Phedon Konstantinidis

Writing Samples Websites - Blogs - Social Media Author: About Phedon Project: Website Copywriting Client: What Took You So Long? Work Sample: Copy for Homepage We are a full service film and video production company working since 2009 in developing countries, from Chile to Lebanon, telling visual stories that support and champion social change. Our films give marginalized communities and people a powerful voice and an unforgettable face. Our productions range from short promotional videos to full length documentaries. Our state-of-the-art film and video equipment allows us to work under pressure and in less than perfect conditions. We love making videos in a guerilla manner. And we love making carefully-scripted documentaries. Our projects are as diverse as our team members and our global network of collaborating partners are. And so are our international clients. We are What Took You So Long? And we are already on location. Together we can effect social change. One voice at a time. One face at a time. One story at a time. One film at a time: your next film. Project: Website Copywriting Client: Global Brigades Work Sample: Copy for Country Page (Honduras) Why volunteer in Nicaragua Nicaragua is considered the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, behind Haiti. It is still recovering from an economic and political crisis in the 1980s, but the country has stabilized and is widely recognized as one of the safest and ‘friendliest’ in the entire region. Over 43% of Nicaragua’s population lives in rural communities, and of those, 85% make an average of just $1 per day. The rural communities that Global Brigades support suffer from poor access to medicine and healthcare as well as limited access to capital and the necessary banking infrastructure to help grow and sustain the local economies. How to volunteer in Nicaragua Global Brigades launched in Nicaragua in 2013 as an extension of our Honduran operations. Since then more than 2,000 university volunteers have participated in our Nicaraguan programs. Global Brigades implements Medical, Dental and Public Health Brigades, most commonly operated as a hybrid program so volunteers can observe the connections between medical conditions and public health infrastructure. Although Global Brigades only offer health-related opportunities to its volunteers, our Nicaraguan team consists of microfinance professionals that work to establish savings and loans systems that complement the health work done by our dedicated volunteers. If you want to help the Nicaraguan people you can volunteer your time, enthusiasm and knowledge to the following Global Brigades: ● ● ● Medical Global Brigades Dental Global Brigades Public Health Global Brigades Where to volunteer in Nicaragua Follow the links to our Nicaragua Communities pages, to find information and updates about the communities in which our Global Brigades teams currently work in, plan to work in, or have transitioned from. And don’t forget to volunteer! You will be amazed what a difference you can make to their lives of those that really need you. Project: Website Content Audit Client: Vrutti Livelihood Resource Centre Work Sample: Copy Editing Original Case Study Ram Vilas Parte, BOD Salakanpur Farmer Producer Company Limited. He is FSP registered farmer who has always been keen to adopt new technologies. From past 2 years he has been associated with Vrutti. He has been involved in all activities thereby earning the position of Board of Director in Salkanpur Farmer Producer Company Ltd, Rehti. He has never looked back from the day he got registered as Farmer Support Program farmer. Most farmers had shared that the major challenge they face is the scarcity of water in the region or excessive rain. Keeping this in mind, a series of trainings were provided to the farmers as per their demand to gain inputs which can furnish their knowledge of innovative farming under dry land or with less irrigation facility. Last year, he showed interest in seeing the results of BBF( Broad Bed Furrow) method of sowing after Vrutti staff told him about the advantages. On the suitable day he did sowing of Soybean in his plot using BBF machine. After he got back home there was huge rain which lasted for more than 4 hours. He got nervous and thought that the crop won't survive. But he was shocked to see the results when he went back to the farm after 7 days. He saw that the crop has survived with quite a good germination.A raised land configuration ‘Broad Bed Furrow’ (BBF) system helps the soil to preserve the water level for a longer period. Holding moisture intact, the bed stimulates crop’s growth. This system would not only help in water conservation for better crop yield but also help adapt to the ever changing climate. The crops will respond better to fickle rain durations and survive longer. Edited Case Study Extreme weather conditions are the greatest challenge facing Indian farmers. Following his training in the Broad Bed Furrow (BBF) method of sowing by our Vrutti staff, Ram Vilas Parte sowed soybean in his land using the BBF method. Shortly thereafter came a downpour that lasted over four hours. When Ram Vilas Parte returned to his land seven days later, convinced that his crop did not survive, he was pleasantly surprised by its very good germination. Since that day Ram Vilas Parte has been involved in all activities associated with Vrutti, making such progress that he earned a position on the Board of Directors in the Salkanpur Farmer Producer Company in Rehti. Project: Hotel Blog Client: Apartments Muses, Kardamyli, Greece Work Sample: Blog Post The Harbors of Mani As you drive south along the winding coastline of the Mani Peninsula, leaving behind the lush greenery of Kardamyli and Outer Mani for the more scraggy landscape of Inner Mani you cannot fail but notice the towers and churches that stand guards of their land and hold the keys to Mani’s past. Picture-perfect bays, some with sandy beaches, others with pebbles or rocks ideal for diving, dot liberally the seaside route, and, depending on your preferences, you might be looking for the one or the other, particularly if you are visiting during the summer months and you are in the mood for a refreshing swim. It all looks and feels pretty innocent these days. But just as the towers and churches hold their secrets and require that you make an effort if you really want to understand Mani, so do the many coves and natural harbors of Mani’s coastline. The realm of outlaws Life in Mani has never been easy. The recent economic crisis that engulfes Greece since 2008 made an already difficult life a real struggle. But the people of Mani are no quitters. They never were. A barren land, particularly in Inner Mani, has been pushing Maniots into taking extreme actions for their survival throughout their long history. One such extreme was piracy, which peaked in the 18th century, in part under the auspices of the Venetians and the Russians, who either used Maniot pirates as allies in their battles with the Ottoman Turks or directly employed them as sailors in their vessels. It was during that same period that foreigners called Mani “Megalo Algeri” or “Great Algiers,” likening Mani to the port of Algiers, which was the biggest center for slave trade in the Mediterranean sea at the time. But this wasn’t done because the Maniots dealt in slaves. It was more out of fear that foreigners called Mani “Megalo Algeri,” the waters of the Messenian and Laconian Gulfs that lie on either side of the Mani Peninsula scaring all seafaring merchants to death. Those were the times of pirates and privateers, both of whom rob people by sea. But pirates need ships and the first Maniot pirates in the 16th century had none, due to their lack of resources. So what did they do? They would wait till nightfall and when they saw a ship sail near the coastline they would turn off the lights of their lighthouses and hang lanterns around the necks of a flock of sheep. Those tiny flickering lights would appear from the decks of the ships like village lights, and as soon as the ships would set sail towards what seemed to be a friendly village, the Maniot pirates would move their flocks towards the nearest cliffs. It was only a matter of time till the unsuspecting boats would crash on the jagged rocks and the Maniots could loot the goods on board. Today, of course, the same coastline is as hospitable as the Maniots are. And where once danger lurked, now tourists can sail and swim and play in the sea. But it is worth knowing what secrets these waters hold and marvel at the sight of children chasing each other while playing pirates, reenacting intuitively the history of the place. 5 Facts about piracy in Mani 1. Maniots were both pirates, who plundered ships for private profit, and privateers, who were mercenaries allowed to attack and destroy enemy fleets as long as they spared friendly ships. 2. The Venetians actively encouraged the sailors of Mani to turn to piracy–as long as it against the Ottoman Turks. 3. One of the notorious local pirates was a Maniot named Lyberakis Gerakakis. Such was his stronghold in the region that he forced the rival Stephanopoulos family to move not to another part of the Mani peninsula, but to the island of Corsica instead. 4. Orthodox priests not only didn’t discourage piracy, but actually took active part in it. Chalices, patens and candlesticks used during Mass often came from looted ships. 5. Piracy in the eastern Mediterranean waned during the 19th century in part due to the increasing presence of British military ships and in part due to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Project: Teacher Professional Development Blog Client: Aldeen Foundation Work Sample: Blog Post Promoting Student Creativity: a School Assignment with a Tweak Creativity is often linked with great talent and exceptional intelligence. Mention creativity and who comes to mind? Talented artists like Pablo Picasso, Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Woolf, Maria Callas. Mention intelligence and who do you think of? Brilliant scientists like Albert Einstein or Marie Curie. But how about you? Would you consider yourself creative? Having entered the realm of adulthood you may have had to set traditional creativity (the one that stands out for all to notice) aside. Getting a job and raising a family (painstakingly creative enterprises in their own right) will in most cases take precedence over writing the next great novel or solving an unsolved mathematical problem. But there was a time when you were truly creative and your main responsibility was to discover your world. That was the time when you were a student, loaded with untapped potential and you inhabited the realm of childhood. The value of school assignments Childhood, of course, is not all fun and games and carefree explorations. School assignments play an integral part in a child’s development and the fulfillment of its individual potential. In fact school assignments teach a student three very basic life lessons: 1. 2. 3. School assignments teach students individual responsibility School assignments teach students to seek out external information by using available resources such as libraries and the internet School assignments teach students problem solving On the flip side, school assignments can consume a large chunk of a child’s time out of school. So even if children understand the intrinsic value of school assignments, even if they take responsibility for doing it and hand the homework in on time, they might “hate it.” Which in many cases is a code language for finding it “boring.” But how does one make a school assignment more interesting-even creative? Sometimes less is more This is a true story. And it is the story that changed my life. In school I was an introverted child. I read a lot, especially novels, but struggled with most of my school assignments. It wasn’t just mathematics or physics. Even with essays I had a difficult time, although, as I have mentioned, I loved the written word. To my great consternation we had to write an essay at school every second Friday, for which we had two hours’ time. Those were regularly the two most stressful hours of the week–correction: of my life. I was under time pressure. I “hated” the subject of each essay. I found the repetition of the exercise “boring.” And there was no way out of the assignment. Like water drip torture, the essays continued coming my way for years. Until one time, a teacher gave us the option to take the essay home for the weekend. And that was not all. He also gave us the option to write a poem instead. A poem? I thought on the way home. That had to be shorter than an essay. So I sat down that Friday evening to write something in less time than it took me to write the dreaded essay at school. And to my surprise I kept at it until Sunday evening. What had happened was transformative. Given the assignment to work with less text made me pay close attention to each single word. And in the process, each word lifted itself from the page and floated freely before my mind’s eye until it found its match. But lo and behold! To my surprise words didn’t have one perfect partner. Like chemical elements they could be combined to form intricate and, occasionally, even explosive equations in my mind. There was only one word that didn’t form a bond with the others that weekend. And that word was “boring.” There is more than one path in life What I learned that weekend for the first time in my life, albeit still mostly subconsciously, was that there are more than one paths in life. More concretely, I learned that even as a child I could follow the paths that words opened up for me, not only when I held a book in my hands, but also when I held a pen. In short, I discovered creativity. And for this life-long lesson I will always be indebted to an inspiring teacher, who took it upon himself to tweak a standard school assignment just a bit. PHEDON KONSTANTINIDIS Storytelling & Content Marketing For SMEs, Startups & NGOs www.aboutphedon.com https://www.instagram.com/aboutphedon/ https://ch.linkedin.com/in/aboutphedon