“Change starts from you – bECOme active", YE in Cologne, Germany /08 - 15/08/2023

Project Name: Youth Exchange “Change starts from you – bECOme active”

Activity: Youth Exchange in Germany. The Change starts from you – bECOme active project will involve 42 participants from Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, North Macedonia, Italy and Cyprus in Cologne, Germany from 8 – 15 of August 2023.

Youth Exchange: 8 – 15 of August 2023 (including travelling days)

Accommodation: Station – Hostel, Marzellenstr. 44-56 50668 Cologne / Germany

Food: The venue of the training will serve the participants with 3- times-a-day meals and snacks and beverages for the coffee breaks.

Participants: 5+1 participants from 7 countries.

Total of 42 participants

Implementation and participation in the project from our team

Between 8-15 August 2021, five participants and one team leader of our organization have joined the Youth exchange project “Change starts from you – bECOme active”, in the beautiful city of Cologne, Germany. During our time in Cologne, we had the opportunity to meet and share our knowledge and experiences on eco-activism, environmental issues, actions that we can take to become more environmentally friendly, through different workshops and activities, with other participants from five different countries (Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Poland and North Macedonia).

On Day 1 of the project, we got to meet each other by playing games and other interactive activities, we have set the project rules and we started tackling the theme of the project. During the night we had a team building activity where we went for a night city walk and tour.

On Day 2, we started the day with a city hunting game to discover Cologne’s culture, people, food and tradition. After that, we have discussed the concept of cloths pollution and made a small research on the origins and materials on the clothes that we were wearing during the seminar and presented our ideas and results. At night, we held the intercultural night where Italy, Romania and Bulgaria presented their countries and traditions.

On Day 3, we held a morning session by presenting our NGO organisations and discussed what we do and the projects that we are involved in. After that, we had to create some creative videos based on the specific project and Erasmus+ in general.

On Day 4, we had some free time for team building activities where we walked around the city and discovered some green places, such as parks, cycling paths, etc. During the night we held the intercultural night where Cyprus, Poland and North Macedonia presented their countries and traditions.

On Day 5, we started the day by creating some environmental campaigns and came up with various ideas on how to protect the environment and make our communities greener. Some excellent ideas were presented from all the groups that can be easily be applied in our communities and solve many problems around us.

On Day 6, we have discussed about the Erasmus+ Youth Pass and the opportunities that we can have from such projects and later on we have made the final evaluation of the project and got to know our secret friends.

Overall this has been an amazing experience when we got to meet people from all around Europe, we have enhanced our environmental awareness, worked in teams and collaborated with people from diverse backgrounds, learned about new cultures and the most important thing, met new people that we can now call friends and family.

A few weeks after we returned to Cyprus, our organization organized a Dissemination event at the beginning of September (3 of September 2023) which was held in Pissouri, where we shared our experience in the project with other youngsters that attended the event. In the follow up activity there were more than 20 youthworkers members of the NGO and they were very excited from our experience. More information about the follow up activity to the link: https://www.acpelia.org/post/dissemination-event-sunday-3-of-september-2023-pissouri-multicultural-center

5 youngsters and one leader will be selected from our organisation.

Characteristics of the participants:

- To have motivation to actively participate in international cooperation

- To respect the tasks and responsibilities defined by the coordinator and the organization to which they belong

- To behave professionally during the process of realization and implementation of mobility

- To be friendly and to promote a positive team spirit

- To have a desire to gain new knowledge, skills and competencies through non-formal education

- What is the project about?

From climate change, deforestation and other misuses of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, pollution, or contaminated water supplies - environmental challenges are plentiful. How leaders, scientists, and individuals respond to these challenges directly impacts the environment and the opportunities that we live with today and tomorrow. As crucial stakeholders in the sustainability debate, young people can provide an invaluable perspective that policymakers sometimes lack. Young people deserve a say in environmental politics, and this starts with raising awareness among young people about the key issues at hand and how to get involved in developing and implementing sustainable solutions. In the past several decades, eco-activism has been getting an increasing amount of attention and agents, as the environmental problem is becoming increasingly urgent to resolve. Eco-activism is relevant because it does not limit itself to the protection of the natural world. Instead, it also ensures that some are not disproportionately affected by environmental degradation by giving them the opportunity to voice their concerns. Eco-activism is therefore not just about ecology: it's also one of the best ways to bring about social and political change. As a matter of fact, there is a strong relationship between environmental protection and human rights. Indeed, the United Nations has moved towards recognizing the right to a healthy environment as a human right.

The fulfillment of the fundamental human rights go hand in hand with environmental protection as both people and the environment rely on each other for their well-being. Climate change and related consequences will create the most problems for people with less opportunities and that is why it is important to raise awareness of the impact on the environment that each of us is making. That is the main motivation behind this project, initiated by young people coming from a migrant background. They want to implement this project in order to create positive change and show youngsters from other countries how they can be active in this field. Partner organizations that showed interest in this project also dedicate some or most of their activities to raising awareness about environmental problems. Therefore, they are interested in having informed and empowered young people who want to become more active citizens and propose new activities in their local communities. The main objective of the project is to raise awareness of climate change and other environmental problems among young people, to help them understand the impact they have on the environment and to empower them to use their skills and talents for creating change in their local and also the international community.

Objectives

- to introduce young people to the concept of eco-activism and to learn about good practices in different countries;

- to raise awareness about the importance of active participation and impact of daily activities on the environment;

- to empower young people for eco-activism;

- to create minimum 4 posts/actions for participating in global movement Plastic free July and give participants the

- opportunity to take part in virtual activism;

- to create minimum 6 workshops/actions related to eco-activism that will be organized in participating countries after the mobility;

- to inform the youth about opportunities available to them through Erasmus+ and other European mobility programs;

Aplication for Interest of Participation: https://forms.gle/ki1kDCa1FtryxXL37