It is a project within the Erasmus+ programme, made of two activities a training course held in Cluj Napoca Romania in beginning November and a youth exchange held in Porona Poland in January 2016.
It is organised by Babilon Travel from Romania and Youth of Europe from Poland.
Five countries from which Belgium and specially our organisation will participate to this project.
The overall goals of the projects are working with young people with fewer
Opportunities, equipping youth workers in non-formal education tools with visually
Impaired youth, promotion of the social integration, but also health and well-being.
As the outcome of the project we intend to improve the level of key competences and skills of young people. The meeting of young people will be dedicated to discussion, various outdoor activities related to the integration, sport fulfilling their leisure time.
For this reason the project will start with a Training Course where we plan to bring youth workers from 5 different European states. This phase will be dedicated to foster quality improvements in youth work through developing the skills of participants in the work with disabled youth and learning about various non-formal methods.
The youth exchange’s aim is to promote young people’s social inclusion and wellbeing, notably through sport and outdoor activities. Healthy behaviours will be promoted, in particular by the use of winter sports such as cross-country skiing, snowballs challenges, sleigh competitions. For this reason this activity will take place in mountain area of Zakopane and Poronin.
Training course in Romania Value the Difference
“Value the difference” is the name of international project concentrated on the needs of visually impaired youngsters. It consists two fazes- training course and youth exchange.
The first part of the project –the training course was carried out between 3-rd and 11-th of November 2015 in Cluj-Napoca Romania. 24 was the number of the participants. They were youth workers, blind and partially sighted people aged between 21 and 35 years old. The training course gathered representatives of 5 countries- Romania, Belgium, Greece, Italy and Poland. VIEWS International sent a group composed by 4 people.
The first half of the training course was in the building of the local school for blind. There some of the participants had possibility to take in contact with disabled children for the first time.
Still the beginning of the project the youth workers, visually impaired and volunteers established very good connection between them. The excellent team spirit and the integration and the mixture of the different nationalities were the main characteristics of the whole project.
The organizers proposed various types of activities. Dancing workshop, tandem bike, gym session, games for discovering the secrets of Cluj-Napoca were only a small part of them. The international group also visited the salt mine in Turda city and a few museums. Blues fest also took place in the same week in the capital of Transilvania. So some of the participants had opportunity to listen to a nice music.
Definitely for the most of the sited people represented on tis training course the most valuable experience was all activities which were done with covered eyes. The participants had to prepare on their own a sandwich blind folded. They walked with white cane accompanied by someone. After that the people from the tandem changed their roles and the former guide became a guided ones.
During the second part of “Value the difference” the organizers offered of all 24 representatives of the five participating countries the chance to stay 3 days in the West Carpatian mountains. The group had a different funny sport activities like a rope pulling, jumping with the bags, tracking mountain. The last evening wonderful fire camp was produced by the international team spirit
The econd faze of the project “Value the difference” youth exchange will take place in January in Puronin Poland.
Gala