On the first day of the Youth Exchange “Medi(a)terranean”, we started with a few ice-breakers and name games, where we introduced ourselves. We were passing tennis balls while saying our names, we were arranged ourselves from A-Z by the first letter of our names, and by our day of birth and zodiac sign, to later continue sharing our expectations, fears and contributions about the project. Then we created our “Insta Profiles” where we took photos, we created pins and wrote something about us.
After the lunch at the nearby restaurant, we played “Human Bingo” which really helped us to get to know interesting things about each other. We also played the “Dynamic Duo” game, where different couples were getting certain names of popular characters, and they had to guess who they are by asking the others questions that have answers “yes” or “no”. We also got to know the agenda for the next days and the rules of our facility “Dreamland”.
We watched the videos from the national groups from the previous projects and started preparing for our “Eurovision” that is supposed to be in the last day. In the end we started the “Kiss and Kill” game by picking a paper with a name of a person that we should kiss somewhere while no one is looking in order to “kill”. In between all these activities, we had some free time to enjoy the area and the beach. All of these activities were meant to get us know each other better and to start the team building, before we jump onto the project topics in the following days.
On the second day of the youth exchange we started with an energizer which is called “pif paf”. The one who said “pif” pointed another participant and this participant bend on their knees and the one who was next to this person tried to say the word “paf” and kill each other. After we got energized we played treasure hunt. We were separated into 5 groups and all of the groups had 2 or 3 task to complete. With this treasure hunt, we discovered the area of Stratoni and we learned different stories and facts about Stratoni. After treasure hunt we discussed about our strategy in the game and why we chose this way. Then, we separated into national teams and each country create a monuments from the countries which are in this youth exchange. Every country did a different monument with using different tools and also a natural one. Every country gave some information about what they create as a monument. After that, we had lunch break. Later on, we had an energizer and we asked our names in our mother tongue and the person who got asked had to change her/his place. After the energizer each national team discussed about the problems in their countries about climate change. We chose 3 biggest and most important problems and we talked about it. After 20 minutes each country made a little presentation and we discussed more about the topic with other participants. Later, we recreated some fairytales in order to raise awareness of children about climate change. Every team create a new story for fairytales and we painted it on paper charts. After working with the teams every team present their fairytales. The activities were for get to know each other more and get to know our country’s backgrounds and what is happening in our society and in our country.
On the third day, we had two visitor trainers. They were here to talk about journalism. Then we started the day with an activity. In this activity, we were blindfolded and our partners were helping us to move around the street. So, with the help of this activity we were able to increase our skills on having empathy to other people.
Then, we had lunch. After the lunch, we were divided into 5 groups to make a real incident as like in a theatre. So we, as the groups had some time to prepare our scenes. Also, we had some time to pick the costumes too. After writing our scripts and getting prepared, we had a theatre performance in front of the other people. There were also some judges that were giving points and they were also giving feedbacks about the performances. Aftwerwards we had our dinner.
The fourth day started as usual – with an “energy game”, and then we examined the role of journalism in yesterday’s performances. After the coffee break we did a very interesting debate about environment and it was fantastic to see an exchange of opinions and ideas from where everyone surely expanded their knowledge. In the afternoon we looked at UN Sustainability Goals, we splitted in groups and we chose one goal for each group. Then, we made a presentation of this one, like if it was a media campaign. Everyone worked in different but efficient ways. To sum up, we analyzed a few parts of global issues, shared and discussed, exchanged our thoughts and as a result we created successful campaigns.
The fifth day was the last day of the journalist workshop. It started with learning how to find and combine information in order to write an article – so we did it in teams in a creative and realistic way. The morning session ended with a mission to fulfill eight tasks by interacting with the locals in order to collect information. Afternoon session was for the evaluation for the task that we did above. After this, we had a theoretical explanation for fake news and how to write the article in appropriate way.
The sixth day we had the opportunity to chose between radio, video editing, photography and graphic design. The sessions started with a new energizer, a silent and blind energizer, which put us in the right mood for work. The instructions were simple and we did a tour of the village and of the fisher’s port. After the morning break, our trainers who are skilled in the topic of radio, photography, video and graphic design, gave us input on how to compose good podcast, photography, video or graphic design. We had a great time ! The whole day was very balanced and time flied ! We had time to process but in the same time we moved on different topics so we had a full day of non formal education !
The seventh day:
Graphic design
The graphic design workshop allowed participants to discover and put into practice software that facilitates the creation of presentation materials, logos and other visuals. Moreover, they discovered graphic design tools such as Procreate on iPad and Adobe Illustrator on Windows.
Videography
The videography workshop was more practical than theoretical, where participants have acquired several skills that allowed them to use the camera in much more professional ways, to snap different types of photos and videos. Furthermore, they have learnt about how to consider light and angles in order to end up with good results and outcomes.
Radio
The radio workshop was half theoretical and half practical. Participants have learnt tips and tricks that allowed them to create professional podcasts, that were as fun as they were creative. Additionally, they have learnt about equipments used, and different types of podcasts.
Photography
The photography workshop taught participants to use cameras in order to take pictures of subjects. They have done that at the basketball court, by taking portrait photos with the basketball hoop in the background. They also took several portraits at the beach, and it was a remaking of the photos they have been given by the trainers.
The eight day – below are the reports about what happened in each group:
Graphic design
The graphic design workshop was about social and environmental design. They learned about the basics and explored Adobe photoshop programme. They were separated into groups to create a campaign about Stratoni and also to redesign the logo. Brainstorming, drafts and discussion were part of this project.
Videography
The videography workshop was separated into three small subgroups. The participants had to decide their video topic of the final product, which should have been based on environment. Later, every team was organizing their video shots and writing a script to finalize the final product.
Radio
The radio workshop was separated into three small subgroups. Each group had to be prepared with a topic, a sculpture script and much energy to take their final podcasts. So, they were now more experienced, familiar with the equipment and came ready to record one group at a time. They knew how to fix the mistakes of the moment, they recorded three different podcasts with three different topics and what remained was to edit and refine them so that the final products are presented.
Photography
The photography workshop… videography and photography teams played a Kahoot game together. The photography team did a project where they created a storyline and took 10 photos to explain it. At the end of the day they made a presentation of their photos by explaining the story behind them.
After all these working days we had one free day in which we went to the Aristotle’s park; then we went to the beautiful village of Arnaia; next station was Ouranoupolis: The tower of Prosforion and in the end we had an excursion with a boat to Drenia Islands o Gaidouronisia – the name of a cluster of 6 islands located across from Ouranoupoliand and we had loads and loads of fun!
The tenth day we had our last workshop which was about social media and SWOT analysis. We used it in order to create an analysis based on environmental issues! We were divided in five groups and we chose five different topics related to the environment. We made some SWOT analysis presenting the weaknesses, the opportunities, the threats and the strengths about each topic. We also talked about some strategies that we can use in order to explore social media, or more specifically Instagram. In order to promote our ideas and make them more visible to the digital communities.
It was a very useful information in order to comprehend better the usage of Instagram as a tool for spreading our activities and ideas!
The last day with activities was on second September where we had our free day and in which most of us were resting. We had to finish our projects and be ready to present them with the whole team.
