Small Communities Have Big Problems - Magazine

Description of project:

"SMALL COMMUNITIES, BIG PROBLEMS" is a youth exchange that hapend in Romania between 26 august and 4 september 2022 with 42 participants from 8 countries.

The aim of the project is to provide to youngsters from small communities solutions to main problems like unemployment, addictions, pollution, critical thinking etc

Objectives:

1. Increasing awareness on youngsters and civic society on problems of youngsters in small communities

2. developing competences for youngsters in offering solutions based on nonformal education methods to increase quality of life in small communities

3. promote media creation, video creation and theater as nonformal methods to manage problems in small communities

4. expand European cooperation between youngsters and youth structures in frame of new Erasmus + programme for 2021-2027

The methodology is based on nonformal education methods including presentations, world café, theater, media and video creation etc The project activities will be preparation, introduction, geting to know eachother, workshops in plenary and teams, outdoor activities, intercultural evenings, visits, reflection and evaluation according to agenda.

Final products: videos, theater plays and a guide with all information, methods, tools, solutions

Accomodation: Vila Cristina Busteni (https://vila-cristina-busteni.business.site/) – in rooms of 2 or 3 beds with private bathroom and shower

Youthpass

Youthpass is the recognition instrument developed for the projects realised in the European youth programmes. Through the Youthpass certificate, participation in such projects can be recognised as an educational experience and a period of non-formal and informal learning. Youthpass foresees a process applied throughout the project life-cycle to support the learning of participants. It also serves as a strategy that improves the recognition of non-formal learning in Europe.

You can use the Youthpass Certificate to: * better manage your individual training course and reflect the results of non-formal learning; * to obtain a social recognition of the activity carried out; * increase your chances of employment; * increase your chances of access to various forms of lifelong learning; * to brag to friends and family about what you've learned or to compare with other volunters

The Key Competences are:

1. Multilingual competence

Multilingual competence is the ability to use different languages for communication and to understand and express thoughts, feelings and facts orally or in writing. One would need to know the grammar and vocabulary of a certain language. The ability to learn a language in

various ways is also important. Appreciation of cultural diversity and curiosity for intercultural communication are attitudes connected to this competence.

2. Personal, social and learning to learn competence

Personal, social and learning to learn competence is the ability to learn to learn, to manage one’s own learning and to reflect on oneself. It is about time and information management. Social competences include working with others in a constructive way and managing conflicts in a supportive way. Personal competences include resilience, the ability to cope with uncertainty and complexity and to show empathy. Ability to support physical and emotional well-being is also relevant for this competence area.

3.Citizenship competence

Citizenship competence is the ability to act as responsible citizens and to fully participate in civic and social life, based on understanding of social, economic, legal and political concepts as well as global developments and sustainability.

Competence in cultural awareness and expression is the understanding of how ideas are creatively expressed in different cultures, through different arts. It involves developing and expressing own ideas. It requires the knowledge of local, European and global cultures and the ability to express ideas and emotions in different artistic and cultural forms. Openness and curiosity are important attitudes.

6. Digital competence

Digital competence involves the responsible use of digital technologies; communication and collaboration, media literacy, digital content creation, safety, intellectual property related questions, problem solving and critical thinking. It includes the ability to use information via a range of digital technologies, to question available information; curiosity and open-minded attitude.

7. Mathematical competence and competence in science, technology and engineering

Mathematical competence and competence in science, technology, engineering (STEM) is the ability to use mathematical thinking to solve problems in everyday situations. Competence in science refers to the ability to use knowledge; to identify questions and to base opinions on evidence. It includes the ability to use logical and critical thinking, to handle technological tools and to communicate conclusions and reasoning behind them.

8. Literacy competence

4.Entrepreneurship competence

Entrepreneurship competence refers to the capacity to act upon opportunities and to turn ideas into action that has value for others. It includes taking initiative, creativity, innovation, critical thinking and problem solving. It requires the ability to work collaboratively and to plan projects of cultural, social or financial value.

5. Cultural awareness and expression competence

Literacy competence is the ability to understand and express thoughts, feelings and facts orally, in writing or in other forms, and to interact with others. It is the basis for further learning. The openness to critical and constructive dialogue and the awareness on the impact of language on others are important elements of this competence.

*Competences = combination of skills, knowledge and attitudes

CIVIC PASIVITY

VIDEO WORKSHOP

Video making is a very complex and powerful tool in the non-formal learning. During it, many key competences can be tackled: team spirit, IT, cultural expression, entrepreneurship etc. Aside of that, in order to make a good production, the participants have to fully understand the theme of the video, to discuss and research about it. Other things that are to be taken in consideration are related with some basic knowledge of video making, learning the basics of an editing program, how to find sounds and music free of royalties etc.

In national teams the task was to identify some local problems and to show it in a short video. In the activity of the videos, each team was made up of participants from the same country. The theme was the same as that of the project and the participants had the freedom to connect to any small community. Things moved quickly because the barriers of language no longer hindered communication and also ideas were more easily accepted.

Romania made a video about abuse in which a Romanian girl was drugged and raped, and in the end her friends were by her side and helped her get over. The role of the material was to help people who have been through abuse to get over the traumas they have acquired.

The Polish team presented the problem to people who don't care about the problems of small communities. They wanted to show how much carelessness can affect everyday life and how important it is to get involved and try to solve it.

Spain has made a video of the story of a family that stops leaving their child in school due to mentality problems. The little girl decides to run away from home because of quarrels with her parents without education. Although it was a funny video it helped to make the participants aware that the lack of education can be a danger.

Greece has approached the subject of women abused by their husbands in a special way. They put a picture from each phase of physical abuse, and in the background they put their voice with the story she went through.

The Czech republic team tried to address several problems of small communities in the form of a video game. Passing the level consists in becoming a better citizen through certain tasks.

has shown how going to vote should be extremely important for things to change in their country. Two of the girls dressed up as two Balkan fathers and behaved as if they didn't care about the votes and after they changed their mindset.

Latvian team thought about the problem of people who do not go to vote. They showed how sad life can be if no one goes to vote. In the end, they found the solution for all society's problems through voting.

has addressed the problem of lack of

when it is most needed and combating it through social media influencers who can encourage this through the fame they possess. After viewing, an Italian spoke about the fact that he is a donor and signed that after his death his organs would be used.

Posters – Workshop

Civic awareness

Any visual campaign should have some strong posters. Aside the videos made for civic awareness campaign, the posters were another final products. Different approaches, different styles, same problems. The main problems tackled were the absence to the vote, lack of empathy for people in need, domestic violence and trash management.

Different approaches in the style adopted, from artistic photography to drawing, collage shows that the creativity has no boundaries.

For this workshop, media campaign about citizenship competence, the facilitators chose to let the participants work in national groups. The reason is that each national team can identify specific problems at local level, with different shades and specificity. The results are good.

During the workshop, people were fully involved, but, meanwhile, they had a lot of fun.

Upcycling

In this activity, also known as creative reuse, we had to transform wasted materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products perceived to be of greater quality, such as artistic value or environmental value.

We were divided in teams and then we had to establish what we wanted to do, we also had some useless materials at our disposal but if we needed something like glue or something else to finish our product we could ask, and later receive.

We had two days to finish the art pieces, so we had enough time to do whatever we wanted. The process was a very creative one. Our teammates were very open and creative. During this activity we learned a lot about each other and not only, we also learned how to upcycle.

After we finished our art pieces we had to present them and explain how we did them and what we could use them in every day life.

Every team did a great job, creating products from pen holders, candle holders, boxes made out of magazines, decorations made out of bottles, a vase with flowers to a dream catcher, a bird feeder, a little and a big sweeper and a lot more.

In the end, the results of this workshop were collected and putted in a very nice and rich exhibition that everyone was able to see.

CV& Cover letter

Knowing how to do a relevant CV is a competence that can help young people searching employment or a place to university. Therefore, is important to learn how to make it and how can be improved by targeting it to a certain public.

In the preparatory phase, before the mobility, participants were asked to make a short CV based on Europass template. Starting from those, there were discussed the main features that a good CV have to include.

In small, international groups, participants were asked to imagine a character (name, skills, education etc), the position is after and to make a CV and a cover letter for this person in form on a poster.

Mr. Vlček Wolf

"The bunny of wolf" Brasov flowes street 33 Romania

Mr. Vlček Wolf, i would like to aply for the position of Biotchnology scince in company "The bunny of wolf" which was adevertised in social media.

I gratuated university of weeds and Agriculture in Plzeñ for the biotchnology. I olso have done Botanical courses.

I worked at pharmacy faktory as pharmacist assistent in Dagda, at a Hospital as lab assistent in Plzeñ and at Unicef as volunteer in Plzeñ. I have organization skills, Reserch, Detail-oriented, technical, critical-thinking competences. I speak English, Latvian, Polish, Romanian, Czech. Olso i have lidership, comunication, time menegement.

In my free time i like fishing, sport activities and gardening.

For your company i can analyze interpret and translate results into actionable and tangible findings. Administer all pdocesses and procedeurs in a compliant, ethnical manner. Thank you for your time. I look forward to speaking with you about my experience and passion for all aspects of this work. Best regards Zajićek Majićek

Mr Propper,

I would like to apply for the position of event manager in your company, which I saw in an advertisement.

I graduated Professional High School of Business and logistics, finished bachelors degree for Management in University of Brasov and got masters degree in PR at National and Kapodistian university ofAthens.

My previous experience includes working as a waiter in “Busteni extra good restaurant” and as event assistant in “Dracula Castle”.

I have great digital, communicational and organizational skills, I am also very good with editing and design programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as Microsoft Office.

I’m fluent in English, Greek and Romanian and I have B1 in Spanish and Bulgarian. I also have driving license.

Regarding my personal skills, I am energetic, creative, a hard worker, I can manage my time and I can work great in a team.

All these competencies make me a great addition to your team and I think I can fulfil the goals of your company.

You can find the copies of my diplomas and the certificates of the courses I have passed attached. I hope to hear from you and wish you GREAT SUCCESS in personal and professional life.

Yours sincerely, Eventis Manageris

Gini Houston

Hello. I would like to apply for the position of tourist guide in Busteni 5 star hotel. I have finished my masters degree in agriculture and I'm very familiar with the community of Busteni and the nearby environment.

I participated in an internship for World Wildlife Fund and was a receptionist at a Bucharest hotel. I have multilingual skills such as speaking English, Romanian and Spanish.

I'm a sportsman, I like adventuring and I'm good at public speaking.

I'm an extroverted type of person that would be perfect for this job. I am very motivated and ready for new experiences.

With best regards Gini Houston

Dear Mr. Kowalski,

I would like to apply for a job as a shop manager in Żabka. I found out about the job through a friend who also works in one of your stores. I was happy to see that you are looking for a manager, because I would like to join the team.

I think I would be suitable for this position because I have a Master's degree in Management. My practical experience includes helping my parents manage their own stores in Spain and Greece. I am multilingual, I speak Spanish, Greek, English and Chinese. I also have good technical skills. I can easily communicate and connect with people. I am a good leader who knows how to motivate others and solve problems.

I am a passionate person. I am a big fan of karaoke, I like dancing and cooking. However, I also read books in my free time.

I would like to work for your company and improve my management skills. I am willing to improve my weaknesses.

Thank you very much for your time. Sincerely, Mick Sigma.

Mr Magda Gessler

I would like to apply for the position of a baker in Raraland Bakery which was advertised on your website today.

I graduated from Rat School of cooking in Ratland. Later I was cooking for the Institution of Rats for one year.

Then I decided to work as a cook in The Luxury Rat in Paris for 10 months after which I changed my career to a baker at "Your Favourite Rat" where I was responsible for receiving orders, managing the kitchen and of course baking the pastries. Meanwhile, I volunteered as a cook for “Orphaned Rats" where I was the kitchen chef for two years. Also, I was the organizer of the Ratland National Day in 2017 and 2018.

While being a flexible person and a fabulous baker I also have communication and team working skills My native language is Romanian and I can also speak English on the B1 level with skills in social media.

Mr KalrsAndersson

I’m Anja Benedikte and i would like to apply for the position of Logistic Manager of your shoes company. I have studied at Durham’s University and the knowledge that I took were intensified with my experience in big companies like IKEA. Nevertheless, the volunteering experiences that I realized in my career encourage my values and the way I am able to manage personal skills. At the end, my communication skills and my personality makes me the perfect profile for your company. Thank you so much for your time. Sincerely, Anja Benedikte

Mr.Alexander Sanchez,

I would like to apply for the position of janitor in your farm, which was advertised in InfoJobs Web.

I graduated on High school specified on agricultural farming and also I am graduated on a superior degree on veterinary.

I had the possibility to did an internship at Cassolnovo Farm during the high school.

About my personal skills, I speak Romanian, German and English, I got driving license, I have also computer skills, and moreover I have good communication skills (gained through the internship that I did on the past). Additionally I had done volunteering like animal shelter and helping community with farm s work.

All these competences recommend me to be a janitor in your farm in the main areas.

Hoping to get a positive feedback, I wish you GREAT SUCCESS in your personal and professional life.

Yours sincerely, Klaux G.

Interviews

Many of young people will have to prepare and to give interviews, either to get a job or to climb in the carrier life. This is the reason for this workshop: putting the participants in the role of the interviewed, but, in the same time, in the role of the interviewer. In this way, half of them would have the opportunity to see how it is to be “on the other side”, what to search, what to evaluate and how big responsibility carries the employer.

Before the activity, the trainers prepared tickets with pairs of people participating in interviews, one as interviewed and one and one as interviewer. The roles are shared randomly and in secret they had some time to prepare the interview. After the preparatory phase, one by one the couples stepped forward and had the interviews in front of the audience.

We had an activity where we had to take some fictive interviews from someone that wanted to apply for the job. In order to decide who is going to play the interviewer or the one that gets interviewed we had to pick up some tickets and then pick some questions for the person you interview.

After some time everyone gathered in the conference room set a table and two chairs and got the activity started.

Every interviewer had interesting questions, some funny ones and some serious ones.

The ones that got interviewed were very invested in answering the questions very good, some were very funny with their answers. Overall it was a very interesting and funny activity.

Role playing

A role play is a short drama acted out by the participants. Although participants draw on their own life experiences to role play a situation, role plays are mostly improvised. Role plays can improve understanding of a situation and encourage empathy towards the people who are portrayed. They enable people to experience challenging situations but in a safe atmosphere (Compass).

In international small groups, made randomly, participants receive a broader theme and they have to set up a short play showing the problem and, eventually a reasonable solution in solving the problem.

In this workshop we had to use our acting talent and stage a theater scene. We were divided in teams and had to think and write a script for the scene that we wanted to do. We were given some topics and then invent a script around it.

Every team then found a place where they could write the script.

After they established what the script is going to be like, they had to find or to make the costumes.

Then they rehearsed the scene and put together the decoration, and if they needed help from someone to play a character in their play they could ask the youngsters from the other teams.

After some time everyone gathered in the conference room at the establishe hour and started the show.

Everyone had a great time, some of the scenes were sad, or serious and some of them funny.

The costumes were very funny, and the characters also.

Every team presented their theater scene in front of the public, it felt just like a real theater room.

POSTERS

In the preparatory phase, before the mobility, the participants had the task to do some research concerning the problems in their small communities or, if they live in big cities, problems of the neighborhoods, small groups, minorities, or small communities they are in contact with.

During the first thematic workshop, in international teams, we had to discuss and make a poster illustrating the core of those problems. In this way, we made a gallery and during the Gallery Tour we had the opportunity to discuss and discover what other teams presented. It was a very good point of departure for the further discussions during next workshops.

The problems were represented either a lightnings, paths, arrows, but basically the problemsș were mostly similar: trash, bullying, addictions, pollution, corruption. Even though the identified problems were mostlty the same, the creativity was unleashed and each team has its original way to present those problems. Some problems could be find just în some works a disintegration of elderlyș or excessive urbanisation. In “Nothingville” a new problem is the big delays în the public transport. Other problems: lack of drinking water, garbage thrown in nature, lack of jobs, deforestation and depopulation of areas.

All in all, the participants enjoyed working in a team, they felt good, the results were very good and everyone was happy. Each participant put their soul into the posters, they gave their best. The activity was a very good start for what was about to follow...

World cafe workshop

The World Cafe is a method which makes use of an informal cafe setting for participants to explore an issue by discussing it in small table groups. Discussion is held in multiple rounds of 10-15 minutes, with the cafe ambiance intended to allow for more relaxed and open conversations to take place (https://involve.org.uk/resources/methods/world-cafe). In a cafe setting, we had four different tables, on each table being a topic for discussions. On each round, participants move randomly from a table to another and contributes to the discussions on the table’s topic. Until the end, each participant should pass to all the tables. A special role is of the moderator – one for each table, that is not changing the place and have the role to moderate the discussions, ti inform the new participants about what was discussed previously, to take notes and, after the activity is done, to make a short report of the highlights of the debates. On each table is flip-chart paper, markers and the participants and the moderators can contribute with written ideas, drawings etc.

Media Literacy

At the table where the topic Media Literacy was discussed, we talked about the topic first overall, and then we managed to get to the causes and effects this issue covers. It was brought up that there is that quite a big amount of people do not recognize there might be a problem at all with recognizing which media is reliable and which is not. What also surprised me was that in every group, there was a person who heard this term (“Media Literacy”) for the first time. After explaining the topic, we moved forward to the discussion. We addressed that people in small communities tend to know each other, therefore they trust each other in terms of information - and also disinformation (my neighbor said that he heard from his friend that migrants destroyed his fence, so I hate all migrants). Another cause might be lack of education and educated teachers as well, so even though children visit school, they have no resources to learn critical thinking and become media-literate.

It is also comfortable for people living in small communities not to leave their social bubble and search for new information and alternative resources. This leads to closed minds and not being available to do research and development of critical thinking. Actually, it is a downward spiral. As a possible solution coming from the media creators, we agreed that a good place to start is respecting journalism ethics and clearly stating, if given information is a fact or an opinion. For media consumers, a solution is to double check facts and search for resources. We have also agreed that

with technological progress, older people might get confused in the huge amount of information and articles available. Solution for that might be support from their children and grandchildren, who have more experience in recognizing which media is trustworthy and which is not.

Causes and effects of the civic passivity

The problem of civic passivity was faced by reporting some examples that can be found in communities:

NOT CARING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE: this behavior is related to the fear of being overcome by people in need or to the idea that everyone has to deal with his/her own problems, but also the perception of bad management in fundraising stops sometimes from giving money.

ELECTION/POLITICS INDIFFERENCE: this problem is mainly due to the lack of information that results in ignorance about the topic; it is important to say that often people choose not to vote because they don't feel represented by politicians or they don't have enough "democratic experience" needed to perceive the possibility to change things. Moreover, news about corruption and big external influence on everyone's ideas increases the feeling of being powerless.

NOT CARING ABOUT THE PLACE YOU LIVE IN: the usual mindset behind this behaviour is based on the perspective that causing a damage on a long term period without visibly affecting the present situation is something not to be worried about, and this is partly allowed by having small risk of consequences.

SELFISH ACTIONS: this category is wider and take into account all of the things and choice that a person could make, actively damaging someone else, to get advantages for himself/herself; the key factors related to this can be lack of empathy for the potentially damaged ones and the presence of negative examples of others having these behavior and get benefits from it. Starting from this point, it was noticed that some concept form a common background to develop a passive citizenship, and they are: no communication, bad education, no socialization, lack of time, prejudices, feeling burnout and wrong mentality.

Last, some possible outcomes based on this context have emerged: Homelessness and marginalization of poor people Garbage and pollution "Powerless" politics

All this outcomes present the strong risk to initiate negative loops, which repeat themselves while increasing their bad effects time after time, so it is a matter of fundamental importance to stop them by the means of participation in the life of the community.

Causes and effects of the discrimination

Discrimination comes from the Latin word discriminate- 'distinguished between'. Discrimination has become so common during the centuries starting from 17th to nowadays as pollution is in the air.

In schools they teach us so much about bloody fights and horrible acts, but they dont seem to recognize and emphasize on the reason. Which most times comes from "superior groups" going against smaller ones.

Good education has one of the most important roles when it comes to problems as such. People are never born with anger inside of them, its the environment that makes them hateful.

Almost every single person has experienced discrimination in one form or another. There are so many types that your head could start to spin. Starting from physical appearance, going through disabilities (mental and physical), gender and sexuality, race and religion being one of the most common and social status. Many people don’t seem to realize how hurtful even the small comment or action can be sometimes. Discrimination can cause so many mental health problems, such as depression, low self esteem, constant anger. Sometimes things could even get violent. There is no simple and fast solution to this problem but we as society can always start with being kinder to each other. More understanding.

A big part of the problems are past down from generation to generation. Bad education coming from the inner circle can make a huge difference in the way a child sees the world. A heavier impact can be made with more representation in social media and television. The government making laws to protect those human rights. Ignorance towards discrimination doesn't make it stop existing. We need to keep fighting against injustice and bring awareness to the ones that are not familiar with the problem. Most important of all we have to push each other towards better.

Causes and effects of the pollution

So, what exactly is pollution? According to the participants is the action from people that affect the environment in a wrong way.

The “customers” of that world café figured out that there are three major types of pollution.

1. Air pollution

• Light pollution

• Toxic from the factories

2. Water pollution

• Chemicals from factories and households

• Plastics that humans leave in the beaches and oceans

• Sewer water goes straight into the river without filters

• Oil, fuel, petrol to the ocean by accident from transporter boats

3. Land pollution

• People

• Farms (animal manure)

• Trash from houses and not recycling

Ways to stop pollution: Eco-friendly materials

Government funded advisement to aware the public pulse

Adoption of new lifestyles

European laws regarding pollution issues and waste

To support SDGs (sustainable development goals) as community so we can reduce big factories’ pollution.

Use of renewable sources of energy – also funding of new innovations

Better way of transport (question of comfort)

What’s humanity gaining from reducing pollution:

Increased average lifespan and quality of life

More oxygen on the planet

Security for the next generations

Protect each animal’s ecosystem eventually

Causes and effects of unemployment

Causes:

No ambition, no opportunities for young people, no vacancies, disabilities, size of the firms (small firms have fewer jobs), lack of government s investment in rural areas, focus on formal education, not experience, discrimination, gender, religion, lack of compromising, being discouraged,

economic crisis, access to some areas, bad transport, health problems, non professional experience, staying in the comfort zone, layoffs, nepotism, bad goverment’s decisions, no investments on new products or infrastructures (factories), lack of variety of jobs, problems with the education system, few job opportunities, working without being employed, war, lack of organization, lazy people, corruption, lack of ambition and compromising, high retirement age on the job world, social and cultural expectations, public outrage, etc...

Effects:

Low salaries, lack of money, can’t pay the government s taxes, underdeveloped country, low economy, bad economic stability of the country, strikes by the workers, moving abroad looking for job, homeless people, depression, stress, worst quality of life, problems with the people around them, poor people, arrival people who work for a lower salaries than the local people, broken families, not economic independence, no safety lifestyle (no home, no family, no kids, you don’t invest back in the economy, no social security, etc...

Outdoor activities – Trust and team building games

In order to build a strong team, able to solve the tasks imposed by the project, trust and team building games has a very important role.

Trust games

Trust activities, some of the funniest ones! After the breakfast and the energiser, the participants went in the forest, to play some games. Sounds normal, no? But they didn't play basic games, they played some interesting, original and trust ones. The purpose of those games was to strengthen the bond between the participants and to improve their team-working. They had a lot of fun during those, and their bond was strengthen for sure. Everybody enjoyed those, because they had fun, but in the same time they were caring with each other. They played 2 games. The first one is called „The car and the driver”, and in this game were made teams of 2 people who didn't interact a lot before the games. They choose the driver and the car. The „car” needed to keep her eyes closed, while the driver guides her by pushing the shoulder with the direction they wanted to go, so they don't have „accidents” with the rest of the cars. When they needed to stop the car, they raised their hands from their shoulders. After some minutes, they switched. Talking was forbidden!

Car and driver. In pairs, one of the team is blindfolded and will be “the car” and the other “the driver”. They have few moments to establish some signs to drive the car, because the exercise should be done in silence. After few minutes of driving around, the roles changes, and the car becomes driver and vice versa.

The second game is called „the drunken bottle”, and in this one were made teams of 5 or 6 people. They made a circle, and in the middle of it whoever offered himself came. Nobody was forced to do it!! The person from the middle needed to keep her eyes closed, while the each other needed to „protect” her from falling and gently pushing the person from one to another. Nobody was hurt, and they had a lot of fun! After those, they did some land arts.

Drunken bottle is another trust game that takes the things next level. In groups of 6-7 persons, they make a tight circle. In the middle of the circle, one of the team sits blindfolded – the “bottle”. The participants on the sides should push the “bottle” around, but to take care not to let it fall.

Team building games

Land art is a concept of making a piece of art using items from the environment, without harming the nature. The piece of art stays in situ as long as the nature wills it. So, in small international, the participants have to create a piece of art on the project’s topic. Then, one by one the participants will visit the “open air museum” exhibits and learn the story of each piece of art.

Bus story is that boy have huge trouble with getting to school and back because he lives in the small village and have like 2 buses one very early in the morning and next one at 11 pm so he had to gave up his education

Our land art represents the current state of many smaller cities of the 1st world countries. In the middle we can see a huge factory placed in the middle of some neighborhood. Said factory produces pollution which is affecting whole nearby population.

“Rock” family in small town are discriminated by “stick men” community, because they have different, lifestyle, religion and culture.

We represented the small community and the big community. The small community is rotting because everyone is leaving. There are no opportunities, and everyone takes the resources there, but there is still a little hope because in not all the parts is rotting. But moving to the big community you lose contact with your true self. The big city is very polluted.

Busteni is a small community where people less wealthy are discriminated by the society and people that are rich. The differences are clearly observable, and the rich ones not giving a sight to help the poor ones

Our land art is a "love story". It s about the love between beerio and cupiette, but the rest of the world in banning their relationship, because of discrimination

Energizers and ice-breaking games

A nice way to start a session is to run an energizer or an ice breaking game. It is a way to relax the mood, to prepare the participants for the next activity or to rise the level of energy when the sessions are too demanding. And it’s a way to ask the national teams to get involved in preparing the energizers during the “on duty” day.

Energizers..the energy boosters that everybody loves!! The energizers are the indispensable activity in an exchange!

First of all, what are the energizers? Are they some lectures? A lesson? How can those be called an „energy booster”?

Energizers are some fun games whose purpose, as the name says, is to boost your energy. In the exchanges, the participants usually have those in the morning, so they can wake up properly and before some workshops, because the participants need to be fresh all the time, so they can learn, to improve and to enjoy the workshops without being sleepy.

Everyday, a country is „on duty” to do the energiser, so those are also full of variety and creativity, because the participants learn a lot of games from another countries. The participants love the energisers, because they are full of fun, and they also boost your energy and improve your imagination in the same time.

Our first energizer was „Hey, Joe!”, and in that one we were introduced in Joe's story, where he needed to push the buttons at work. It was so fun, because at the end of the energizers, everybody was pushing the buttons inclusive with their heads.

Intercultural evenings

Intercultural dimension is one of the main features of the Erasmus+ programme. So, it is natural that a very important part of the mobility would be sharing the national culture of the participant countries. During these evenings, the participants can present, share and taste a glimpse of their culture: food, drinks, photos, music, dances.

And, because learning about each other’s culture is so important, a trade mark of our projects is the intercultural evenings part two: promotion of another country. In the preparatory phase, each national team is assigned with the promotion of another country and they have to prepare and present it without using electronic means. In this way, they have the task to learn facts about the culture of another country, and to present in a many as creative as possible. The intercultural evenings managed to develop the participants' knowledge about the cultures of other countries. They tried food, drink and learned the dances of other participating countries.

The Polish team brought a lot of delicious sweets, but their famous drinks impressed the people.

The Greeks did not have tzatziki, but they delighted us with the snacks of their country.

Bulgaria had the most diverse table. They had both salty and sweet food. Their traditional drinks were the most appreciated.

Although the Italians' table was not full, the atmosphere was specific to the country.

The Czech Republic told us a lot of things about their beer, but also the sweets were interesting.

The Romanian evening was everyone's favorite for the special atmosphere created outside near the fire. Foreigners could feel the Romanian vibe through food and drink brought right from the participants' home.

Spain had everything that must contain an intercultural evening from atmosphere to delicacies.

Latvia took our taste buds to the north where we could taste the fish and traditional cheese.

Also, the intercultural evening in which each country had to celebrate another country was extremely funny. Romania presented a representative play for Poland that was extremely funny and entertained the entire audience. Also, the Italian team, played a play about Greece. They improvised some costumes specific to ancient Greece from some sheets. The other teams made interesting games with the audience through various questions about the countries to be presented.

City Bound

During the city bound, we had the opportunity to discover the city, interact with the locals, see beautiful sights, but also the opportunity to go to a beautiful waterfall hiden in the forest. This activity aims the communication between locals and young people from the exchange.

We were divided in teams, and we had to do some very interesting tasks around the city. In one of the task we had to take some pictures of what we liked and disliked, or to talk to a local and find a discrimination story that took place in the area, most of the teams didn’t find any story, sign that the discrimination rate is very low. It was a very interesting activity that everyone enjoied doing not only because we learned new things but also because we discovered beautiful sights.

Egg...straordinary Egg...sercise!

One of the most successful team-building game is this Egg...sercise. In small international groups, the participants have the task to build a device to protect an egg from a free fall from a balcony, several meters high. They can use only materials provided by the trainers and have a limited time to do it. Creativity, engineering skills and team spirit are fully requested in order to build a successful device. Before launching, there should be prepared a short promo moment for the device.

Eggsercise!! Another day, another great challenge for the wonderful participants!! One of the funniest activities from the exchange. The participants were grouped in teams of five, and they needed to do a mechanism to protect the egg, only with the materials that have been given to them, so the activity would be fair enough. It was an activity full of creativity, joy and great teams! Every team did a good job in trying to protect the egg. Everyone was involved and everyone had a great time. Also, the activity became more interesting after the participants saw the materials, because they needed to use their creativity. There were a lot of great ideas, but, finally, the teams succeed to choose one. Every team became thoughtful with their eggs. There were also some teams who unfortunately destroy their eggs when they were trying to do the mechanism, but they managed to finish it somehow, just in time.

After the mechanism was done, every team had to choose a participant who will drop the egg from the third floor. It was full of emotion, because every team was excited and scared in the same time to see if their egg managed to survive. We had some winner eggs, but, unfortunately, not every egg survived. But, besides this, the participants whose eggs died enjoyed the activity anyway.

Some opinions:

Stefan (RO)- „It was very nice, I liked the teamwork!”

Melania- „I liked it!”

Andra- „It was one of my favorites activities!! I enjoyed every part of it!

ACTIVITIES TO GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER ON THE FIRST DAY

Activities to get to know each other on the first day were extraordinary!

After a tour of names, next knowing each other activity was “The Portrait”. Each person received a sheet on which he wrote his name and then the sheets were mixed. Swapping papers all the time, step by step anyone got a portrait. Meanwhile, we had the opportunity to discuss about our favorite movies, music, personal hero and so on. All the portraits were exposed afterwards in a nice gallery that stayed until the last day. When we left, we took home the portraits as souvenirs.

It follows the “True, True, False!” game.

Each person had a sheet of paper on which they wrote three personal information: two true and one false. Then , moving randomly, each one tried to figure out the true and the false affirmation of the others. The aim of the game is to share as much information about ourselves.

ODEN association (acronym for the Organization for Democracy and Nonformal Education) it’s an experienced organization, founded in may 2011. The number of members is over 20 and there are many sympathizers.

The activities of ODEN association are focused especially toward nonformal education and promoting the values of democracy among youth of the local community. Taking advantage on the fact that most of the association members are working in the national education field, workshops of non-formal education are organized very often with youngsters from Nehoiu area. The main subjects are media, culture and arts, ecology and environment. The main activities were the ecologization of the Buzau valley and Nehoiu valley, land art workshops, mountain ecology and ecotourism. The association’s members participated to a visual campaign about the responsible attitudes, healthy food and protection of the environment.

Another aim, which is desired to have a growing up dimension, is the involvement of an important number of youth in international exchanges of any kind, especially thorough the Youth in Action program. The ODEN association desire to be a facilitator of the accessing of those programs by young people.

A special current activity is the debate club DACII (acronym from Academic Debates and Intelligent Ideas Confrontations) held in partnership with Nehoiu’s High School. There are more that 20 permanent members and the regular activities consist in weekly meetings with trainings, games and occasional participations in national tournaments.

The association’s members were involved in many trainings, seminars and were leaders in some Youth Exchanges, activities made under the Youth in Action Program, especially thorough the Youth Foundation Buzau, with which they have tight relationship.

Starting from 2020 until 2027, ODEN Association is accredited for Erasmus+ projects, that make the possibility to plan many interconnected international mobilities following the Erasmus+ priorities and enhancing the international partnerships.