The first Youth Awards were presented to young people and organizations that through their work, initiatives, and achievements have become pioneers and emerge as positive role models. Awards were given to those who stood out in Science, Sports, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Provision, Environment, while awards were presented for the Young Person of the Year and the Organization of the Year, as well as the Central Cooperative Bank Award.
The video, which was prepared after the initiative of the Youth Centre in Kivides, a vibrant community of young Limassolians, gave the organization and its members the Provision Award in 2017. Focusing on the right to sports, the video prepared indicates that people with disabilities both can and want to enjoy life as able-bodied. The video gave young people from Kivides the award, since, as pointed out, such interventions can change the mindset which disabled people come across every day. The video promotes the possibilities instead to the disabilities, sending thus a message of empowerment and support towards people with movement difficulties.
Leader of this effort was Kyriakos Tsioupanis, who, as a person with a prosthetic member, is a living example of a person claiming and proclaiming equal rights as everyone else. Receiving the award on behalf of the Youth Centre, at the ceremony held on February 15 at the Rialto Theatre, Kyriakos Tsioupanis stressed out that the video for the rights of persons with disabilities was the result of coordinated work among all youth centers.
The Cooperative Bank and the Cyprus Youth Board aspire for this event to become an institution for rewarding and promoting youth activities. With faith in the potential of young people and willing to support this effort, CYTA sponsored the event.