Hola, Everyone! This is the story of group of Spain yards in Bulgaria taking part in amazing youth exchange Youth against extremism and radicalization! We want to share with everyone what incredible experience we had and how much we learnt! The project focused on the important topic of youth radicalization for Europe-something that we all hear and read about but feels so distant from us. In our team nobody really had much information, knowledge or experience with the topic. First of all was amazing to research the topic from before, be able to plan our agenda as we were all involved from before-so it is really different from school because we were learning from each other and learning by doing! Before the project we had some preparation with our organization and coordinators and even though it was Covid time we really felt safe –we had all needed information and details needed. We also had an amazing group leader that helped with all details and preparation!
Once we ended up in Bansko-tiny yet beautiful town in South west Bulgaria we were amassed-the week was like a life changing experience –every day we were discovering so many new things-for example we learnt there is much more things for us young people than youth exchanges-we discovered other opportunities of Erasmus+, also learnt about ESC and Erasmus for young entrepreneurs, we got to know what SALTO is, how and where to look for opportunities and we also got to know that we ourselves can organize such youth exchanges! Amazing, isn’t it?!
During the project we also learnt so many things about the topic, but in an interesting, interactive and engaging way-learning has never been funnier and easier believe us! We talked about radicalization-factors that lead to it, social exclusion of youth nowadays but also what we ourselves can do about it! We learnt many tools how we can raise awareness on those topics and some of us even got involved in developing ideas for youth exchanges! The project really gave a lot to our group-in terms of learning, skills and knowledge on the topic, but also intercultural experience, friendships and empowerment!
Gracias a todos!