Article by Nikola Bajic, participant from Serbia
Thirty youth leaders, youth workers, lecturers and activists from ten different European countries gathered in the small Greek city of Trikala. Their goal? To make the world a better and fairer place.
With the help of the Greek National Agency and the Erasmus+ program, a program funded by the European Union with the goal of promoting European Values such as freedom, democracy, human rights, dignity and more, the project “Training course: European Values equalizers” was organized. Starting on the 25th of August, these young leaders had a chance to learn the importance of European Values through interactive activities such as workshops, group presentations, projects and other fun games and activities. The blend of lecturers, activists, highschoolers and students coming together from various different environments and cultures made sure that the experience was unmatched and everyone felt like they learned something new.
This project is just one of many others organized under Erasmus+ Youth, with the aim of promoting European Values, and is not the first one in Trikala either. The last project that was organized in Trikala by the organization CET Platform Hellas, happened just before the COVID- 19 outbreak, in February of 2020. After a year long pause the project returned with full force with participants from Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Greece and Armenia all coming together in Trikala to bring their own ideas of what they feel are the most pressing issues with human rights in their countries and how we, as a collective, can work together on promoting them. The project itself wouldn’t be possible without the incredible contribution from CET Platform Hellas, an organization with the goal of assisting in development of civil society and democratic institutions, as well as from CET Platform Croatia. The goal of this project is to teach young leaders through interactive methods and group projects the importance of skills such as time management, organization and communication skills and helpful ways, methods and tips on how to organize their own projects in their own communities. The promotion of six fundamental European Values, as defined by the European Parliament is also one of the core goals of this program. For those not aware, the six fundamental European Values are as follows: respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and rule of law.
The culmination of the project happened on the 31st of August where the participants of this training course did “street action” with the goal of informing and promoting European values to people. This was done through handing out brochures and flyers to other young people around the town and informing them about the project and what it represents, handing out balloons to children, playing, singing and other interactive activities.
“It is truly an amazing experience, traveling to a completely new place and getting to know the youth from other countries is almost a surreal feeling. I am really thankful to Erasmus+ that I got an opportunity to participate in this kind of a project!”, says one of the participants that we interviewed.
As this training course came to an end on the 3rd of September, that doesn’t mean the end of Erasmus+ projects in Greece and in other European countries is possible. If you find the ideas of European values and cooperation between different people from other countries an interesting prospect, feel free to visit the Erasmus+ webpage. Who knows, with some luck you will be the next person to write an article about the next training course under Erasmus+ a partnership of organizations is chosen to implement.
