Termín konání: 2-9 November 2019
Místo konání: Vilnius, Lithuania
Programme & action: ERASMUS+, Key Action 1: Training course
Venue: Vilnius, Lithuania
Dates: 2-9 November 2019
Participants: Jan Trojáček, Martina Kvapilová
Group leader: Barbora Podešvová
Host organisation: Innovation Office (VsI Inovaciju biuras)
Participating countries: Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria
Please read the info-pack.
Project report: You(th)r Culture
Hi! I just got home from a training course that took place in the capital city of Lithuania, Vilnius. The loudest and the biggest city in all country where they offer you their traditional potato dumplings, Cappellini at every corner. Me and other two people from the Czech Republic were chosen to participate in a week-long project “You(th)r Culture“ with focus on cultural diversity and radicalization.
The group of participants was very diverse because there were three or four people from ten different European countries – the Czech Republic, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Latvia, Italy, Bulgaria and six people including coordinators from hosting country, Lithuania. I’d like to express my gratitude to all project leaders, Rasa and Endre who did amazing job in preparation and organization of training course with this topic. I really appreciate enthusiasm about all topics, activities and workshops expressed by Endre who created a friendly environment for sharing our thoughts, experiences and knowledge with other people coming from different cultural backgrounds. First days are always dedicated to ice-breakers games that are very useful and helpful to remember names of the other participants, or at least a few of them.
During various activities we created groups where the nationalities were mixed to have opportunity to get to know each better and share our opinions and ideas without barriers. National identity, cultural identity, stereotypes and prejudices, and tools to tackle radicalism among young people were the main topics that we were dealing with. At the end of every workshop we were supposed to present the results that helped us to build up our self-confidence in public speaking and to improve our English level a little bit. During the international night all ten participating countries presented a piece of their culture, habits, traditions, music, and they also brought some traditional food and drinks. With “lectures” of their traditional dances we experienced real atmosphere of the country. Furthermore, we had an opportunity to have a night guide tour in the city center of Vilnius. The other day we spent the whole afternoon in Trakai city where we visited the castle. To make the training course even more interesting we were invited to a conference about social entrepreneurship and social business where me, and a five other participants from different countries, were honored to have a short speech about the training course. It was a lifetime experience and I was grateful for that.
Despite of high number of the participants together the training course was amazing, and we all got along so well that I build up very strong and special connection with some of them. I’m sure that some of these friendships will be forever. During every project I learn something new about either myself, the topic of project or about the participating countries. To deliver our own workshop to the others about topic related to the project topic for was the biggest achievement and challenge at the same time but it was hilarious. Finally, I would like to express my huge gratitude to EYCB which provides such lifetime opportunities that are priceless!
Barbora Podešvová
