This autumn, 7th of September – 6th of October, 2022, we did Erasmus+ Youth Exchange “I Lived”. Youth from Latvia, Italy, Romania and North Macedonia find out not only what they do in their daily lives and in the digital world, but also of how it affects them and everyone around them, both negatively and positively. The main activity of the project was youth exchange, which covered 4 TOPICS: awareness, habits, positivity and awareness in the digital world TROUGH non-formal education, discussions, creativity and sharing experience.
What we did?
Awareness
The topic of the first day was about awareness, particularly about self awareness, other’s emotions and communication. We learned how to be aware of our action towards others and ourselves. We discovered our personality types by activities, energisers and team building games to be more United and close. We also made new friends with alpacas and rabbits. In the evening we had Macedonian cultural evening with traditional food, dances and quiz about the history of Macedonia.
Habits
It started with an energizer called “The chairs’ game” to prepare people for our activities! We tried to involve all the participants in a group discussion to let them share their own habits, bad and good ones and it was amazing to see how they got to know each other even better. All together we learned that replacing a bad habit is difficult but not impossible and everybody shered their thoughts on how to do it! We ended the day playing a treasure hunt that ended up in an interesting debate! At the end of the day it was Romanian intercultural evening and even though we lost the quiz game we consoled ourselves with candies and other specialties from this incredible country! After the dinner we had a lot of fun dancing Romanian songs. It was a very special day that let us bond even more!
Positive thinking
On the morning we had different activities about our thinking and how our thoughts affect our outlook on life. Great discussions about positive thinking and learnings how to find something good even in the worst situations. In the aftrenoon we went to Jelgava, great city next to guest house. We did explored beautiful city and met amazing people while doing practical actions to “create” positivity in oneself and increase positivity in others. Also sharing Erasmus+ experience by example and also inspiring others with sharing opportunities they can use.
Awareness in the digital world
Today we had fireworks! Started fire early in the afternoon and kept it alive all day through controversial subjects about media literacy and energizers. We spoke about being aware of what we post and what we consume on social media. Also we had learnt about methods to research trough news, to be sure they are real ones. We had funny stories to tell and jokes to laugh about. In the evening we curiously waited for the magic to begin. It was the Latvian night which woke up all our senses. Delicious food, eye pleasing traditional costumes, playful dances and the Latvian sauna. An experience I recommend for everyone! Inhaled the heavy steam and exhaled on the cool grass admiring the sky. Gratitude and joy took over and stood with us!
The main result of the project were experience and videos made by youngsters, in which they expressed their thoughts about the project and the topics discussed during it. Check videos here.
The international youth exchange project was organized within the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission, the program is administered in Latvia by the Agency for International Youth Programs.
