Programme: Erasmus+, Key Action 1: training course
Venue: Viljandimaa, Estonia
Dates: 17—25 April 2022
Hosting organisation: NOORED UHISKONNA HEAKS
Project report:
Greetings from Estonia, the land of ice and nature! That was the characteristic of our venue; it was as mysterious as it seemed to be calm. YOUth Are the Voice project was a very comprehensive project that was taught to us by experts in political science. As in every Erasmus project, the first day emphasized meeting games and icebreaking activities so we could get to know each other and get familiarized with the people and the venue.
Every day, we learned the theory and later applied what we learned directly in custom scenarios with a team. We first began by learning how to use rhetoric and create arguments. Later, it evolved into communication theory, our perception and biases towards social concepts and images, and how we can change them. This was followed by some theories of photography and visuals as a part of activism to use them for later purposes. Afterward, we created some demo social campaign posters.
We also learned about governance and the ladder of public participation, which is a key concept to comprehend the political dynamics of any given territory. There appears to be manipulation and therapy when the citizens are not in power. On the other side of the coin, there is citizen control, delegated power, and partnership. Side note: every policymaking process, from elections to visa applications, is doable and encouraged in Estonia. That was very shocking for me to hear, and I had an “aha” moment because of it.
My favorite part of the project (aside from the free day) was when we learned about some of the significant social movements throughout modern history, such as the Danish Nazi Resistance, the Indian Independence Movement, and more. We simulated as though we lived through them while creating social campaigns with an artificial timeline of the events and our reactions as protests on the social media accounts we created. Our goal was to practice non-violent actions and base them on the so-called “Pillars of Support” concepts. We then created feeds and posts in different formats like texts, posters, videos, and photos to make them as realistic as possible, which we demonstrated and discussed with the other teams. Our movement was called the “Zebra Movement,” which was historically a replica of the protests against segregation in the USA.
On the off day, we first pleaded with the staff to use the thermal pool outside. They did not reject our request and opened it for us. So what we did was marathons between the Estonian winter river and the pool. No need to say, it was approximately -10 degrees outside. That was very refreshing and so much fun! Besides, it doubled the entertainment as a group. It was surely a remarkable memory. Subsequently, we took a bus to visit the city center. I must admit, Estonia’s historically Middle-Ages-based buildings are nothing like I had seen before. There were too many brick buildings with stone paths going up and down. I even had the chance to go to a pawn shop and buy some very valuable coins from various timelines.
Overall, it was an extremely wonderful project with a bunch of colorful participants from all different backgrounds. I would definitely recommend it if you are even slightly interested in intercultural learning, politics, and youth participation.
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