LIFE+ | EVS@ICDET weekly diary

We had a extra free day becasue we worked at festival last week. First day i stayed at home to rest. Next day i went to mall and i went out at the night of that day. Last day of free days i tried to discover some places in Sofia.

The first day of the week we made mentor meeting session to solve some accommodation problems. And after that session we and Aleksandra discuss about the activities that we want to do together.

At Tuesday, I made an English Class session with the girls which I met at Sunday. English Class Session was doing Sofia tour with the same girls. Others did shootings in Kaufland for the Bulgarian Class Session. It was a challenge that is needed to find a specific Bulgarian labeled food. It was beneficial for the girls and me. After that I came home and rest.

At Wednesday, we discovered some local places to eat different kind with Aleksandra. It was helpful to learn some good quality places.

At Thursday, we made some preparations for our own personal projects. Then, we made a session to learn more about Youthpass and Europass with Zachari.

And the final day of week, we made some critisings about personal projects and weekly schedules. And, for the next week, we made some preparations. For the rest of the day everybody focused on their own personal projects.

#Life

LIFE+ | My first Erasmus+ adventure in Turin, Italy

Hello! I am Stela and I am going to tell you a few words about my experience in Turin this summer.

Everything started for me with one single main goal – to prepare myself for my big Erasmus exchange, which I am doing right now. In the beginning of the summer I was attending a few events, which were related to the program “Erasmus+” and in one of these events I met people, who introduced to me a whole new world, which I didn`t know that exists in its shapes till that moment – the world of Erasmus+. I found out that Erasmus+ is more than exchange program between universities. So in a few months I applied for a project called “Urban sustainability” in which I was accepted.

It took place in Turin, Italy, organized by the Italian organization there and my organization was a partner in this project.

I had my own fears and uncertainty, as always when something new and unfamiliar is up to happen. But that project was first and big step for me into this new world.

The people I met made me feel more confident, they thought me to be more curious about the world around me and they inspired me to do, just to do and to develop who I am. They inspired me to try to be better. To do everything possible to be useful for myself, for the people and environment around me. I am still in contact with some of the people I have met there and they still inspire me, they still encourage me and even I met some of them after the exchange. They thought me that not always everything is happening as you want, but still you should keep going and keep believing in the future, that you should be thankful for the beautiful moments you had, not to be sad that they are gone.

I can describe what l have learned from this project and the people I met there with the phrase “Carpe diem”. The meaning of these words is “grab the moment and take the best of it”. You could understand it in many different ways and that`s the charm of this phrase.

After one, even that short exchange, you can totally change your point of view about many things existing around you. You realize how small you are, but that you still have the power to do something to change the world.

Everything in our world starts and ends with people. In my opinion everything is about the people, so try to do the best for the people around you, give what you have as knowledge and experience, try to do what you like and to get better and better in it, because these things are inspiring, and every change is starting with one little piece of inspiration.

Many people say, “Once Erasmus, always Erasmus”. I can tell you that it is valid also for me, because this program gave me a lot that I can use in my future in my personal and later professional life.

At the moment I am doing my second Erasmus for one semester in another university. This is also a great experience which gave me a lot – many friends, knowledge, travel and life experience.

So, to end what I wrote – don`t miss the opportunity to grab this experience and to take the best of it!

#Life

LIFE+ | Bring people together | @ Braga, Portugal

The training course “Building Bridges of Tolerance” was held in Braga, Portugal between 1st and 9th December. 26 participants from Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia (FYROM), Poland and Spain took part in the project.

The main aims of the project were to educate youth workers about the problems related to immigration and more specifically - the refugee crisis, to analyze the different perspectives and reasons of immigration and to emphasize the unfair treatment of immigrants. The participants were involved in group activities and workshops that provided solutions, methods and techniques that can help immigrants’ integration in the new community.

During the training I realized that there are many existing issues in Bulgaria regarding xenophobia, racism and discrimination. The majority of the people react negatively when they hear the word “refugee”. Moreover, the Bulgarian government is proud of the low number of asylum seekers in the country and puts more effort into building a fence at the south border, rather than working on social inclusion of the immigrants.

Thanks to the trainers I gained general knowledge about the immigration topic and I got some really useful ideas that could be implemented in the Bulgarian society in order to show people that there is a story behind every person, that immigrants are human beings with feelings, desires and dreams. In my opinion, people should have a closer look on immigrants’ stories and should interact with them in order to have a deeper understanding of the situation and a non-biased opinion about the topic. Here are some ways:

1. Playing sports as a way of integration

Sport teaches us irreplaceable values such as fair play, respect, teamwork. In spite of our nationality, race, social status, job, education, sport gives us the opportunity to speak the same language. We are all equal on the sport field. “TDM Anniversary Cup 2017” was an event organized by “Associazione TDM 2000” and one of our trainers Federico Gaviano. This is a great example of how sport can unite people together.

An immigrant and a local policeman standing side by side on the football field.

2. Playing board games

Another great way to meet locals and immigrants together is through playing board games. During the training course, we had the chance to talk with the head of a Portuguese organization, which main project is to bring people living in Braga together with the help of board games. You can just go there and play with strangers for free. I can definitely say that the outcome was great- we laughed a lot and built a stronger connection with each other.

Several participants in the project play a board game.

3. Teaching immigrants how to dance traditional Bulgarian dances

As a person born in a country with rich history and traditions, it was always nice to see foreign people learning our traditional dances. This idea came up spontaneously in my mind while watching a video about Bulgarian folklore, but I think that this could be a huge step to social inclusion of immigrants, mainly because Bulgarians are overly proud when it comes to Bulgarian traditions and are always enthusiastic to share them with foreigners. Meanwhile, we can also learn something interesting from the immigrants’ culture.

Problems associated with immigration cannot be solved solely by spreading awareness and tolerance. Specific and targeted actions must be taken in the local communities. I believe that the best way to educate people about immigration issues is to actually involve them in a situation where they have to interact with immigrants.

#Life