Project Name: YE "Fast Fashion, Fast Declaration"
Activity: Youth Exchange in North Macedonia (Struga) of 40 participants (4 participants, ages from 18 to 30, one leader no age limit each organisation)
Accomodation: Struga, North Macedonia
Dates of the Activity: From 20 to 27 of March 2023 (6 days of activities and 2 travellling days)
Participants: 4+1 participants from 8 countries.
Total of 40 participants
Follow Up Activity and dissemination from participants from Cyprus
Fast Fashion, Fast Degradation
Erasmus+ Youth Exchange dissemination article
Struga, North Macedonia - 20th to 26th March 2023
From the 20th to the 26th of March, ACPELIA had the opportunity to send 5 participants to Struga, North Macedonia, for a Youth Exchange titled “Fast Fashion, Fast Degradation”. The Cypriot participants were Boghos Avetikian, Miltos Savvides, Andreas Stylianou, George Charalampous and Andreas Andreou Joined by participants from Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey as well as North Macedonians the participant learned and shared information about the dangers of fast fashion, that being the mass production of clothes from cheap materials, which don’t last, are non-recyclable and unsustainable.
During the project, the Cypriot team actually conducted an activity one afternoon, whereby we explained grassroots events in Cyprus of trading older clothes, as well as using tracing paper, old clothes, and plastic bags in order to turn them into small pouches which can keep items inside.
Moreover, participants were also taken to the town of Orchid, whereby they learned about the sustainable harvest of pearls, who’s method is kept secret and culturally protected and used only by a few families that were living around lake orchid for generations.
Lastly participants also had the opportunity to see an actual clothes factory in Struga, and we learned from the manager how they choose to get materials from turkey, and how instead of doing the labor of creating the garments abroad (cheap/unethical labor) they instead are made locally my North Macedonians as well as sold locally. This served as a great example of locally made and sold fashion, where clothes may be slightly more expensive, but last much longer, are more sustainable, and support the local economy. The project was a success, and participants gained far more than they expected from attending it.
Follow Up Activity was done at 12 of April 2023 at Lykeio Agiou Ioanni in Limassol, participants from different projects told us about their experience. https://www.acpelia.org/post/dissemination-event-wednesday-12-of-april-2023
Travelling food and accommodation all are paid from the program (For an application you must be member of our organization, if you want to apply for membership you can go for the application to the link: https://www.acpelia.org/be-a-member
4 youngsters (ages 17-25) and 1 leaders will be selected from our organisation.
Aplication for Interest of Participation: https://forms.gle/2BLT821RJj1EPEBn9
If you want to be a candidate of our program please complete the application form and don't forget to complete the membership form if you are not a member of our organisation. Link for completing the application of membership: https://www.acpelia.org/be-a-member