Mobility project - "Change Yourself Change Society"

Short summary  of the  project participant

During 13.10.18 - 21.10.18 youth mobility project - "Change Yourself Change Society" was held in Georgia, Rustavi. The project was about how the young people can be included in the policy-making process, how to cooperate with governmental or non- governmental organs. In total 36 participants from 4 different countries - Georgia, Greece, Poland, Netherlands - took part in the project. In the course of the project we lived in International Scout Centre Rustavi - nice and well-managed place with all equipment needed for such kind of exchanfe programs. The one week of the project was loaded many different activities, aimed to deliver formal as well as informal knowledge and develop communication, negotiation and team work skills. During each activity we were divided into 4 or 5 international (mixed) groups, so it was a good opportunity to get acquainted with each other and make close friends, as working together in team is the fastest and easiest way to connect people. The project contained following activities: (1) Petition writing. - as abovementioned, we were divided into groups and since we were shown petition examples, each groups' task was to think of and write a petition about the issue they wanted to change; for instance, my group wrote about transport between Rustavi and Tbilisi. Our suggestion/requirement was to set a train between the cities as the cheaper, faster and more comfortable way to travel. As far as the project included both- theoretical and practical work, most of activities were done outdoors (in a practical way) : (2) Graffitti making - after a preparation class and creating stencils of the slogans and mottoes about active citizenship, we went out in town to make graffitties and share our desire to the people to be more active and more motivated. (3) Outdoor interviews. - this activity included communication and interaction with local people and figure out how they contribute in city life, what they want to change in favore of their hometown and how well they accomplish their civic duty. (4) Performances. - national teams prepared a little performances about problems they see in their countries. For example, Dutch people performed discrimination problem; by their performance Polish people told us never to give up, because one persons' great desire can change world for the better; Greeks performed the problem of nepotism and sexual oppression at work; Georgians performed the problem of pollution, indifference for the law on some concrete issues and the problem of impatient, "crazy" drivers. (5) Debates - debates between national teams about the topic - "whether or not the military service should be obligatory". Beside educational, there also were entertaining activities, such as city game, tour in Tbilisi and hiking to the mountain "Kazbegi"; as well, for one evening participants were taken to the traditional restaurant to taste Georgian national dishes, there they got known of the cult of "supra" and "tamada". Furthermore, project included preparing for cultural evenings and presenting our countries to each other. Country representatives made presentations and let others taste their delicious traditional food. So we had great opportunity to learn more about each others' countries. In brief, I can surely say that this was an amazing experience full of joy, love, interesting people and activities, and was a great chance to raise self-awarenes in lots of various fields