend the event with us. Sunaina also attended the first twinning at Ledra Palace in January. It is great to see her support and the support from the United Nations for the work PeacePlayers is doing.
We are all looking forward to our next twinning, which will be on Saturday February 25 between the kids of Lysi/Akdogan and Dali. As always you can see all the pictures from PPI-CY events at the PeacePlayers International – Cyprus Facebook Group.
