Programme & action: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: Training Course
Venue: Sumy, Ukraine
Dates: 12-19 January 2018
Participants: Jaromír Sobotka, Lenka Nejedlíková, Eva Bochová
Please read the info-pack
Participating countries: Armenia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine
Hosting organisation: Center for Euroinitiatives
Project report:
Minus 15 degrees and snow everywhere? That´s normal for Ukraine during the winter my friend. But despite the terrible cold attended three brave Czech volunteers in February in the East Ukrainian city Sumy the training course Learning to live together. The main aim of the project was to learn how to plan and prepare simulation games connected to the topic of migration. And it was successful. During amazing seven days we discussed the conception of the game theoretically, we tried to play three similar games, and than we prepared our own variants and played them together. During the process of creation, we used new gained knowledges as well as our own older experiences from domestic organizations. The outcome was six different simulation games offering different points of view to the topic of migration. Necessary to add, that although the course is over, the biggest challenge still remains – to implement the outcomes of the course to our youth work and try to play simulation games in our volunteer organizations.
But Erasmus+ is about much more than just about learning one particular skill. In the group of people from ten different countries we had unique opportunity to share and discuss the different points of view on the problem of migration and integration of the migrants into the local communities. Thanks to the variety of present states we could compare the situation of central Europe with, for example, the situation of Armenia or Italy. Such international environment offers also a great opportunity for breaking national stereotypes, finding new friends and contacts from abroad and of course improving language skills.
Projects like this always offer also opportunity to see the host country, so in seven days we met „ the splendors and miseries“ of Ukrainian life and discussed with local Ukrainians including students and young people the perspectives of future of this beautiful country.
I believe, that although the project is already over, the spirit of international understanding, dialog and cooperation lives in every of us. And the plans, plans for the realization of outcomes, plans for future cooperation among the organizations and private plans of new friends remain us, that every end is just new beginning.
Jaromír Sobotka
