Spreading the Greek word
Ellinopoula, the brainchild of Greek-American economist Petros Sakkis, is a web-based platform designed to teach Greek to children of the Greek diaspora in a fun and interactive manner.
The platform, which is available at www.ellinopoula.com, hosts thousands of games, videos and interactive educational activities that draw heavily on Greek mythology, history and culture.
The project also claims to serve a more ambitious purpose, which is to help parents and teachers in the US pass on Greek heritage.
“Seventy-two percent of the weddings of Greek Americans are mixed,” said Anna Sakkis, mother of Petros Sakkis and Ellinopoula’s CEO. “This means that English is now the dominant language,” she said.
“We are losing our language. And when the language is lost, then civilization is lost. We are trying to pass Hellenism on to the next generation,” she said.
In June, Ellinopoula received three gold awards at this year’s Education Leaders Awards for Best Online & Distance Learning Platform, Best Digital Education Platform, and Best Innovation in Teaching.
Meanwhile, the lockdowns imposed in many countries across the world to prevent the spread of the coronavirus expanded the platform’s purpose.
“As many Greek schools abroad closed, a number of older teachers found they could not catch up with new technologies,” Sakkis said. “When the parents turned to us for help, we created online classrooms,” she said.
