(youth exchange in Tokaj, 2019.06.25.-2019.07.02.)
In the previous week we participated in a youth exchange called ACTIVE EUROPE. It
took place in Tokaj (Hungary) between 2019.06.25.-2019.07.02. There were
countries: Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and Poland. From each country there were
motivated young people who could exchange ideas, learn and gain experience from
each other within the topic.
From the first day, all the activities that happened, were really engaging and motivated the
participants to get more and more involved in the project as a whole.
In the beginning, we had a lot of ice-breaking activities that greatly helped us to get to know
each other and also get along from the start which was crucial in the latter part of the project
because it involved lots of workshops in groups.
We shared our experiences in the topic of youth advocacy and active citizenship from the
participant countries, good and bad practices, that helped us see a much wider perspective of
how things work in all of them.
Afterwards, we also asked the participants about the project in general, for example Virginia
(Hungary) said some words about the workshops :
„We really enjoyed the variety and active involvement of the workshops, because we could
share our ideas and express our opinions.”
Then we discussed the public issues in the EU that are troubling the current youth and the
population of EU countries in general, every person made a compelling speech about the
issue that they chose, the others were given money to finance the most important issue of all
and help solve it.
The next thing we did was „The Campaign” where two self-proclaimed candidates were
running for the head position in the local goverment of Tokaj. They were given one assistant
to help them create the best possible plan/program and a short speech to start their campaign,
the two parties were „Better” and „Good Change”. The others were – civilians that made the
demands, questions and gossips about the candidates. a moderator and a voting comitee.
After the short speeches that introduced the candidates to the local community, the
moderator hosted a debate between the candidates and after that we had a voting where we
chose the new goverment.
One of the best workshops that we had was the „DISC” where people split into groups
divided by their identity : Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Concienciousness by the way
of standing next to the adjectives that matched their mindset. The aim of the task was to
discover our own and the personality of others better.
We discussed the aim of the activities, but not the aim of the project in general, this is why
we asked Edgar from Poland what does he think about it :
„One of the most important things is to connect different people from different countries and
form a common opinion about the use of youth advocacy and the situation in Europe in
general.”
Beside the working part we also had some free time activities that helped us get along even
more and also have a lot of fun. From wine-tasting through city rally till intercultural
evenings we had a lot of opportunities to enjoy our time on the project as much as possible.
We asked Klara from Slovakia which was her favourite activity and why;
„I really liked when we were on the beach because we could take a little time off, rest,
refresh ourselves both physically and mentally.”
Lastly we’d like to say that we
spent one amazing, beautiful
week together because we
discovered a lot of new methods
that we haven’t known before
and also we’ve built many
internetional friendships,
connections, shared our
experiences with others.
To finish up we’d like to
strongly recommend the
4
Erasmus+ to everyone because it’s a huge opportunity to discover everything that you can
imagine.
Contacts:
ERASMUS+ main page http://www.eplusifjusag.hu/
Közös Tér Egyesület https://www.facebook.com/KozosTerEgyesulet/
Youth for Peace and Development Association ypda2018@gmail.com
Authors:
Fanni Gáspár (Hungary)
Dániel Gáspár (Hungary)
Martin Psotka (Slovakia)
Lilianna Zielinska (Poland)
Denis Paasche (Poland)
