Programme & action: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: Youth Exchange
Venue: Trabzon, Turkey
Dates: 4 – 11 June 2017
Participants: Jakub Konáš, Boris Pazdera, Hana Pazderová, Šimon Boldi
Group leader: Marek Lapka
Please read the info-pack & daily program
Hosting organisation: Trabzon Intercultural Youth Network
Participating organisations: Czech Republic, Turkey, Malta, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania
Project report:
This project was carried out in Turkey, specifically in the beautiful city of Trabzon from 4th June to 11th June 2017 and Czech grou consisted with 5 people in total. There were also 5 people from 5 other countries; Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the hosting contry, Turkey, atteding the project Voice of Diversity in Europe.
The project leaders , Ceren and Yalcin, are very nice people who always made the time to meet us, discuss our problems or just chat when we needed. Because of the interesting programe, lectures and activities we got to know each other better and better, we also participated in workshops for team cooperation, better understanding and cooperation.
We were dealing with few problems almost every day during the project when mentioning one project „idea“. Bulgarian team leader, Ahmed, suggested (if I understood him correctly) that it would be more to-project-goal aimed if he was more aggresive and hostile to the rest of the participants. His goal, I think, was to create strong and active group (all of us) if the group „sets together“ and „works againts an enemy“. I told him repeatedly that his idea was not optimal but he decided anyway to interfere and interrupt the program every day with rude and impolite notes, he insulted (maybe not intentionally) directly or indirectly some project participants. He also told me in front of some people that he had participated so many projects, he did not care anything about participants and he would not even bother to remember our names. From my point of view, this kind of people should not participate the Youth Exchange programmes at all.
If I just ingore the previous paragraph, the preparation and organization of the project was very well done. Everything was beautifully mastered, and as for the Czech group I can not critise anything. Though the surroudings of accommodation was not very pleasant, I can not complain about the accomodation itself. Truth is that the food lacked meat and honestly, it was very oily.
Moreover we had a amazing chance to visit local Turkish Youth center dealing with project for the excluded children. The same day we travelled to Boztepe for marvellous scenic lookout of Trabzon and the Black sea, then we of course visited Ataturk´s house and the Trabzon Uzungol lake, which is famous for beautiful nature.
The participants were very friendly. From the first night some of the Czech and Polish participants decided to walk around the Trabzon, try thein first Turkish kebab there and experienced new atmosphere and new friendship. Later on the groups became acquainted with each others, and I think it was very successful. It took really short time and the participants considered themselves as a family and from that time everything went smoothly. And for the Cultural Nights? We had a interesting opportunity to taste the dishes and beverages of the countries and I think we honored our country with charm which is word-wide known and so typical for Czech people J
The main theme of this project was based on prejudice and xenophobia. What had a chance to talk openly during the project ether in frienly or hostile environment but I think that the experience was educative, open and a lot of people began to perceive cultural differences and of course the similarities as well. Many people left the course with a lot of thing to remember and a lot of thing to think about.
Thank you for your work and time when realising this project! Is it really special to have these opportunities!
Marek Lapka
