Programme: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: youth exchange
Dates: 12—18 July 2021
Venue: Gabrovo, Uzana region, Bulgaria
Please read the project info-pack.
Hosting organisation: Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Culture and Education
Participating countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania, Lithuania, Northern Macedonia, Italy
Czech team: Ondřej Hrdý (GL), Marie-Anna Borovková, Tereza Havlíčková, Anastasia Lomakina, Hedvika Tomečková
Project report:
The project „Don‘t Fear to Differ!“ took place in the very centre of Bulgaria near the city called Gabrovo. Its aim was to educate youth people from Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Czech Republic, North Macedonia and Italy to respect and be tolerant towards the “other” and to foster mutual understanding and combat hate speech, discrimination and bullying by providing intercultural dialog through various activities.
All the participants met in Sofia on the 12 th of July from where we went to the hotel by bus. The location was very high in mountains and so the temperature wasn’t typical for Bulgaria (about 10 degrees less than average). Because of this, we were completely alone in an untouched beautiful Bulgarian nature. They accommodated us in rooms for two or three according to our choosing.
The food was very traditional. For a breakfast we could choose from a lot of different foods, the most typical was “banica” and “mekini”. For a lunch we had three course meal. They usually offered a Bulgarian cold soup called “tarator” made from cucumber, we also had the pile v oris” (chicken and rice), “mikici”, “kaškaval paně” (fried cheese) and a lot of salad with the Balkan cheese. As a dessert they usually offered sweet “baklava”. At the end of the project, they also served the traditional alcohol called “rakia”.
The aims of the project were delivered through numerous activities from which the most were formal presentations. After the request of the participants the activities changed to more informal and focused more on a group work. One day we went for a walk to the highest peak of the mountains. At nights each country organized an intercultural evening, where they presented their culture through food and presentations. Two days before departure we visited the city Gabrovo. There we went to the museum and later on we explored the city on our own. The last day we got acquainted with the Erasmus+ programme and presented our sample projects. On the 18 th of July the project ended. At 6 AM we went back to Sofia by bus.
Ondřej Hrdý
