Dates: 9 – 16 September 2013
Venue: Narva-Jõesuu, Estonia
Pax: Šárka Ševčíková, Jiří Znoj, Michaela Němečková, Zuzana Némethová, Irena Pavlíčková
Participating countries: Estonia, CZ, Portugal, Spain, Greece
Programme & action: Youth in Action programme, action 1.1. youth exchange
Project report:
Twenty five participants from Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Spain and Turkey spent one unforgettable week in Narva-Jõesuu, Estonia. The main goal of this youth exchange named “Ideal European – Ideal Europe“ was to discuss European values and European citizenship.
At the beginning, we played name games and also various outdoor activities in order to introduce each other. After that, we focused on creating a team environment as we discovered the cooperation among us is important. During the week we were discussing what values an average citizen of the EU should have. We were divided into teams and played a quiz focused mainly on the history of the European Community and European Union, its institutions and member countries.
The project took place in a quiet hotel just a minute walk from the shore of the Baltic Sea. We tasted typical Estonian food during the intercultural evening and experienced typical autumn weather in the Baltics. We all together visited the European House in the capital of Estonia, Tallinn, where we had the opportunity to talk about European integration and its side-effects with Estonian leading experts.
During the youth exchange we realized that – in spite of our different cultural backgrounds – surprisingly, we share very similar values. While creating our “Ideal European” and his/her features and qualities in various teams it come out that we all think that ideal citizen should be open-minded, involved, respecting others, active, patient….
We improved our English skills, got to know at least something from rich Estonian culture, made new friends all around the Europe and shared the vision of our NGOs and established the cooperation between them and supported future plans. The atmosphere was friendly and fun!
Michaela Němečková
