Between April 26 and 30, a group of 37 participants coming from Programme countries, Balkans and Eastern European and Caucasus countries took part at the “Make the Move for Green Inclusion” partnership building activity (PBA) in Santarém and in a rural village in the centre of Portugal, Vila da Marmeleira.
The Bureau International Jeunesse and the National Agency of Portugal for the Erasmus+ programme organised this PBA with a clear focus on increasing the cooperation between NGO’s and groups in order to develop quality Youth Exchanges in the frame of the European Programme Erasmus+, and this with a particular focus on social inclusion and “green aproaches”.
In order to strengthen the international collaboration and especially the quality of youth projects, this partnership building activity aimed to provide the needed support and training elements for the participants who intend to organise such a youth exchange in the near future. Besides offering the opportunity for participants to create strong partnerships, the event also presented a real intercultural experience as an inspirational example for future youth exchange implementations.
The extremely interesting programme gave the participants to experiment non-formal training tools such as Plan B game which is a simulation exercise for policy making in which participants rely on their own beliefs and convictions to try their hands in becoming active citizens and make decisions, the Eye Cards which is an offline tool for the online trainings and meant to support the National Agency training course “EYE Opener” which focuses on youth exchanges, or the Timeline project card, to support collaboration between potential project partners and to build new youth exchanges by including all the necessary project elements. Views international was represented as well and it appears that with partners from Hungary, Turkey, Georgia and Belgium a new project for young people with fewer opportunities (multiple disabilities) will join forces to create two youth exchanges for 2023.
A very interesting part of the PBA was the one-day visit in Vila da Marmeleria, a village of 350 inhabitants. During the one-day visit, PBA participants experienced the possibilities of local involvement in creating youth projects for their community and supporting exchanges with other communities.
Over the past years, different international activities have been implemented in this community, offering a win-win situation for all involved – local development and change for local people through their involvement in the activities and a deep intercultural experience for the participants.
During the day, we were introduced to local people, had the time to get to know “green and sustainable” habits like: handling food waste, upcycling, organic agriculture, “insect hotel” or plant aromatic herbs in public spaces of the village.
All in one, this PBA has been a truly successful event.
