Nine days filled with fun, learning, discussions, joy and delicious food. Four participants from North Macedonia participated in the Training Course “Two Sides of the Migrants Story”, which took place from the 8th to 16th of October in Ankara, Turkey. We were participating together with participants from Belgium, The Netherlands, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Greece and Turkey.
The topic of the project were the stories of the Migrants who because of many unexpected conditions, such as warfare, political instability and natural disasters must leave everything behind like the place where they lived, streets they used to walk through and faces they used to see.
The hotel where we were staying was Hotel Akar International which was walking distance from the center of Ankara. There were a lot of cafés, bars and nightclubs so we had fun every evening. Also we were close to the Ataturk museum, one the best landmarks in Ankara, which we visited and it was an amazing experience we would recommend to anyone. Also we visited the Ankara Castle from which you can see the whole city of Ankara.
During the project we discussed the stories of the migrants, the struggles and other hardships they experienced. In addition we shared about the situation and the history with migrants in Macedonia, especially about the refugees that transit through our country and go to Western Europe to find a better life. The learning was based on non-formal educational methods (discussions, simulations, role-playing, presentations). The knowledge we gained was always presented via games, challenges and analysis.
The most fun activity was the simulation of a border where migrants want to cross it in which everyone had a role, some of us were border guards, some border administration and others were migrants. Later this activity was accompanied by an interesting debate in which everyone had a chance to get involved.
Summing up everything, we realized how productive this experience was for us. We met people who expanded our horizons, learned new skills and practiced being more patient, fun and understanding. We definitely want to state that it is the people that we met along the way that made us appreciate the journey. We felt an amazing connection with the group which motivates us to participate in even more Erasmus+ projects and therefore promote the Erasmus + programme.