ENERGEAN

• Mobilization and Awareness Raising of more fellow citizens regarding the problem of social exclusion of people with disabilities.
• Activity and initiative that protects and supports their human rights, responds to their social needs and helps towards their reintegration process into society through sports. 
• Action that helps ensure social cohesion and eliminates discrimination by promoting equal treatment of a socially vulnerable group.
• Initiatives and synergies with third parties developed by Energean for the voicing of the right to a normal everyday life of people with disabilities.
• Crowdfunding objective: To raise and secure funding in order to improve the infrastructure of a Special School in Kavala (the Kavala EEEEK) (Partnerships for the Goals).

• Energean’s Management and Employees.
• The whole city of Kavala (from local stakeholders to common fellow citizens).
• The General Public (through TV coverage).

Preparation: Three months.

Execution: Three hours.

Energean is a London-based oil and gas exploration and production company.

But mostly, Energean is a company that consistently demonstrates its sensitivity towards the lives and the difficulties that our fellow citizens with problems in movement have to face every day.

On December 19th, 2018, with the moto “We all can, we all care”, we played Basketball in Wheelchairs for a good cause and we said “NO” to the social exclusion of people with disabilities. It was a great night in Kavala, where Energean’s Prinos producing assets are located. Energean - Kavala BC, a basketball team which is supported by Energean, and was competing in the 2018-2019 A2 Men’s National Basketball Championship, along with Friends played Wheelchair Basketball with A.O. Kavala Wheelchair Basketball Club.

Energean’s CEO Mr. Mathios Rigas along with other company executives participated in the game, and the proceeds were donated to A.O. Kavala Wheelchair Basketball Club.

During that unforgettable and successful event that was attended by a massive audience of Kavala:

Energean - Kavala BC played also two more games: one with its basketball academies and another with well-known citizens of Kavala who also wanted to convey a strong message against social exclusion, so they joined our efforts.
Energean honored three great Paralympic athletes from Kavala. Anthi Karagianni and Alexandra Dimoglou, two ladies who have won dozens of medals representing Greece in the Paralympic Games, as well as Makis Nikolaidis, an acclaimed basketball player.

For the Event, and in accordance to our philosophy, our company established a crowdfunding project the proceeds of which were allocated towards the needs of the Kavala School of Special Vocational Education and Training (the Kavala EEEEK), at Nea Karvali, Kavala, Greece. The purpose of the fundraising was the creation of a multi-sensory room for students in the autism spectrum, as well as for children with learning difficulties, hyperactivity or other neurological development disorders. The room is called Snoezelen Therapy Room - Room of Multi-Sensory Treatment, and now days it is ready and in use by the school’s students.

A few words about the School

The School of Special Vocational Education and Training of Kavala (the Kavala EEEEK) is a Secondary Education Public Specialized School for students between 14 and 22 years of age, graduates of a general or specialized elementary school, with special learning difficulties and educational needs. This year, there are 37 students attending the School, in small group classrooms.

EEEEK aims to provide the students with all the necessary skills for the transition to adulthood.

As Energean, we serve the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals and we will continue working for zero social exclusion of any person with disability.

• Energean – Kavala Basketball Club, Men’s Team.
• Energean – Kavala Basketball Club’s Youth Academies.
• A.O. Kavala Wheelchair Basketball Club.
• Kavala School of Special Vocational Education and Training (the Kavala EEEEK).
• Local stakeholders and well-known citizens of Kavala.
• Local TV channels (TV report coverage).

Energean’s Top Management and Employees from Athens, London, and Kavala.

The game took place on Wednesday, December 19th, 2018, at 17:30, at Kalamitsa Indoor Gym, "Alexandra Dimoglou", in Kavala. That same day, at the Indoor Gym’s entrance, there was a Christmas Bazaar from the Kavala ΕΕEEK.

The game had more than 500 spectators and most of them had never watched a wheelchair basketball game before. These people witnessed, first hand, the difficulties our fellow citizens with disabilities have to face, but most importantly, the special gifts they can possess in sports. Specifically, they realized that being an athlete while sitting on a wheelchair is a very difficult task.

The game, by having wheelchair athletes as the protagonists, “promoted” inclusiveness with its qualitative results to include the messages of “Respect” and “Diversity”. Everyone (participants and spectators) realized that the needs of people with disabilities are not only the intellectual progress but also the physical one. They should be able to live and exist in a society that they can perform any everyday activity.

It is important to stretch that the game was broadcasted live on "Center" Channel, and one can still watch it on “You Tube”. In general, the message reached the wider social community with a Press Conference, Advertising Spots, and Press Releases. 

• Strengthening of Energean’s company profile as a Corporate Socially Responsible entity.
• Servicing SDG Goal No 10: Reduced Inequalities.
• Practicing the implementation of the Goal, by actually acting on it.
• The management and the executives had the same benefits as the rest of the public, but in an even more powerful way: in this case, they were part of the action/game.
• The impact “returns” to the company as a kind of a non-formal education and training to its people.