CyLocals
Campaigns:Help Cyprus find its direction while bringing your ideas to life!
Proposal code: Pusula / Ππούσουλας-2020-05-123
Promote locally produced goods Promote common values and understanding
As the coronavirus is taking a heavy toll on the global economy beyond our imagination, it is expected to cause far-reaching consequences on the economic viability in both sides of Cyprus. The covid-19 outbreak has also caused the closure of the crossing points and diminished the daily contacts between two communities to zero. In the wake of the health crisis, it is imperative that creative solutions should be found to bring the daily contacts between the Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots back to normal and also to create new avenues of cooperation that will boost their interaction. We are thus proposing the creation of an online platform, called CyLocals, which will be a stage by stƒage approach towards promoting locally produced goods, the Green Line Trade, and commonalities between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot societies.
CyLocals is going to be a website and an application to be used on mobile devices, primarily designed to promote interactions between the two communities. The online platform will be utilised to promote locally produced goods, which may vary and can come from both parts of the island, be it a food item, electronic item, medical item, or else. The idea behind is to give the consumers an incentive on evaluating what to buy during their shopping experience meanwhile allowing them to give their user experience on the promoted goods.
The second step of the project will be to get contacts of the producers and create a platform inside the website and application for business people from both sides of the island who would like to get into Green Line Trade but do not have any contacts from the other community. The online platform will be linking and/or proposing possible partnerships between companies to enhance the Green Line Trade activity.
The third step of the project will be pointing to the common values and culture of both communities living on the island. There will be "Cypriot food" recipes which could also be posted by the users through admin approval. There will also be talks with the writers of the "common dictionary of Greek/Turkish Cypriot dialects" to include the dictionary inside the website, as well as talks with the UNDP to promote the common cultural heritage in the island - effectively turning the website to an area of local information from the locals of the island.
The fourth and last step of the project will be the creation of a pool of volunteers with people participating from both sides of the island with a view to supporting users when they encounter problems during their visits to the other side, due to lack of language skills. The four stepp foresees setting up of a section on the website and on the application, called “I speak for you (Senin için konuşuyorum in Turkish and μιλάω για σένα in Greek)”, which will connect Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots with a group of volunteers from the other community willing to assist the users in order to overcome problems, such as reading the signs or other disclaimers in the community’s language, and also providing verbal support by engaging with the user via videoconferencing. This application will also motivate those individuals who are self-discouraged from crossing to Buffer Zone and engaging with the other community due to inability to speak a second language.