Chronicle

GENERATIONS

from 18.04 to 18. 04. 2022

In October 2021, we co-organized a youth exchange in a Romanian village Cehetel together with our Romanian partner organization. For our Czech group, the project started by a visit to Vienna on the way from Prague. Then, we took a night train from Vienna to Sighisoara, which is something we were a bit nervous about, but eventually, it was a great experience for all of us. In Romania, we arrived to a very small village in the mountains that we liked on the first sight. The topics of the project were intergenerational dialogue and rural traditions. Every national team prepared an interactive workshop about one rural tradition of their country - we learned traditional Hungarian wood painting, Greece bracelets, Spanish card games, etc. In the evenings, we enjoyed cultural activities and a lot of traditional dances. At the end of the project, we went for a trip to Sighisoara, the birthtown of Dracula. Because Transylvania is an ethnically interesting and mixed region, we enjoyed many debates about history and national identity. On the other hand, we also experienced a funny rural situations, when all the cows and geese decided to come visit us. On the way home, the participants were eagerly discussing, where we should travel next and who we should visit first, and I was enjoying a nice feeling of a job well done.

Mája

You can see photos from the gallery HERE.

And here you can read the brochure that we wrote about the rural traditions and problems of our countries:

generations-booklet

Summer camp 2021

from 13.12 to 13. 12. 2021

The theme of this year's summer camp was "The Witcher" - for two weeks, the children were living a story set in a fantasy world full of magical creatures and monsters. For their success in various games and competitions, they received pages of their bestiary and they learned new things about the creatures that live around, especially how to chase them away. When such a creature appeared near to our campsite, the children performed spells and boiled potions according to the bestiary in order to get rid of the monster. At the same time, they fulfilled various "tests" (test of courage, recognizing herbs and star constellations, etc.), thanks to which they were becoming wiser and more experienced witchers.

As it has been for many years, even in 2021 was our summer camp an international one. The group of children consisted of Czechs as well as Spanish, who arrived together with their leader and our good friend Isaac. The first week of the camp was also connected with a training course under Erasmus+, thanks to which the children could experience activities lead by youth workers from various European countries - Latvia, Romania, Turkey, Spain, Croatia, Slovakia and Czech Republic. Together with the E+ participants, we undertook a trip to Tábor and visited also the underground of the town.

In the second week of the camp, we organized a two-day trip - we visited a chateau garden in Vrchotovy Janovice, we slept in a garden in a nearby village and we visited a rescue station for animals in Votice. Just like every year, there were also plenty of campfires with singing, boat trips, swimming in the river, collecting blueberries and other things that the children always enjoy.

You can see photos from the gallery HERE

Summer Camp Adventure

from 05.11 to 05. 11. 2021

 Even though we were a bit stressed about the pandemic, we eventually managed to organize an internationational summer camp (as we have been doing for many years now). The Erasmus+ youth exchange was attended by participants from Spain, Slovakia and even three Turkish participants, who were studying in Slovakia by that time. The programme of the youth exchange was quite rich. The participants were spending some time with the children, playing games prepared by us, such as the "good deeds" game, during which they explored the local neighborhood and interacted with the locals. A couple of times, they also prepared their own activities for the children - a "station rotation" with funny tasks, a night game teaching the children about archetypes, etc. With the Spanish leader Isaac, they experienced various activities and debates aiming to promote critical thinking, self-esteem and communication skills. Apart from these activities at the campsite, we also organized a trip to a nearby ruin Příběnice, to Tábor and to Prague. In our free time, we enjoyed swimming in the river, canoeing, volleyball and other outdoor activities and games. We enjoyed four national evenings, during which we learned about the cultures of the Czech republic, Spain, Slovakia and Turkey and tasted their traditional dishes. Overall, we had a good time and brought home many nice memories and valueable experiences.

You can check out the photos here.

Mája

Finger-travelling

from 05.11 to 05. 11. 2021

At the end of summer in 2021, our campsite hosted young people from the Czech Republic, Greece, Spain and Transylvania for an Erasmus+ project called "Finger-travelling". The programme of the first week was a kind of an introduction to what was coming later. Through various games, we got to know each other and we learned more about the two main topics of the project - intercultural dialogue and non-formal learning. We also organized trips to Tábor and to Prague. In the second week, we finally got to the "travelling" that is promised by the name of the project. Each of the four days, we "travelled" to one of the countries represented in the project - on that day, the national team of this country organized the morning programme (teaching the others about their land and culture) and also cooked a typical national meal for dinner.

The Spanish team prepared typical national games and also an interesting debate about various aspects of the Spanish culture and politics. The Czech team organized a role-play game (showing what it's like to be foreigners in this country) and a workshop about camping skills. In Romania, we travelled from one city to another, learned more about these cities and got a better understanding of the poverty Romania was suffering under Ceausescu. In Greece, we learned how to make frappé, how to say weird Greek phrases, and we presented the most famous Greek theatre plays. For dinner, we had Spanish omelette, Czech cream sauce called "svíčková", Romanian goulasch cooked over the fire and Greek meat balls. Although we were dealing with a lot of rain and cold during the project, we all managed to enjoy it, make good friends and learn a lot of new things.

You can see photos from the gallery HERE.

Mája

Digital Youth

from 05.11 to 05. 11. 2021

Three years ago, we were discussing where to organize our third "Digital Youth" training course under the Erasmus+ programme. Eventually, we decided for Armenia, an Asian country that has a lot in common with our European culture. This country seemed as a perfect setting for addressing intercultural dialogue. We were planning to bring also participants from Turkey and Azerbaijan - we wanted to discuss how politicians abuse nationalist sentiments in order to divide the society and spread fear and hate between people from different countries and cultures. We were planning to organize the project in June 2020, unfortunatelly, because of the pandemic we had to postpone it. When we organized the project a year later, the situation was already different - after the war, there was no chance of expecting participants from Turkey or Azerbaijan to come to Armenia. Also, the boarder with Georgia was closed by that time. Despite all the inconveniences, I would say this Digital Youth project was the most successful one. The short movies that we created are full of emotions from the recent conflict. Young people from Europe gained the very valuable experience of seeing how destructive a war can be.

You can see the short movies that we created here.

You can see photos from the gallery HERE

Lukáš

Beginners Guide to Youth Work

from 05.11 to 05. 11. 2021

 Me and my colleague Isaac had been preparing this project since October and we were looking forward to it so much. It was a training course that gathered young people, who are just starting to work with youth and need to gain basic experience to build on. The morning parts of the programme were usually focusing on "leadership", the participants practiced their communication skills and discussed about the issues young people are facing in the contemporary world. The afternoon programme was about youth work - the participants presented their NGOs to the others, they themselves organized educational activities for others and tried to write their own Erasmus+ projects. To have a bit of a rest from the demanding programme, we organized a trip to Prague and also a variety of team-building games. We had the luck to gather a group of very motivated and active young people and we had a lot of fun working with them. Every evening, when we were sharing our "happy moments of the day", we had a lot of things to talk and laugh about.

You can see photos from the gallery HERE.

Mája