ENGAGED YOU(TH)
Thanks to Erasmus + we were able to spend 2 unforgettable weeks in the capital city of Latvia - Riga. It was my first experience with an Erasmus project, but without a doubt I can say, that it definitely wasn’t my last. Overall, there were 8 wonderful countries participating in this project: Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Turkey and the host country - Latvia.
The project’s topic was the engagement of youth and what opportunities we as young people have. I found this topic to be very interesting and enriching. One of the main activities that sticks out to me is the simulation of a meeting of the European Parliament. Our main goal was to try and get a new law accepted. Everybody was assigned a role they had to play and they were supposed to act accordingly to it. As it usually goes, there were two sides assigned: the one for the acceptance of the new law and the one against it. This is when I realized how intricate this system actually is. We also learnt some new information about the European Union through an interactive Kahoot quiz.
We talked about different digital and social media platforms and how we can use them effectively and to our advantage, to spread important information. During one of our activities, we were supposed to use social media as a tool to share our thoughts and beliefs on different topics, such as creating a song about not being judgemental towards others and acceptance, or a video about what Erasmus projects are and look like. We then proceeded to post them on our instagrams, tiktoks…
Overall, I am very grateful for this experience. I especially enjoyed the intercultural evening, because we got to taste some national foods from each country and learn some random fun facts. I got to know many wonderful people and learnt more about them and their home countries. I stepped out of my comfort zone and made new friendships which I believe will last a lifetime.
Throughout the whole project we also played some interesting games called ‘energizers’ to get to know each other better and simply have some fun. The program itself was packed with activities, so we never got bored and fun was always guaranteed. 🙂
I think it’s great that the EU provides young people with such amazing opportunities to travel the world, meet like minded people and learn new things all in one.
A big thank you also goes to the organization Youthfully Yours, that made it possible for us to attend this project.