Kaunas, Lithuania
15.06-22.06.2013
SMIT "CREATOR" members were participating in a YE titled ACTIVization, the community belongs to you! all co-ordinated by Memove and held in Kaunas, Lithuania.
Activization" is a youth exchange between Bulgaria,Estonia,Italy,Germany,Poland and Lithuania that will be realizedby association "MEMOVE" in Kaunas. This project will bring together 30youngsters from different backgrounds among EU countries to act together asa team. The mission of this week is to make participants more physicallyand socially active citizens of Europe and spread information about EUopportunities for young people. The main goal of this exchange is toencourage youngsters to take active role in the life of their community,provide them possibility to get new skills and knowledge and increase theirability to create projects tackling and solving the common communityproblems. To change the perception of majority is significantly importantthat people with fewer opportunities will raise their voices and stop beingsilent that they will take active role in their local communities. It ismore than important in small cities where no bridging activities asimplemented for example by NGOs or local authorities. In these cases issignificantly important that these youngsters will become active - willbecome drivers of the change and they will start to take steps to changethe situation. Team building activities will be one of the main tool ofthis education. A team sport is an activity in which a group ofindividuals, on the same team, work together to accomplish an ultimategoal. Outdoor activities and playful methods will break social, culturaland language barriers among youngsters and encourage them to work together.
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Sabina Firek (Sunday, 07 July 2013 17:27)
I was a participant in project 'Activization – the community belongs to you'. The project took place in wonderful, magical Kaunas in Lithuania. During our lectures and activities we were talking about how young people can be more active in society but also about all kinds of discrimination and exclusion. We presented effects of our work in many creative ways, for example we made comics, posters or short scenes. Our international group prepared 'freeze-mob' which was performed twice – in shopping mall and center of the city, near our hotel. My favorite initiative was definitely sharing smiles, drawn on paper, with people on a street. Also treasure hunting was a good idea to get to know the city better (and loose some weight). One of the biggest advantages of that project were amazing, open and kind people, who put their hearts into all activities. Saying goodbye to them was truly horrible. At the end someone said that first project is like first love and you will never forget such experience. I must fully agree.
Monika Lal (Sunday, 07 July 2013)
From 15th to 22nd of June 2013 in Kaunas, Lithuania there was held a project ‘ACTIVization, the community belongs to you’ funded by the Youth in Action Programme. In this project participated 30 people from 6 different countries: Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Esthonia, Lithuania and Poland.
The project proceeded according to the presented earlier schedule. The days were used maximally, from morning till evening. We worked very often in pairs or in groups. In general, everything was prepared perfectly, nice leaders, different materials used in different methods caused that all the participants were willing to work.
During the project we had chances to exchange our ideas or experiences and to get more information about countries from which were other participants. We also had possibilities to lead dialogues with foreigners on various subjects, to know their points of view and to cooperate. It was really great opportunity to act together, discuss e.g. about possibilities in EU and to introduce some changes in our lives and societies.
Most of the participants of this project became more active and broadened the knowledge about opportunities in EU for young people. We learned that it is worth to be active in own society and to take a voice in important cases because we have influence on our presence and also on the future.
Thanks to the activities in pairs or in groups we learned how to cooperate and how to create a team for which the most important is pursuing to the same goal. Outdoor activities and various methods and materials let us to overcome the barriers and encouraged us to cooperate but also caused that we did things we hadn’t done before in our places of living like flash mob, treasure hunt or 10 missions in the town.
We became aware that there are no bounds between us and other citizens of EU. What is more, we found some similarities and common customs that brought us closer. We became courageous and willing to take next steps and to participate in other worthy projects.
Aga Skawian (Sunday, 07 July 2013 18:19)
In June 15-22nd, 2013 I participated in a Project ACTIVization, the community belongs to you! that took place within Youth in Action programme. The whole project took place in Kaunas (Lithuania).
30 young people from 6 different countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Germany, Poland and Lithuania) took part in the project. The aim of it was to make the participants become more active citizens of Europe. In the spirit of fun and play we acquired new skills and knowledge. Now, having finished the project, we can put these skills into practice in our local communities as local communities were the main topic of our activities.
Thanks to constant work in multinational groups we were able to discuss common issues concerning young people, as well as we share our individual and overall viewpoints from each and every country. We practiced team work and social skills and continuous friendly competition between teams motivated to active participation in assigned tasks. Variety and diversity caused that the teams become factories of various ideas which were spoken out laud and heard.
People who had leadership skills informally took leader’s position and coordinated teams’ work but never dominated over other members.
One of the issues that we discussed was the problem of social exclusion. What was really important to me was the highlight of the way we perceive minorities. perception. One member of the project was a blind person and he was an exemplification of the fact that people with disabilities should be allowed to have their say in their communities because they are as important an element of their society especially when they have something important to say.
The project was an important life experience for me because in a short period of time I received a lot of information about the possibilities that European Union offers to young people, and thanks to multinational specificity of the group I had a possibility to visit five countries in a week’s time in Kaunas.
Joanna Bagadzińska (Monday, 08 July 2013 14:55)
The project took place in Kowno, Lithuania, 15-06-13-22-06-13. Young people who participated were mainly from Estonia, Italy, Lithuaia, Germany, Bulgaria and Poland.
During the classes we emphasized questions such as:
- social exclusion, its causes and ways to fight it. We presented our solutions in various ways, we prepared posters, made few sketches and had a little talk-show.
- problems of young people in small towns, whose access to the cultural and educational classes is limited
- working abroad volountarily
- effective group organization
As part of classes we prepaded:
- two flashmobs : Freeze falashmob in a shopping centre "Akropolis" to make people stop and have a moment of reflection; handing out smiles which we had prepared and then handed out to the people passing by.
- international dance, which cosisted of the elements of the national dances
- tidying up the park in which we prepared our national dance
Thanks to the project, we've had the opportunity to explore the culture of various nations, sightseeing in Kowno, expanding our horizons and hanging out with some really interesting young people. In my opinion, projects such as this one support creative thinking and are a very important, if not essential part of the informal education.
Artur Cywa (Friday, 26 July 2013 16:35)
“ Activization” was a youth exchange founded by the Youth in action Programme among 6 countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Germany, Poland and Lithuania. The host country was Lithuania and the project took place in Kaunas. The main goal of that project was to integrate and discuss about the future opportunities for young people in the EU.
Everyday the members took part in various kinds of pursuits and classes. In the morning there were tasks connected with global issues such as social exclusions and discrimination. We worked over the problems in international groups and tried to present each problem from a perspective of our own countries. What is more we tried to find both solutions to the problems as well as the main causes of them. Working in the international groups helped us to exchange ideas and experience with each other.
In the afternoon we mostly went outside and tried to integrate with the local people, we had many tasks which were strongly connected with the tradition of the city, the inhabitants and the local events. We supported some social events and created our own such as “Freeze”, “Flash Mob” or “Smile passes”. To get Lithuania and Kaunas better, there was organized “Treasure Hunt” activity and many outings.
Every evening we had so called “Cultural night” during which the participants of the exchange in the form of quizzes and games wanted us to become more familiar with their own countries. The games were mostly connected with traditional aspects and interesting facts. At the end of every presentation we had a chance to taste local food and drinks.
Grzegorz Gustaw (Sunday, 11 August 2013 19:35)
As a polish team leader I had a wonderful opportunity to take part in a Youth in Action project “Activization” which was held at hotel Metropol in Kaunas. In the project along with the Polish and the Lithuanians took part participants from Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany and Italy. During the event the participants had among the others an unique opportunity to take part in flash mobs and to interact with locals while co-working in multinational groups on various demanding tasks perfectly prepared by the organizers. Furthermore, the participants had a great opportunity to promote their countries and to get to know the other cultures during so called “cultural evenings” when representatives of each country had a possibility to make a fancy presentation about their country and to share national food and drinks with the others.
My responsibility as a team leader was to organize the trip of the polish team, to ensure that the program of polish cultural evening is exceptional and will leave a good impression of the country and that the polish participants’ contribution to the success of the project is significant.
Overall, I am very happy with the event. I can highly recommend to the active youth people taking part in similar projects in collaboration with SMIT CREATOR. I am also recommending to everyone visiting Kaunas in Lithuania. This pretty city has a tremendous ambience and the beauty of local Lithuanian women is exceptional.