The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically brought to the fore the need for internet access, for all the residents of our villages, professionals and students alike. In the Sarantaporo.gr Community Network community we consider internet access a human right and we strive daily to maintain and improve our infrastructure, which provides all residents of 11 Elassona Municipality villages with open Internet access.
Letters such as those sent to us today by these students make us proud of our work and motivate us to continue struggling for equal access to communication, knowledge and digital citizenship.
Two students from the village of Karya, Elassona, have moved to Flampouro village so that they can use the Sarantaporo.gr Wireless Community Network for their distance learning in the midst of the corona virus pandemic. They have sent us a letter, where they recount their experience:
Read their letter below:
Dear network team,
I would like to congratulate you and at the same time thank you for the wonderful work you have done with the wireless network and specifically in the village of Flampouro.
My name is Dassiou Stavroula. I am a high school student and I go to the General High School of Elassona, although I am a resident of Karya village of Olympus mountain.
Of course, due to the situation, we have all fallen into the need of the internet and not just to spend time, but to spend all of our time in front of a computer, to do our homework, either for school or tutorials. Of course no one asked us if we have access to the internet or a computer and how we will do it, but this is overlooked and no one really cares. Everyone has to do for themselves. All of us daily, from morning to evening, we are working over the computer, unfortunately facing many difficulties. Some times the (internet) signal is good, others not. This is a grave situation and, it goes without saying, difficult for us.
Personally, in my village I have difficulties due to the lack of a computer and also internet connectivity; I do everything with my mobile phone. This is the reason why I ended up leaving my house and going to live in my mother's village, Flampouro, Elassona. Most of the time I am there attending classes online via the Sarantaporo.gr Wireless Community Network, which is very reliable, fast and most importantly unlimited. It provides access to multiple users concurrently without problems. The reason I say this - and emphasize it from personal experience - is because my younger sister Christina, who is in the third grade of primary school and has various other activities that require internet access, also attends classes at the same time with me.
We don't miss classes and do our homework on time. The community network has helped us a lot. This is also thanks to my uncle, Papakyriakos Vassilis (permanent resident of Flampouro and volunteer for the community network), who is working hard with the Sarantaporo.gr technical team to build this infrastructure, so necessary and at the same time so important for the village. I wish that all the other villages did the same, so that also their residents enjoyed this convenience and service.
I wish your team to continue more dynamically and to achieve even more.
Yours sincerely,
Stavroula and Christina Dassiou
Mr. Dimitris Baloukas, a parent from the village of Pythio Elassona, also sends us his appreciation for the operation of the Sarantaporo.gr Wireless Community Network in his village with the following message and a photo of his son, while attending classes connected to our wireless community network:
With the valuable and fast access through the Sarantaporo.gr wireless community network my son attends daily the distance classes without interruptions or connectivity issues.
Do you want to help?
If you wish to support our work, you can make a financial donation and/or offer equipment and volunteer work to our community. Currently we are in need of network equipment (routers, APs, servers) and computers or smart phones in good condition for the students of our area.
See here how you can donate to our organization or use the PayPal button below. For equipment offers, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
