What unites us, what divides us

Who made it happen?

PARTNERS Active citizenship and youth participation

SITUATION IN PARTNER COUNTRIES Did this exchange change something in me?

PARTICIPANTS OPINION

WHAT UNITES US, WHAT DIVIDES US

Erasmus +|Youth Exchange | MARCH 2017

WHAT UNITES US, WHAT DIVIDES US What is it about?

The project “ What unites us, what divides us" aimed to foster and promote active citizenship among young people. It brought together thirty youngsters aged 18-30 from six European youth organisations working in five countries: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Portugal. The aim was to equip the participants with different skills in the order they become more active citizens.

The main event of the project was the youth exchange that took place in Poronin between 20 and 28th of March 2017

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The objectives of this project were : - To increase participants awareness of active citizenship attitude - To increase the knowledge about active citizenship - To define the concept of "active citizenship."

- To point out the advantages of being active citizen - To be familiarised with the opinion of Zakopane inhabitants about their role in local community and in Europe - To define similarities and differences in our cultures - To think about and discuss the role of youth from our countries in Europe - To increase the knowledge of participants about Erasmus+ programme and Youthpass - To increase of linguistic competence in the English language The potential long-term benefit is to strengthen the social capital of the participating countries and greater involvement of young people who participated in the youth exchange in the society.!

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PARTNERS 6 Partners co-created this project. Here we would like to introduce the organizations briefly.

Applicant Organization: Instytut Innowacji.

The mission of the Foundation is to foster the development of innovations in Polandby promoting modern technologies, stimulating social development and building tri-sector and international cooperation in favour of economic and scientific growth.

The Foundation has already completed a number of projects in the field: - of business development for foreigners, - projects aimed at environmental protection, - non-formal education of children and youth, - non-formal education of the elderly, - trainings for polish NGOs and the unemployed, - projects for the development of culture and cultural projects at the transnational level, - support cooperation and development in the countries of the Soviet Union (youth, environment, entrepreneurship, culture), - CSR and Social Impact Assessment study in the field of energy (shale gas), By preparing a number of projects addressed to the youngest citizens of Poland, members of the foundation are trying to prevent the financial status from limiting the process of educational and cultural development of Polish youth. Among the beneficiaries, there are always pupils and pupils from educational and welfare institutions.

The activity of the organisation is funded by donations of people and institutions sympathetic to us, revenues from economic activity and the money obtained through charity projects.

In this way, the foundation for their dedication and hard work every day proves that dedication to noble purposes is always a superior value and satisfaction derived from achievements is the greatest reward. .

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Partners

PARTNERS Croatia: IInstitute of Youth Power

Institute of Youth Power is an informal group of young people, from Zagreb, very active in Erasmus+ programme.

Our team consist of people who came from the same University, from the Faculty of Economics and Business in Zagreb and Centre for Croatian Studies, in which they studied many areas such as Tourism, Marketing, Management, Analysis and Business planning, Finance, Journalism, Communicology and Public Relations etc.

Our team is very dynamic and has great cultural and educational background including attendances at conferences, projects and case competitions.

Our organization is new one in Croatia, exists from 2015, but soon will be one of the favorite among students and people between 18-30 from the whole parts of Croatia.

Our main aims are promoting personal development of young people through educational programs of the European Union, developing non-formal education, intercultural dialogue and civil society, drawing attention to lifelong learning and importance of networking, broadening of horizons, thought provoking and creating new ideas.

As well, we are focusing on: • To improve quality of life of youth through volunteer and professional work with promotion healthy ways of life • To promote voluntarism, education, lifelong learning, culture, art, sport, events, festivals, tourism, expansion of creativity, ecology, music, business intelligence, law, energy, journalism, economy, preventing of unwanted forms of behaviors (drug addiction, delinquency, vandalism, crime…)

• To promote multiculturalism, diplomacy, peace and equality and helping • To promote tolerance, solidarity and active citizenship • To promote projects management and innovations • To break down prejudices .

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Partners

PARTNERS Bulgaria: Young Improvers for Youth Development Young Improvers for Youth Development is a NGO founded in the spring of 2015 out of passion for non-formal education and active involvement of young people in the community.

We are group of young people who are always ready to learn something and share it. Although we have known each other for years, each of us studies at a different university of Bulgaria. We are aware of our social responsibility as youth and we are willing to be more active and dynamic and use our potential in a good and useful way. As one of the group’s aims, we want to reach more youngsters and give them the opportunity to travel, meet people from other countries and learn through participation and cooperation. By doing this, we believe that not only those youngsters will have a chance to extend their horizon but also they will be able to come together with young people from other countries, share their, ideas, cultures, traditions... etc. with each other. We aim at acquiring new skills and using them for young people around us to make them realize the power, energy and potential they have.

Participation of young people, Community development, Human Rights, Intercultural dialogue and Volunteering are some of the topic we are focused on.

Young Improvers for Youth Development aims to initiate, promote and implement sustainable and active development measures regarding the quality of life, seeking to build a responsible and active society in terms of cultural, educational, social and environmental development.

Our objectives are: 1. To organize activities for the development of the quality of life, including to support of the legislative initiatives that aim the economical, social, cultural, educational and ecological development.

2. To identify the local, regional and national issues and the projection of solutions in partnership with public and private sector.

3. To organize training courses, seminaries, conferences, public debates, and to organize public manifestations and other activities for public awareness of the importance of active development.

4. To promote the importance of the education in general and the civic responsibility for the active development of the society.

5. To promote the social inclusion of the young people with fewer opportunities.

6 To develop new programs with national and international partners and public authorities. .

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Partners

PARTNERS Cyprus:Â KEY-Innovation in Culture Education and Youth KEY is a non profit / non-governmental organization (NGO) which was established in order to: (a) promote innovation and creativity as a means of social development and address various social issues. (b) promote the values of volunteering and active citizenship and also promote lifelong learning and non-formal learning. (c) consolidate and disseminate communication and solidarity among citizens of the Member States of the European Union and its neighboring countries. (d) promote Greek - Cypriot tradition and culture at local and international level and simultaneously encourage a sense of common European culture that we share as citizens of Europe. (e) promote awareness of social problems, especially in the field of youth and promote intergenerational interaction. (g) develop environmental consciousness. (h) provide assistance to individuals, groups and organized groups in education, culture and youth.

NGO "KEY-Innovation in Culture Education and Youth" is open to all who share its vision, goals and objectives. The organization lists over 500 members, which are increasing day by day.

The organization consists of volunteers and people who work for / with youth (youthworkers), who have great experience in formal, non-formal and informal learning, and organize local and international actions / projects. .

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Partners

PARTNERS Romania: Do Great Things Do Great Things (D.G.T.) Association is a non-governmental non-profit organization that was born from the passion of a few youngsters who wanted to take action and make a change in the society they were living into. D.G.T.’s founding members have had the desire to give back all the things they have learned and experienced during previous years of volunteering.

D.G.T.’s mission focuses on national and international networking among young people, students, trainers and teachers of different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds. It tackles topics such as intercultural exchange, non-formal education, ecology, climate change, sustainable development, European citizenship and international politics (geopolitics). All these are added to facilitate the accumulation of experience by young people, through voluntary activities and non-formal education methods, allowing them to put into practice the theory learned in school.

As of 2011 we are organizing our own events in Romania: youth exchanges, youth democracy projects, training courses and conferences. As of June 2013, we are accredited for EVS (European Voluntary Service) hosting/sending/coordinating organization.

Regarding partnerships in international activities like youth exchanges, trainings, conferences and other events of this sort, our members have very good experience, as we have worked with many foreign NGOs in elaborating and implementing such projects (Youth in Action, Europe for Citizens, EuroMed Youth, Ana Lindh Foundation and Council of Europe financing schemes). Activities have been performed in both programme (Germany, Italy, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Turkey, etc) and partner (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, etc) countries.

Themes of our projects relate to social problems (migration, integration, fighting poverty, active citizenship), cultural aspects (respect for diversity, peaceful co-existence), political issues (democracy, freedom of speech), ecology, sports and arts (painting, photography, singing, dancing). Therefore, we have quite enough experience in a high variety of topics. .

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Partners

PARTNERS Portugal: Zona Livre Zona Livre is a cultural association that promotes all kinds of cultural manifestations, whether it is a concert or poetry nights, amongst others. Besides promoting cultural events working together with other association or groups, we are also extremely engaged in improving social awareness in young people through different experiences, either educational or cultural.

Since we are in a town with a strong presence of university students and Erasmus students, we try to involve them also in the activities we promote so that everyone can share their culture and learn new things about other countries as well.

The activities, interest and experience of Zona Livre are relevant to the topic because we consider ourselves as a recent organization that tries to awaken teenagers and young adults to the fact that they are living in a small town in the North of Portugal but that doesn’t mean that they are not part of a bigger ”family” called Europe and that they should learn from others and respect all points of view and enrich themselves.

To do so, we promote Erasmus+ mobility exchanges, meetings at Zona Livre, give students a space where they can develop their own projects and present them to the community. .

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Partners

ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP IN...

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1. How many people vote in Bulgaria?

- In the last votes in Bulgaria 54,07% of people were voting. Usually this is around 3% more than the votes before this one. In Bulgaria a lot of people don’t vote for the socialist parties, because they are afraid of reimbursing deeper contact with exsoviet countries and they prefer to be with more European orientation. On the other hand the rest of them are thinking that the contacts with Russia and other ex-soviet countries is not so bad and maybe is better than the EU. We have one very big part of people who vote not for someone, they vote against someone. For example a lot of people in Bulgaria, because of history, vote against parties who are in close contacts with Turkish government.

Usually young people are thinking that they can change nothing and that`s why they don`t vote. But those ones are not so many – most of them are voting and they are very active citizens.

2. How many young people belong to youth organisations?

- Unfortunately in Bulgaria youth organisations are popular only in the biggest cities. There are a lot of organisations and sometimes the same people are volunteers in 2 or more organisations. The bad thing is that a lot of people, especially the youngsters, don`t know about the existence of NGOs and they don`t know how can they take part in some of them.

Case study

BULGARIA

3. Good practices from Bulgaria about youth participation in democratic life.

- Usually the young people in Bulgaria organize a musical concerts, youth forums, taking part in charity competitions and creating different initiatives. Also the motorcyclists have an influence when they want to express something. During the spring we have one ecological day which purpose is “Let’s clean Bulgaria for one day”.

4. Representation of young people in Bulgaria.

- In every school and university in Bulgaria the students have their own institution – student council, who defends their rights. They are very active, including in situations of political instability – they were the main part of the protesting people against the government in 2013.

- Another kind of youth representation is nonformal or formal unions between them. In Bulgaria we have one “Youth forum to the students of Bulgaria”. They always take part in different initiatives, debates and give their own positions in different dialogues on round tables. Sometimes they are in contact directly with the government.

5. Do young people from Bulgaria feel they are stakeholders if they have the power to change something?

- Maybe yes. The young people in Bulgaria know very well they have a lot of energy, potential and skills to change the world (or firstly, their own country). The problem is noone supports them. Everyone around them talks about how they are the future and they will solve the problems of the country, but the truth is – if no-one shows them the right direction for developing, nothing will happen!

They can create whatever they want, but for that purpose they need support.

CROATIA 1. How many young people belong to youth organisations?

There is no available data how many young people belong to young organisations.

2. Representation of young people in Croatia.

The Croatian Youth Network (MMH) represents 66 non-governmental youth organisations in Croatia.

Its main goals are to raise awareness about young people, co-create and advocate for quality youth policies, and contribute to the development of civil society. It is coordinated by a Managing Board of elected representatives from member organisations, led by a Secretary General that is elected by the Board, and makes decisions via a yearly General Assembly. It participates in the Youth Council of the Croatian Government and is a member of the European Youth Forum.

3. Do young people from Croatia feel they are stakeholders if they have the power to change something?

Young people in Croatian are passive and depressive. They feel they can't change anything on any level. Not even in their personal life. They are the most passive age group. Also this depression come what they hear and what they see from their parents and grandparents. They think bore about going abroad than changes something in the town or country. They see their parents work hard and fight and they have less and less.

They are not interested in pure politics. They see it more through socioeconomical status. They see just corruption. Also they see corruption in non hover.ental sector. Even for example shelters for dogs for example. They think fighting is useless.

They are afraid they will end worster than the parents. There is more alcholism drug abuse depression etc. And imigrating from the country.

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CASE STUDY

CYPRUS 1. How many young people belong to youth organisations?

- 7 out of 10 young are not interested in politics 2. Representation of young people in Cyprus and  do young people from Cyprus feel they are stakeholders if they have the power to change something?  the 86% of young people believes that politicians are not on their side - 73% of young people do not belong in any political party - 86% are not belong in a political club - 94% are not belong on an environmental organizations - and 63% of young people do not want to vote in the presidential elections which will be held in February 2018

PORTUGAL 1. How many young people vote in Portugal?

Abstention is very high in general. In young population it is more likely that young people around the age of 20, living in urban areas are the ones that don’t vote. They think that their vote is not going to change anything and that it doesn’t matter for the future of the country.

2. How many young people belong to youth organizations?

For age 13 to 30 – 5.26%, of each 2.70% are males and 2.56% are female.

The existing actions of national or regional scope to support the participation of young people in local life are the Concelhos Consultivos Regionais (CCR).

3. Good practices from Portugal country about youth participation in democratic life.

- The Youth Eco-Parliament (Eco-Parlamento Jovem) is a project of environmental education for young people with representation in 14 countries in which the young people participate and make some efforts to turn the mentality and to change the daily habits of regular people in order to provide a sustainable development for all. The Sociedade Ponto Verde (Green Point Society) in Portugal is ahead of this project with Portuguese Youth Institute in a partnership.

- The programme Parlamento Jovem (Youth Parliament) is in partnership with the Portuguese Youth Institute, the Portuguese Parliament and the Ministry of Education. They call all schools (basic and high school) and incentive the students to learn how to participate in civic and political activities in order to change or to improve the present and future of the issues that affect negatively the Portuguese youngsters. This programme has also the ability to make sure that political members take note and some actions to try to resolve these issues. This programme is divided and developed in three phases: the first is in school, the second one in the district sessions and the third/final at the National Parliament.

4. Representation of young people in Portugal / community The local actions to support the structures for participation of young people in local life are Lei do Associativismo, Concelho Consultivo da Juventude, Concelho National da Juventude and special programmes on health volunteering, and youth volunteering in the forests.

5 . Do young people feel they are stakeholders, if they have the power to change something?

In majority, young people in Portugal don’t feel they are stakeholders and they are not strong enough to change anything. The reasons for this is that we believe that we don’t have enough ground knowledge on politics to make a conscious decision. Also there are the problem of corruption on politics. We don’t trust our politicians so we gave up on trying. However, there is a sense of feeling that something has to change and there are already groups of young people involved in informal groups that are starting to take things more seriously.

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CASE STUDY

ROMANIA 1. How many young people vote in Romania?

The age groups with the least turnout in elections in Romania are the youngest voters (1834). Young people in Romania are not interested in voting. The reason is that they believe they cannot change something in the political system. Young people think that the system is closed to young people.

2. How many young people belong to youth organisations?

0,32 % of young people between 18 and 30 are members of a political party.

0,13 % of young people between 18 and 30 are members of a youth organisation.

3. Good practices from Romania about youth participation in democratic life.

The Young People Parliament – project of Pro-Democratic Association, the Chamber of Deputies and the National Students’ Union, to the second edition in 2007. The first one was in 2006. It is intended a simulation of the decisional process within the Parliament of Romania, and it takes place in halls of this institution. 150 young people (pupils, students under 23 years of age) are selected based on the Curriculum Vitae sent to the organizers.

The simulation takes two days.

4. Representation of young people in Romania.

The Parliament of Young People – initiative of the Association Tineri in action (Young People in Action) of Bucharest. The role of this Parliament: it is meant to be more than a simple educational project – an influent social actor to represent the interests of the young generation. Now, the Parliament has about 300 members, young people between 16 and 32 years of age, elected by the County Conventions of the most of the counties of Romania. It is not yet entirely functional, it is in its construction and consolidation phase, in every one of the counties where it is represented.

5. Do young people from Romania feel they are stakeholders if they have the power to change something?

No young people in Romania don’t feel like stakeholders. They are rather passive, and they don’t think they can change something in their country. The big problem is immigration.

Young people prefer to leave the country and move to Western Europe countries after their graduation.

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CASE STUDY

OPINIONS In this Youth exchange took a part participants from the countries: Poland, Portugal, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria.

I want to start with the connection before the project – it was on a high level and professional. Everything that I asked our facilitator, he answered me immediately, so that’s why we could prepare our International cultural night very well. And I’m glad for it.

The second important thing was the venue. We were in a place, where everything what we needed was there. We didn’t have any problems, because if something was wrong, we solved it in a team leaders meetings or immediately.

Next thing were the rules. Every rule that we created by us was useful and everyone was agree with all of them.

Here is my favorite thing – the facilitator. I can’t say nothing bad for him. Everything what he made for us was awesome. We learned a lot of new things, methods, knowledges, skills, interesting games, and the workshops were really helpful for all of us. I’m sure that after this project every participant has a lot of great memories and feels better.

About the food I think it’s not necessary to say too much. It’s enough just to know that it was good and everything was fine.

International cultural nights were almost perfect! I was happy to see how every country tried to make a different presentation than the others. Of course has some things like a national food and digital Power point presentation that are always part of the night, but now I can say that I have a different memory from every night and I can’t choose which one is better than the other.

In general I can say – for me and my team this was one of the best projects ever! For us will be an honor to be invited again and to see all of this great people one more time! � 1

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Dimitar Betuhovski, Bulgaria opinions

OPINIONS Participating in an Erasmus+ program was something I was longing for a long time before I finally got the opportunity to apply and find myself travelling to a country I have never been to, to a village I have never heard of.

So… my adventure began in the 20th of March 2017 when I started from Cyprus to go to Poland, and particularly to the beautiful Poronin in Zakopane. From day 1, at the airport, I met the other Cypriots participants and I instantly felt comfortable and welcome. I was very excited but in the same time a bit worried and anxious about what I would met there and how things would be. But since I got to our hotel I realized that the environment was way much better than I expected! Everyone was so friendly, open and smiling. People from countries I have never been to were there to meet them, to know them to befriend them.

Also, our facilitator Lukasz was always there to assist us and ensure that everything was just fine. Our project was about Active Citizenship and I should admit that I had never really considered the importance of that before the project. During our 10 days, at that peaceful location and venue, we had the chance to get to know each other, to bond, to become a team and more than that to feel like a family. The days were passing and we were building day by day a nice team, we were learning new things and developing ourselves together until the last day. It’s a bit impossible for me to describe what this project is for me… All the activities, the energisers, the games, the Oxford debate, the interviews of the locals, the trip to Morskie Oko, the conclusions we made, the circle time every morning… everything was making me challenge myself, my thoughts and develop and grow. I have met people there who I felt I knew them way before meeting them.

Because of our common beliefs, thoughts, interests and dreams. I gain some new unique experiences and valuable moments that I will always carry… but mostly I gain some new friends that I hope I will have in my life for more than 10 days! � For all of those reasons and even more I feel grateful that I was able to participate in this project, for having a place in this Poronin family and for smiling while I write this text. I thank Erasmus+ for existing and Lukasz for making this possible in the best way! I hope I will have the chance to participate in more projects and enhance not only my knowledge in important topics and become more active as a young European citizen, but also to grow and share with other young people… because as we concluded in our last circle on a Poronin hill… nothing really devides us and lots of things unite us !

Antigone Vatylioti Cypriot Participant 14

opinions

OPINIONS   Hi i am  Maria and i am from Cyprus. I am very happy because i had the opportunity to participate in this program since it was my first European Program and i found it very interesting and informative. I believe the program covered perfectly the subject and left behind 30 people were happier and definitely different.

I learnt a lot of new things like how to communicate and speak in other languages and how people with such different languages and cultures can coexist together and have beautiful results. But most importantly i learned what an active citizenship means and activating me to be more active person.

Lukasz was awesome.He was discreet, kind, polite and very organised and i wish to meet him again in another European Program.

I feel very lucky and i couldn`t be more grateful for that decision and i believe every young person has to experience this kind of projects.

Maria Michael, Cyprus

Panayiotis Kyprianides, Cyprus I had the pleasure to participate to an Erasmus+ project, took place in Poronin, Poland. Let's talk about that.

It was my first time I participated in a program like that. I was anxious about this because I didn't know what I have to do there. So, firstly, I want to thank the leader of the project, Lukasz. Lukasz didn't let me feel anxious there at all. He was very helpful with us and he helped us to feel comfortable. Also he helped me to find out how to travel, for example buses, airplanes etc.

As regards the project itself, it was a very interesting experience. We meet each other with people from different countries and we learned about their civilization. I liked the fact that we had to be socialable because I am a very social person and I like meeting new people. Also, we had to talk in English, and I have to say that this project helped me improve my english skills.

I liked the workshops we had. It was a chance to share my opinions about sosial issues, since the subject of the project was "How to be active citizen".

Also we had very nice trips. We saw Zakopane city and we had a tour to Morskie Oko. It was very tiresome but I had a great time there. It was the first time I saw so much snow!

I liked the project and the Poland in general. It was a very great experience and I hope to have the chance again to participate to something like that.

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opinions

OPINIONS As a leader of Croatian team I felt very welcomed on this project. The workshops were very balanced. At beginning, it was introduced to the topics, in the middle there were visits to local youth representatives and traveling to Morskie oko. At the end, we concluded our topic and teamwork. The accommodation was good and authentic to the area, which included traditional Polish cuisine.

Damir Ilic, Croatia I have to say that this project was one of best expiriences in my life. I learned a lot about other countries and cultures, I made new friends, met some wonderful people and had a great time. This project halped me to be more motivated and interested in active citizenship. I think that generaly project was really interesting and beneficial for my knowlidge.

Danijel Krivdic, Croatia

Hello! My name is Alex, I was a participant from Poland team. That was my 1st project. And now I had 4 more. And all can I say, those youth exchange in Poronin was the best. Within this short time we became a family, one big family. We thought together, we did together, we learnt together, we grew together. I learnt a lot of new things, I got new skills and learnt a lot about the topic active citizenship and express myself any crowd.

I will remember this for a long time :) Aleksey Tkach, Poland I will try to describe my project experience in "What unites us, what divides us" briefly, so many things and events were done which helped students to integrate with each other faster and funnier because of the timetable of the events were fully constructed and reviewed, i reckon that was my one of the best project so far, big thanks to Erasmus Plus program and Organizational team giving us such a opportunity spending our time useful for our further studies and finding new friends around the Europe. I think everyone came back to their countries only with positive emotions for a looong time and will stay with them forever Anvar Sadullaev, Poland So, i have been to one of the wonderful projects that is being conducted by Lukasz, i would really like to express my thoughts about it and say how i loved it - - starting from activities and finishing by traveling, that was unforgettable, even it could be considered as the "best days" Â in Poland ever for me. I learned many things, as Oxford debates, accumulated much knowledge about each country, knew more about cultures - 'cultural exchange' between different people, that was very important for each of us. We are still in contact with each other, thanks to the project.

Otabek Kamalov, Poland ,Â

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opinions

OPINIONS It was an intensive week of work focused in the proposed theme but with several moments of fun and intercultural change. It has opened my eyes to the political situation in Portugal and in the other countries that participated in the program. It also has improved my notion of active citizenship and I met new realities.

It was, without a doubt, the greatest experience of my life!

Ana Maria Freire, Portugal

Being a partner in this project was a great experience for our association. Right from the start, all the information amongst all partners was clear and up-to-date. Any doubts and questions were discussed and solved. I was also very happy with my team because, for most of them, it was their first experience at youth exchanges and they didn't know what to expect, but in the end they all were happy, they felt like they learnt a lot, not only about active citizenship, but also about other countries, about Europe and other oportunities for young adults like them.

The plan of the project was designed to let the participants have a voice, to share and to learn about the subject in question. Also, Lukazs was a great project coordinator and everybody felt like they could count on him for anything and also very responsible and sensitive to the participants' needs.

As a group leader, it was great to see all the learning and sharing that my participants had during the project and to listen from they, everyday, how amazing the experience had been. I'm really looking Ana Ribeiro, Porugal

The youth exchanges “what unites us, what divides us”, was more than a simply meeting between young people from five countries. The week was a constant exchanges of knowledge and points of views. With this exchanges now i know more about other countries, about other cultures. Now I have an ability to better understand why and how other cultures think and act. It was only a week but it was important for my personal growth Paula Dias, Portugal ,

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opinions

OPINIONS IThe project "What unites us, what divides us" was my first project and I really had no idea what to expect from it.

I was really impressed by the fact that this project has reunited 30 people with different experiences and expectations, from 6 different countries and cultures and they have found a way to bond. We realised that we have a lot more in common,than we thought we had, as peoples or countries.

We had a lot of activities, we learned about what "active citizenship" means, we met with the local youth council, we had an Oxford debate, each day we had energisers and we learned new games.

What was more important is the fact that at the end of this project we were all friends and we are still keeping in touch and we are making plans together for the future.

This project helped me to face my public speaking problems and I am very happy that at the end of this project I was able to speak in front of 30 people (friends). Also I think I have improved my English skills, and I definitely improved my team work abilities.

In the end, I was a little bit nostalgic about finishing the project but I am sure that we will see each other again.

Daniela Tudorancea, Romania What i liked the most about it is that this project wasn't about studying it was about learning. Before this project I was a very shy and emotive person but i learned how to bound with other people, i learned that nothing can stop us get to know other people even though we were of other cultures, nationalites, etc. It was a surprise for me to discover that you can build a beautiful friendship in such a short time and talk with each other like we already met before. I learned something new about each country, I discovered that indeed we are different but we have a lot in common. This project offered me a chance to find myself and know more about myself, it was like a character building, before i was afraid talking in front of people. I feel grateful that i had the chance to meet you and visit a very beautiful place on this earth. In my opinion the best part of this project were the activities because you don't come across with those type of things everyday. Activities that were educational, fun, creativity, full of ideas. From my point of view the most difficult activity yet the funniest, was the one in Zakapone when we had to take interviews to other people on the street and asking them about active citizenship, it was hard for me to start a conversation with someone i don't know because i was afraid of the reaction but i learned that the opinions are different from people to people and we have to accept the fact that not everybody enjoys being stopped on the street and and being questioned by strangers. I came back home with a lot of experience, good memories and last but not least good friendships that i hope will last forever. I would gladly repeat the whole experience again.

In conclusione the Erasmus + program can change our lifes Nur Saadeddin, Romania

In this exchange I learned what is a active citizen! I learned a lot of games, I made a lot of friends,I improved my english. I saw how is to have a full program with activities! Was my first program, and was awesome!

Oana Moldoveanu, Romania

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opinions

ARTICLE It’s 3 AM… I just met some new people – they are supposed to be my team…

Someone told me to get in a car…

I’m going to travel for 2 days with people I don’t know… …to…I don’t know actually where I’m scared…

Where am I going?

This was the beginning of my adventure called Youth exchange in Poronin. Then I was not able to imagine that one of the best weeks in my life is just waiting for me to happen!

It was my first Erasmus+ project and I had no idea how everything works. I had never been abroad without my family before and I felt shy and insecure at the beginning. And on the top of it, I had to share a room with three girls form different nations!

But then the miracle happened! Only three hours after our arrival we were staying in a room with people from 5 other cultures singing songs and passionately talking to each other like we were old friends from childhood. The language barrier and the differences in our cultures, the borders between our countries…they were only 3 hours high…and all of them disappeared as a cards in the hand of a magician (what one of the Portuguese members actually was).

When I woke up on the next day, I looked through the window and the view left me speechless. We were on the skirts of a mountain and the sun was kissing its tops covered with snow. I don’t know whether the reason was in the people from the project, or in the fascinating scenery but this place really had a spirit which touched me deeply.

Every evening was devoted to one of the six countries included in the project. This was my favorite time of the day.

I learned a lot about the beliefs, the nature and the history of places I’ve never been. But the best part was the one with the practice of folk dances and the traditional food. I felt in love with the halloumi!

The days we were spending in a cozy wooden cottage where we played a lot of games which provoked our thinking, empathy, creativity and unconsciously made all of us a team! Furthermore, our discussions revealed to me a new field to develop myself – to be more active citizen. From our indoor activities I was the more impressed from the Oxford debate due to the fact that it placed me in front of my biggest fear – public speaking. But it also included a group work and made us move our brains and compete.

I can’t miss to mention my two brightest memories – the trip to the frozen lake Morskie oko and our last afternoon, spent on the top of a hill near the place where we were living. But it’s not important where you are, it’s important who is the one, staying next to you there. During the time of the project, without even realizing the process, from strangers, we were became a family!

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opinions

The title of the project was “What unites us, what divides us”. But I couldn’t see what divide us. I saw only things that unite us. There I met friends for a lifetime (I hope), a people who influenced my thinking and share my interests as well as I made unforgettable memories! I realized that all we are the same – have the same passions, the same dreams, the same values.

On leaving, our facilitator used the word „Karma” to explain the way that all of us clicked so well to each other. It means that when you have a good energy and behavior, you will take it back in some way. Well, I think Erasmus+ is a project where you will meet the persons with the greatest Karma ever!

Ivona Cholakova, Bulgaria

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