Estia Agios Nikolaos

Estia Agios Nikolaos is the only life-sharing community in Greece where adults with special needs live, work and spend their free time together with the people who care for them, in a mutually enriching way. The cornerstone principle of 'Estia Agios Nikolaos' is that each person is unique and can be helped to develop his or her unique capabilities in a nurturing environment via creative work, artistic stimuli and direct interaction with nature. In 'Estia Agios Nikolaos' all the members live in small family structures. Volunteers become a member of one of the «families» in the Estia and they take part in the different activities that are organized throughout the year, such as the workshops (pottery, handcrafts, garden, cumputer lab), sports, music, swimming(in the sea in the summer time), painting, walks, cooking, etc. One of our objectives is that all our members feel the Estia as their home and that we all support each other to make this possible. We want to prove that people with and without special needs, as well as people from different countries and cultural backgrounds, can live and evolve in the same place together. Volunteers learn to live with people with special needs but they also learn a lot about themselves. After one year in the Estia they acquire skills that will be useful in their future at the same time that they become aware of social issues.