This year, the celebration of March 25 will be special for Gavdos. Although the elementary school has been suspended since November for the 2025–2026 school year, as its only student left the island, a student parade will take place. Not the two very young, preschool-aged children currently on the island—they are still too small. However, 23 students from schools in Voula, Glyfada, Heraklion in Crete, and Kallithea have traveled specifically for this day to the southernmost tip of Greece as part of the initiative “Where Angels Are.”
“Their presence here is very special, especially now that our school is suspended. It is a moving moment, a very important gesture, something particularly supportive that has filled all of us with great joy,” says Gavdos Mayor Lilian Stefanaki to TA NEA. She adds, “I believe that for the children themselves, it will be an important experience to come here to the edge of Greece and see how islanders live.” She also notes that this is the first time so many students will parade in Gavdos—usually it was the local students, at most six children.
This is the seventh mission of the initiative “Where Angels Are.” This year, students from the 1st Elementary School of Voula (where the initiative began), the 1st Middle School of Voula, the 1st Kindergarten of Voula, the 23rd Elementary School of Kallithea, the Yannopoulos Educational Institutes, the 3rd Sea Scouts group of Voula, and 2 students from Heraklion, Crete, are participating. In total, the mission numbers 49 people: 23 students and their chaperones.
It All Started from a Publication
The initiative began in 2023 with a mission to the remote Arki islands, where students traveled to meet Angelos, the only student and only child living there at the time. Everything began, as George Doutsoulis, president of the Parents and Guardians Association of the 1st Elementary School of Voula, explains to TA NEA, from a publication.
“The headline was: ‘Angelos Will Parade Alone Again in Arki.’ I had recently returned from America, where I had lived for 25 years, and it made a strong impression on me—I did not know such communities existed in Greece. I was moved as a Greek, as a parent, and as president of the Parents Association of the 1st Elementary School of Voula. Deep down, I already knew the importance of learning about society, customs, people, and Greece experientially, in person, through the effort and fatigue of a journey, literally and figuratively. To walk it, hear it, see it in the faces of its people, feel it in small schools, children, remote places, in communities that stubbornly remain standing, rather than a sterile, passive narrative. All of this, along with the tangible support for a child who was alone on an island, was our logical response.”
A “Bold” Journey
Thus, the first mission was organized—what Mr. Doutsoulis calls their first “bold” journey. On March 25, 2023, 13 students from the 1st Elementary School of Voula, together with their parents (a total group of 27 people), traveled to the small Dodecanese island, and the only student of Arki, Angelos, paraded alongside the students from Voula, dressed in traditional costumes. The initiative was named “Where Angels Are” (an idea of Angelos Velliotis, vice president of the Parents Association of the 1st Elementary School of Voula) in honor of angels—“the children of the world, Angelos, the only student in Arki, the Angel of our school,” says Mr. Doutsoulis.
It Was the Only Way Forward
Their journey to the Dodecanese island was an adventure. “Without any support from anyone, we traveled with chartered inflatables from Leipsoi… in something that will forever remain historic! The coast guard ‘caught wind’ of us,” and from that moment, they never left us alone for a minute. They honored the children, the parents, the island, the service, and Greece—perhaps the only ones who immediately understood our goals,” he recalls.
The Farewell at the Port
He describes a scene from that first mission that has stayed etched in his memory: the farewell at the port of Arki. “Angelos was standing alone on the pier, a unique child who would remain alone on the entire island, waving goodbye as the boat departed. After that, continuing the initiative was the only path for us.” Since then, twice a year, on national anniversaries—March 25 and October 28—they organize a new mission.
Centered around students from the 1st Elementary School of Voula, each time a team is formed with students from other schools and parents, and they travel to remote areas. After Arki, the next mission on October 28, 2023, was to Albania and the Greek School “Homer” in Himara with 32 participants. This was followed by Agathonisi on March 25, 2024, then Stavroupoli in Xanthi, and again Arki—Angelos called and asked for his friends. They could not refuse. Later, on October 28, 2025, they went to Nestorio in Xanthi and Kechrokampos in Nestos. In the Pontic villages of Nestos, they were lovingly and emotionally gifted a Pontic flag, which they now carry with them during their activities. This year, it will be held by a young student from Kallithea of Pontic descent.
It should be noted that the initiative has been recognized by institutions and organizations such as the Primary Education Directorate of Eastern Attica, the Ministry of Shipping—Coast Guard, and several municipalities, and in 2023 it was awarded the YouSmile prize in the category “Children Who Inspired.”
By No Means an Easy Undertaking
It sounds—and is—moving, but the endeavor is by no means easy. One can imagine the difficulties of each mission, even more so when considering that the organization is carried out by volunteers with jobs, responsibilities, and problems. Each trip to hard-to-reach places requires enormous preparation, exhausting coordination, and constant stress. Additionally, the financial burden was often disproportionate to the families’ means. “An invisible daily struggle that, in the end, vanished under the weight of the act!” notes Mr. Doutsoulis.
He adds: “The initiative has now evolved: we parade in traditional costumes from all over Greece, Constantinople, Ionia, and the Black Sea, carrying the banner given to us in Komnina. We have the support of many from the wider Voula community, and not only—individual citizens, communities, and mayors from the places we visit. Unlike the first mission, they help us, support us, encourage us. We remain independent, selfless, and above all focused solely on the education of our children, which is ultimately the deeper essence of ‘Where Angels Are.’ We ask nothing from the places we visit.”
