Programme and action: Youth in Action programme, action 3.1. training course
Dates: 15-22 July 2013
Venue: Dilijan, Armenia
Participants: Michaela Němečková, Veronika Vostalová, Jan Švec
Project report:
The training course „Goodbye Violence“ has taken place from 15 till 22 July, 2013, in Dilijan, Armenia. Apart from Czechs, there were attendants from Sardinia (Italy), Armenia, Georgia and Turkey. Dilijan is a rural city situated in Dilijan National Park, so we were all the time surrounded by the mountains, except for the last day, when we moved to Yerevan, to spend our last day in the capital.
The aim of the training course was to understand the conflict, to improve our communication and negotiation skills and learn how to analyse the conflicts (we practised to methods – mapping and conflict tree). We spent some time discussing peacebuilding, violence and peace. Despite it could seem boring, the boredom never happened because it was always very interesting to learn about conflicts that were going on in each participating countries and to see their own perspectives. One day we watched a video „Five steps to tyranny“, to see how easy is to become violent and we made a questionnaire to find out how we react during the conflicts – it was a pleasure to discover that most of us are problem-solvers 🙂 Our main trainer, Artak (he’s teaching about conflicts in Yerevan university), was very successful in providing lots of information, fun and he handled all group with no trouble and removed all possible problems in a great way. He also managed to communicate very easily with the people that had some problems with their English so whole project was very smooth and relaxed but still fruitful.
The evenings were designated for different events – intercultural evening, NGO Fair, night in the Dilijan’s „center“ and barbecue party.
How to evaluate the whole week? For me it was very positive and amazing experience full of games, workshops, exchange of information, crazy evenings and full of FUN. I think that the most of us would agree that we were a great bunch of people that quickly created trust, friendship and lot of laughter.
Big thanks to Armenian NGO Civic Forum, our both trainers Marish and Artak and to all participants because without them it could have been completely different experience. And thanks to EYCB for providing us with an opportunity to go. 🙂
Veronika Vostalová
