At the beginning of February, we participated in a training course on the topic of Improving Youth Work Towards Gender Equality. The course took place in the picturesque village of Penagos in Cantabria in the north part of Spain. The main aim of this project was to become aware of the subtle everyday situations of gender discrimination that young people encounter as a result of sexist cultural expressions and behaviour.

From the first day of the course, our time was filled with interesting activities that raise awareness of everyday sexism. The mornings belonged to theoretical-practical lessons led by a top lecturer, who guided us through individual pitfalls of sexism and showed us much more. For example, how to handle stressful situations, how to name your feelings in more detail and improve communication. During the afternoon, we had the opportunity to work on presenting our own projects to the groups on topics such as gender stereotypes, toxic masculinity and femininity, gaslighting and many others.

The organizers also thought about getting to know Cantabria and prepared a great program for us outside of the workshops. We had the opportunity to visit a local eco-village and also enjoy a day in Santander, thus getting closer to the culture and beauty of northern Spain. There were also hikes in the afternoon, as the surroundings of Penagos are relatively mountainous and we were lucky to have wonderful views from them.

During our entire stay in Penagos, we had the opportunity to taste top cuisine and local specialties of Spanish cuisine, such as Patata or Paella. We spent the very second evening tasting national specialties from the countries of all the participants and we also danced Bulgarian national dances together with a couple from Bulgaria.

We had the opportunity to meet and get to know inspiring young people from Italy, Greece, Spain, Romania, Croatia, Poland, Turkey and Bulgaria. The training course was not only full of study, but also great activities and wonderful friendships, and we will definitely not forget this course so quickly. It was a unique experience and we are really grateful to have been able to participate in this project.