Financed by:
Partners:‘This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. |
European Luggage – Democracy Echo 2009“European Luggage – Democracy Echo” (July 2009, Valea Doftanei-Romania) – international youth exchange organized in cooperation with youth associations from Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Turkey
Initially, it was only a project idea, but, afterwards we thought to diversify the projects’ topics under the umbrella European Luggage. The favourable answer related to the financing from the National Agency made our idea real, and we, the EuroEst Youth Foundation team prepared for what we hope to be European Luggage – Democracy Echo, namely, a successful project. The YiA Programme offered us the possibility of transforming an idea shared by many youngsters and of bringing together 30 people who will enjoy experimenting new situations, to meet people with different cultural background. 30 young people from Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Turkey and Romania spent an intense week (25th of July-2nd of August) at Valea Doftanei in Traisteni, region Prahova, accommodated at Doftana Spring Hut, where the activities took place. During the 8 days of activities, the participants contributed to the activity of the 3 workshops with actual topics for all partner countries, but also at European Union level. The central topics were gender discrimination and European institution, with a focus on the activity related to voting a law in the European Parliament. Besides the 2 main themes, the discussion during the workshops targeted the minorities’ discriminations, integration of Turkey in the European Union, discrimination based on the sexual orientation and the danger of the traffic with human being. In order to relax after the long debates, all participants enjoyed on Wednesday a trip to Peles Castle, Bran and Brasov. The first day… Our emotions, as hosting organization and as any person in front of a new experience, started on Saturday 25th of July, very early in the morning in the train station, waiting for the Bulgarian Group. After a tasty breakfast, which made our emotions disappear, we travelled together to the airport, where we met with participants from Turkey and Estonia. Together we started the trip to Valea Doftanei, where we met the French group and we were to enrich ourselves with new experience and knowledge. The first day started with an introduction of the project and general program, name games, and an analysis of expectations, fears and individual abilities. On Sunday, we continued with discovering the surroundings but also with discovering the other participants, we tried to know each other better before the workshops start. Sunday evening was the first of the thematic evenings and we, as representative of Romania were glad to present our country, specific habits and tasty snacks. The dinner was a traditional one, with sarmale, mamaliga and Romanian cheese pie. At the end of the presentation we enjoyed the Romanian music, danced and taught the others traditional Romanian dances. The conclusion was that the dances were much appreciated and not very difficult to be practiced by everybody. — Monday was the first day of intense work, starting the first workshop’s activities, Gender Discrimination, which covered the next 2 days. The first day focused on the discussions related to the problems which appear as a consequence of the gender discrimination, as well on the proposals for solutions for implementing the gender equality measures, at least in European Union. — The workshop leaders Nicolae Toderas and Monica Puscas, moderated the discussions and coordinated the first game “Albatroseini” The game with a specific albatrosien ritual, amazed some of the participants and helped them to understand that the stereotypes involving gender discrimination are related to certain cultures and are not always easily removed. The activities of the first workshop continued on Wednesday, when in the first part we had to put into stage some forum theatre plays and in the second part at the participants’ request, every country presented the way in which gender discrimination is presented in different cultures; The presentation of the specific problems concluded with an open discussions on the main theme of discrimination. — Transforming the ideas into scenes in the forum theatre was the most attractive and successful activity of the project. The participants split in 3 teams had the task to perform 3 scenes on different topics: discrimination based on sexual orientation, traffic with human being, and the problem of the parents who had to give up the career in favour of child rising in the condition of reduced number of places in the kindergarten. The results were remarkable and the messages of the teams where very well shared, so that the public involved themselves and could change the course of action for a favourite result for the role players. The performance of the gay couple (as players) and of the couple of parents, with different visions regarding sexual orientation,(Aurelia, Yusuf, George, Ina) of the wife preoccupied by career (Maria), of the girl forced to prostitute (Chloe), of the Kindergarten director (Aurelia) and of the merciless bodyguard ( Marko), were only some of the role plays which animated the public. — The thematic evenings of the partner countries were a real delight, enriching our luggage with more information about the other cultures. In this way, we found out many things about Bulgarian and Estonian culture, tasted the traditional food and practiced the traditional music. Bulgaria amazed us with the gorgeous landscape and tasty cheese pie. Estonia showed us how a small country can rapidly develop on democracy and modern way …the party went on with traditional dances, enjoyed by all participants. On Tuesday it was the turn of the French group and of the turkey group to delight us with gorgeous places, Turkish coffee, Turkish delight, oriental dance made a perfect Turkish evening. The French group, tried in an original way, to find out by a contest what we know about their country, history and culture. The French part concluded with a sudden strike and a good wine. — After 3 days full of activities, Wednesday was the day of the trip. The trip started with a visit to Peles Castle, where the combination of the architectural and decorative styles impressed the young people. Brasov was the next stop on our way. For a few hours we visited many places in the old centre part and we had time to enjoy the beauty of Brasov town. Our last objective, in a very long day was the Bran Castle, Dracula Castle. This objective, even if highly expected by the participants didn’t really meet their expectations. — Thursday meant in fact the 2nd workshop ” Propaganda Campaign” on 3 different topics, worked out by the 5 teams. The first team achieved a campaign on gender discrimination based on the movies recorded in the same day and which impressed by their creativity and sensitive perception of the most frequent stereotypes. Another 2 teams achieved in parallel a campaign on the topic Turkey Integration in EU, with an intensive debate between them. What has drawn the attention in the case of this topic was the way the young people from Turkey sustained their point of view with arguments. The last 2 teams achieved 2 campaigns on the minorities’ discrimination topics, a problem which occurred in all countries, participants at the project, one of the theme bringing pro arguments and the other contra arguments against positive discrimination. This workshop leaded to intensive discussions which generated constructive debates among young people, which proved once again that sensitive and complex topics have been approached in this project. — — The 3rd workshop “Negotiation of a law in European Parliament” supposed in introductive part, in which the workshop leaders provided information about the European Institutions, about their importance and the key role they play. This introduction was followed by large discussion between more Parliament groups regarding a law which would assure equal chances for women and men on the labour market. Beside the work during the workshops, we had a lot of fan and unique experiences: in one of the evening, a karaoke show was a real challenge for talented participant, the opened cinema offered a selection of movies which had been also enjoyed by youngsters, the horse carriage ride in the woods and finally the fire camp in the last evening, for the best way of saying goodbye. After a very beautiful week, we returned to Bucharest where we said goodbye to all participants, happy about our successful project, in which the contribution of every one was very important, hoping that our activities changed opinions and brought an added value to personal development of the young people. — — |
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