2014-2016

“Cool or not … too cool? Rights and Obligations of Students in the Greek and

other EU Primary Schools”

Industrial Gas Museum

A day dedicated on exploring Human Rights

Class F2Teacher: Stamatina Mellou

A few words about our visit …

On the occasion of the Celebration of The International Children’s Day (Children’s Rights Day) we visited the Industrial Gas Museum.

It holds a small but great exhibition focusing on the working conditions of the people being employed there, when it was still an industrial unit.

It was a great opportunity for our students to find out more about historical background and degree of evolution of Human Rights through time; and correlate their observations with the current under-aged working .

A short into on the premisesto be visited

1st Stop: the old ovens

The most astonishing part of the museum’s tour is this one! Students were urged to come closer to the old ovens, place their hand inside, so as to activate them, then place their ear and listen to recorded interviews/testimonies of workers on their working conditions dating back to the ‘60s.

Working conditions

Their uniform: the sole protection available…

No gloves, no protective masks & glasses, no casks …

In many cases not even this was available

2nd Stop: Workers and their duties

(a) Working groups:- Network workers- Technicians- Chemists- Unclassified workers(b) Administrative personnel:- Secretaries - Accountants - Cash clerks- Managers- Cleaning personnel- Door keepers- Automobile drivers- Telephone operators- Guards etc

3rd stop: the exhausters

4rd stop: the coolers

5th stop: the gas tanks

6th stop: household uses

Only well-off families could afford to use gas supply for

household equipment

6th stop: the forge

Here the students watched a video presentation on issues concerning human rights

at work:-Working conditions of that time

- types of violations of rights

- how the workers decided to stand up for their rights to social security, health, pension etc

- strikes and their outcome

More info about the Industrial Gas Museum and its events can be found at:

http://www.technopolis-athens.com/web/guest/visitors/gasmuseum