The Nicosia Folklore and Youth Centre Association (FOGEM) was founded in April 2007 by a group of folk-dance volunteers. FOGEM, which was founded by many dancers, trainers and musicians who had been involved in folk dances for many years, has been continuing its activities since then.
FOGEM continues to work with teams of eight different age groups within. These groups range from six to fifty years old. With the number of dancers around one hundred and seventy, it is one of the associations with the largest dancer group in the country.
FOGEM has been successfully carrying out many organizations since its establishment. We can list them as follows.
Every year, folk dance nights are organized under the name of “Folklore Feast”, where all groups take the stage and using technological facilities at the highest level. In 2015, our association's folklore feast was held under the name of “No Barriers Feast 2015”, and on this night, orthopedically disabled individuals from our country took the stage and performed together with normal developing individuals.
FOGEM has also been organizing an event under the name of "International Summer Joy Children's Festival" for fifteen years. About forty teams from different countries have participated in our festival, which is officially a member of CIOFF and UFB.
Our association also organizes some interviews and workshops from time to time. Many workshops were held on dance and music by hosting experts in their fields in our country.
FOGEM also made presentations in the folkloric theatre field.
Groups of FOGEM working in various age categories have represented our country in nearly fifty festivals so far. FOGEM's groups also achieved degrees in many competitions they participated in.
(İzmir Balçova: Second Prize, Best Costume Award. - Bursa Altın Karagöz: Second Prize. -Büyükçekmece Festival: Third Prize)
FOGEM is also a member association of the Cyprus Turkish Folk Dance Federation. FOGEM frequently appears in demonstrations at many events in our country. In addition, our association actively participates in the authentic re-evaluation of our plays carried out by the Cyprus Turkish Folk Dance Federation, both as a teacher and as a dancer.
Our association has also implemented the "Barrier-Free Park", which is a first in our country. We built a barrier-free park in our city with the income and donations collected by our association volunteers by selling bookmarks, doing bazaars and similar events. Our success in opening our park, where many tools are located, has also inspired many non-governmental organizations.
In addition, our association has been organizing a carnival under the name of “White Summer with Fogem” for the last three years. Particularly to draw attention to diabetes, this event is held with the participation of thousands and at the end of the carnival, children and their families have fun together.
