Living in Europe Together – Day 2

Here we are again with news from our Youth Seminar in Thessaloniki: “Living in Europe Together”! 🙂 Day 2 is now over and we all feel we have learned a lot from today’s activities.

Today was meant to help the participants to put themselves in the shoes of others by learning about different types of discriminations and violations of Human and Social Rights through 3 different activities.

The day began with an outdoor activity during which each person was attributed a hidden character: homeless person, daughter of an ambassador, immigrant, refugee… Standing in on line, they all had to imagine the background and context of their characters, after what they were presented with a list of facts. For each case, they had to take a step forward if they thought their character was privileged, thus showing little by little the gaps and inequalities of society. This experience was powerful and it leaded to a common reflection around freedom and access of basic Human and Social Rights.

The morning continued with the second activity, a treasure hunt associating a team building dynamic with a training in Human and Social Rights, and finished with an indoor debate-based activity aiming to introduce structured dialogue.

During the afternoon, the 5 members of the Team of Facilitator shared their best practices with the participants (divided in little groups). Thanks to this, the young people were able to discover concrete actions taken in 5 countries (Romania, Italy, The Netherlands, Kosovo and Armenia), at different levels and focused on various issues: Roma Minorities, Refugees, Youth, Discrimination ; also using different tools such as Non-formal Education, Soft Skills, Human and Social Rights…

The second day of our Youth Seminar ended one more time with a intercultural evening, this time under the flags of Spain, Greece, Italy and The Netherlands.

2 rich days have now been achieved with curiosity, mutual respect and openness and we can’t wait to continue our work! Tomorrow will be yet another very special day, dedicated this time to two very interesting field visits at our partners and friend organisations. Many discoveries to come, so, stay tuned 😉

Inclusive thoughts from Thessaloniki,

Youth Express Network

Fonds européen pour la jeunesse financeur du Réseau Express Jeunes Youth Express Network

This project was supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe and the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union