Workshop newsletter April

Youth in Action Programme Sub-action 3.2 - Youth in the World Cooperation with countries other than the neighbouring countries of the European Union Call for Proposals EACEA/10/2013

Second Workshops Newsletter In April 2014, Second workshops of project are done in Romania, Turkey, Spain, India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

 On April 11th, 2014 ATFPDR Romania had organized the second local workshop dedicated to environment and to youth involvement in nature protection.

The workshop was organized as a world cafĂŠ and it was attended by 25 participants.

World cafĂŠ is a non formal education method in which, the participants are divided in small groups staying to tables and discussing about a given topic. After a while, the participants change the table and move to another table where they discuss about the topic from that table. In our workshops, there were the following topics of discussion: the causes of the climate change, potential solutions at community level for reduce the effects of the climate change, the connection between welfare and sustainable development, environmental problems that the local community is facing and involvement of youth in solving environmental problems. During the workshop the young participants were able to express their ideas and opinions about these issues and to listen the others ideas.

The workshop was organized in Dedeman Otel, Zonguldak TURKEY with 25

participants by Yap Zonguldak Association.

If you are working with youth probably you still playing games with them. The games are all around and not only Youth in Action is full of them. Often we are talking about non-formal learning, but maybe we are just a consumers of games and activities. We still using words like teambuilding, icebreaker, and energizers and on. Do you really know what does it mean? How many experiences with games do you have? How many games you created by yourselves? We are trying to realize a training course in Czech Republic for 9 days. And it is prepared for those who want to recognize experiential learning as a non-formal method on you selves. First part is focused on self-development in experience. Second part is focused on theory of learning by experience and third part is about finding your own way to create games and activities. Within this activity, each promoter will facilitate a meeting between the participants to the project and other young people not participating in the project, youth workers, youth leaders and representatives of local authorities. The purpose of this meeting is to gather information on issues that young people are facing in terms of active involvement in the community life and finding solutions locally for active involvement in the community life and finding solutions for solving environmental problems. Thus, during these meetings, the young people will come in contact with local authorities, other young people with experience and will be able to learn to be actively involved in the community life.

The 2nd workshop ‘Global Warming and You : A Youth Climate Activism Workshop’ organized by OSVSWA on 13 April 2014, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. This one-day introductory workshop organized to introduce the burning issue “Global Warming” and the importance of youths to lead a role in finding effective solutions. The discussion begun with a global warming primer that focused on the local impacts of climate change in India. About 42 youth were attended this one day workshop.

The major discussion points of the introductory session were: global warming reasons and impacts and Importance of volunteering, role of young volunteers in climate change process, volunteering for a holistic development, and young volunteers as a catalyst for green youth citizen. Youths participating in the ‘Global Warming and You’ workshop were injected with better insight on global warming and its local impacts by the guests speakers invited to the workshop with examples of successful projects carried out by peers. The youth participants also learned about community solutions to this massive problem. Participants gained the leadership skills, and the confidence which is very much required to become a leader in creating positive change in their own communities. This one day workshop was a better floor for the youths to interact with learned personnel and gain ample knowledge and to explore him/herself. There were two thematic areas i.e. Climate change, impacts and possible solutions that youths can lead Recognition or Motivation to young volunteers into taking action ; which were discussed during the workshop to give the youth participants an overview and insight about climate change and its management.

There were two group exercises conducted i.e. Climate change, impacts and possible solutions that youths can lead, and recognition or motivation to young volunteers into taking action. The participants were divided into two groups to discuss on both the topics

First Local workshop of Green Youth Citizens by Sambhawana, Nepal On 28th of February, Sambhawana organized one day workshop in Kathmandu under the project Green Youth Citizens on the theme “Young People in Green activism”. 35 youth from different age group and background came together in one common platform to share their green ideas and actions and to have a conversation with some of the well-­‐ known green activists and fellow youth in the country. The gathering began with some warm sessions that allowed participants to know each other and have a little fun

followed by sharing of project Green Youth Citizens, its objectives and activities and how young people can be a part of this project and take local initiatives.

The first session began with a brainstorming/issues mapping among the participants where all the participants contributed different environment related issues as they see in their communities. Some of the issues were: need of environmental friendly education, haphazard urbanization, Scarcity of water resources, decreasing underground water level, air water and land pollution, lack of implementation of policy in waste management, lack of Knowledge of 4R-­‐ Reuse , Reduce, Recycle, refuse etc .Based on the issues identified, participants were divided into four groups where they picked one issues that they would like to work in their community given the resources and support from Sambhawana and other stakeholders.

The final session began where the participants did a presentation in the plenary which was followed by panel discussion. Mr. Sailendra Dangol, a well-­‐known green activist and cyclist started off on how he got into green activism and what inspired him. Another guest Mr. Angel Chitrakar, Senior Program Officer of Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA) shared his experiences about different projects and programs that ECCA runs, he shared how they are focusing on schools for the promotion and protection of green environment. The panel presentation was followed by questions and answers. All in all, a very productive day well spent with amazing young people from different communities.

Second Local workshop of Green Youth Citizens by Sambhawana, Nepal On 12 April, yet another successful workshop was conducted under Green Youth Citizens project.25 dynamic youth from various fields came together to discuss on environment issues and share possible solutions. The workshop starting with some cooperative activities that helped participants know each other. Second session started with brainstorming on environmental issues. Some of the issues shared by the participants were population growth, excessive use of plastic bags, natural disasters, and urbanization.

After prioritizing the issues, the participants formed themselves in a small working groups and possible solutions. Each group worked out on list of activities that they can do within youth network and also came up with ideas on what government, civil society actors, media can do. Some of the suggestions that they group shared on the panel were: a platform where young people can come together and work on environment related issues. Another was, the need of creating awareness to different communities on where we need to go green, whey recycling, reusing is important. One of the groups suggested that we need to learn and teach different initiatives to preserve natural resources, plus, there should be strict rules and policies from the government about urbanization. Some of the participants shared that they have been using cloth and paper bags instead of plastic bags.

Further, they suggested by recycling the plastic products, employment opportunities can be created for young people. Almost all the participants had strong feeling that the recent road expansion in Kathmandu city has direct impact on trees cut down.

So, there is a need of tree plantation. One of the groups suggested that promotion of renewable & alternative energy like bio-­‐gas, hydro energy, solar energy, wind energy should be a government priority. They also made a commitment that they would reach out to school students with educational program and support in establishing green or echo club. Yet another, fun filled productive day with active and dedicated young people.

To create a platform for young representatives and to educate them about the raising environmental issues, ESDO in association with Green Youth Citizens

organized the 2nd workshop of the series on “Role of Youth in Climate Change Adaptation through Conservation of Biodiversity” under Youth in Action: Green Youth Citizens project in association with European Commission (EC) on March 30, 2014. 26 students from University of Liberal Arts (ULAB), Jagannath University and Stamford University participated in the workshop and shared their ideas on youth leadership and opportunities for conserving biodiversity at the workshop. This time ESDO kept the broad heading of climate change but focused on biodiversity conservation because 30% of biodiversity of Bangladesh will be extinct within 2050. However, these species are needed to maintain the ecological balance and better adapt to extreme climatic events. The workshop elaborated the topic through discussion of experts and participants, formal presentation, participatory group work and open discussion. The main focus of the workshop was to discuss the issue about loss of biodiversity, climate change adaptation and youth participation for community awareness on climate change adaptation and conservation of biodiversity. The expected outcome of the project was to involve youth actively in environmental movement.