ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: youth exchange
Venue: Braga, Portugalsko
Dates: 10—19 September 2023
Czech team: 5 participants + 1 group leader
Please read the info-pack.
Hosting organisation: SYnergia Portugal
Project report:
Do you want to experience unforgetable late summer in Portugal doing something meaningful? Go to Braga! Do you seek to spend it in a safe space for your identity and your ideas regarding all areas, even expanding your horizons? Of course you do!
Me and 5 other Czechs travelled to Braga, third largest city of Portugal, on the 10th of September. We explored the topic of „Green Innovators“, dealing with entrepreneurs coming up with sustainable businesses or ventures. We were accompanied by teams from other countries: 6 Slovaks, 4 Romanians, 6 Italians, 6 Spanish and unfortunately none of the Portugese joined us in the end.
The project was quite well organized by Isabella, Andreea and Daniel. They acted more as our friends or guides rather than some kind of higher authorities. We played some bonding games together and had a nice team-building day in a nearby river close to Braga. There we borrowed kayaks and paddle boards and sailed towards an amazing waterfall! Regarding water sports we also surfed during our free day in Porto!
If I come back to more serious matters, we also did some activities associated with the project topic. We cleaned a mountain way and a river in the city from left over garbage. This helped us realise how much waste people leave in the nature. Some of us had to question their concience in that matter. We held some presentations regarding sustainable businesses in the world. These presentations gave way to our creativity since the form was open for each team. Furthermore as the ultimate project we had to design our own green business. We had to plan our product, our business plan, SWOT scheme and so on. I found this activity to be the most meaningful and helpful.
During the project we had space for a lot of discussions and challenging each other’s ideas. This lead to mutual enrichment. I think that meeting people from different backgrounds and hearing about the ecology and recycling situations in their countries is very valuable. Also there were the culture nights, where we exchanged some traditions and even some of our traditional foods and drinks. Overall it was an experience full of various cultures coming together in tolerance and understanding for each other.
For me the conclusion of the project is obvious: young people like us, are the ones that have to make a change, nobody is doing it for us! I’m glad that thanks to EYCB a project like this was possible! I really think it was an amazing experience for everybody involved.
Theodor Š.
