Programme and action: Youth in Action programme, action 3.1.2. training course
Dates: 25-30 November 2013
Venue: Bakuriani, Georgia
Participants: Jana Karasová, Andrea Jirásková, Anna Peprníčková, Anna Rieglová
Participating countries: Norway, Georgia, Armenia, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Italy, Republic of Moldova and Poland
Project report:
World is smaller and smaller. Almost everyone, every teen, every youngster can listen the same music, watch the same videos or read the same news… In the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Norway, Moldova, Azerbaijan or in Georgia. However ourselves, local environment around us and our opportunities still differ a lot. We could see it during the training Dare to Act in Georgia. Nevertheless we felt not just various contrastive ways of our youth worlds in each of the seven participating countries but also the way which brings as together, as your desire to do something, to be active.
Youth participation was the main topic of the training. We started to learn about it from the etymology of our own languages. Our Czech group discovered that participation means ‘účast’ – taking part in complex, as well as ‘součinnost’ – working together, doing something with others. Georgians or Azerbaijanis mentioned also aspect of emotion and human relationships. Than we got to know two inseparable dimensions of youth participation: activism and influencing. How we could influence local policies we learnt during the following sessions. We have talked also about different levels of participation and its obstacles and challenges. At the end we designed a practise project for a real town, for instance for Liberec or one London quarter. What we have learnt we have learnt especially from discussions and creative work with the help of our two Polish trainees Justyna and Helena. Two last days were dedicated for the topic ‘non-violent actions as a tool for change’. We had a more than experienced lector – Jorgen from Norway. He surprised us with number of stories about non-violent actions all over the world, but especially with his story how he had become illegaly a false prosecutor for one day to point out on the topic of military service…
However Czech group was not just sitting all the time in a seminar room! During lunch breaks we were exploring a local village or local mountains. Bakuriani, the village where the training took place , is small but spacious winter resort in central Georgia. The country with mountains, lowlands and sea, which we could get to know a little bit better. Especially its food during the Georgian evening. Another evening we could taste a little bit of every participant country. Tasting, talking, walking, learning, thinking, inspiring… this was ‘a daily bread’ of our training. It has motivated all of participants not to step back from our local realities, but to apply global knowledge to act for them!
Jana Karasová
