Youth Exchange: "Gender Equality Through Inter-cultural Learning vol.3" - Project Results

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

This project is the continuation of the previous "Gender equality through intercultural learning" Erasmus+ project that took place in Estonia.

The Youth Exchange "Gender equality through Intercultural learning_Volume 3" gathered 31 young people, aged 18 to 30 (25 participants plus 6 team leaders without age limit), from 5 countries and took place from 12-24 October, 2018 (11 days, not including the travel days) in Athens, Greece.
Activities were structured in such a way and followed strategic steps in order to have the most beneficial outcomes. Gender equality in different cultures was analyzed and we figured out how the current situation about gender issues in each country is connected to culture and history. Focusing on the impact of these inequalities, we found out how they affect the current situation of employment, place of women in labor market and gender stereotypes. A campaign creation (social advertisements, posters and photos) for gender equality raised awareness in our local communities and participants had the chance to enhance their digital skills. 

THE AIM

The aim of this project is not to underline the existing gender inequalities, but to analyze and discuss them through the culture and history, to understand why this unequal situation is not as acceptable as young people might think. This work will be especially fruitful by the confrontation with other cultures from Europe, which will help to reflect and put things into perspectives from the participants' societal expectations. It will increase young peoples' awareness by making them reflect the strengths and weaknesses of their cultures on gender roles and gender equality, discuss and learn from each other’s history and cultural realities, in order to break stereotypes, in an inter-cultural perspective.

THE OBJECTIVES

1. Increase awareness and reflect about the roles and status of women and men 
2. Become aware of gender balance situation in other countries 
3. Discover new cultures and particularities of each other in order to break stereotypes and in the same time learn about ourselves 
4. Make the new generation open-minded and create potential future civic activists. 

THE HOSTING ORGANIZATION&THE PARTNERS

DreamTeam is a group of young people active in youth work and its activities are based on non-formal education methods and structured dialog. Culture, arts, creativity, youth active participation, social inclusion, solidarity and tolerance, mutual understanding and respect, human rights, cooperation, European awareness are the core elements of the group.

THE PARTNERS

DAY 1: Ice-breakings, team builging activities,

Introduction to Erasmus+

The first day begun with breaking the ice at the hidden treasure of Strefi Hill by discovering what people are afraid of, what superpowers each one of us has although we did not find out which came first: the egg or the chicken. After playing cat and mouse with some real cats and dogs we had an introduction to the three types of education and this is when we realized that this is a non-formal educational program.

We finished the activities in the amphitheater where we felt like actors already performing for the audience we got to know. The day ended on the rooftop enjoying greek tangerines and finding out that many of us call them “mandarines”!

DAY 2: Personal Identity

We started the day as usual with a breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel with a panoramic view of Athens. After the breakfast we moved to the amphitheatre which is located nearby. There we started with the energizer carried out by Estonians. 

After the energizer we were divided into three teams. Every team had to think about rules, which will be followed by all the participants till the end of the project. Team no.1 created hotel rules, team no.2 set up rules for activities and team no.3 came up with guidelines on how to behave in the streets of Athens.

After coming back to the hotel we started focusing on the topic of personal identity. We concluded that it’s dependent on many factors such as ethnicity, religion, language, interests, values, etc. and it’s evolving through the lifetime. Things worth remembering: 

 Our identity is our sense of who we are as individuals and our approach to the world around us. 
 Our identity is our approach to who we are and not what other people think of us.

During the lunch break we had more time to enjoy our company, share experiences, stories and laugh out loud. There was also a squeezing faces competition.

Having our bellies filled with Greek specialities and batteries recharged, we came back to the hotel for another round of activities. By working in groups of 6 we could practice our drawing and storytelling skills. Every group created a fictional character and brought it to life by giving it personal characteristics. It was surprising to discover how creative we can be!

Intercultural evening served as a perfect ending of the day. Tonight three groups (Greece, Armenia, Estonia) prepared presentations about their countries. We got the chance to explore different cultures by trying national drinks and snacks. Afterwards we put our dancing shoes on, conquered the rooftop with Armenian dances, Greek zorba and entertain ourselves with mind-boggling games. 

DAY 3: Abigail Tale & Stereotypes

We started the session with the Abigail‘s Tale that started interesting discussions about morality and showed many differences in our cultures. After those difficult topics and discussions you need to recharge your batteries, so we went for a lunch - that was really good as usual. 

At 15:00, full of energy, we started to present the gender inequalities in our countries. All of us have heard a lot of interresting informations and and we  got so deep into the topic, so we spend whole afternoon talking about presentations, discussing and comparing our experiences.

In the evening we have had time for reflection, most of all was actually positive feedback. 

DAY 4: Albatross Culture
Weaknesses and Strengths

of our cultures about gender equality

Our activities started with a discussion about quotes said or written by famous people of the past. People who were philosophers, literates and military figures, the best of the best. The quotes showed their attitude towards women in their time, that they were reducing their roles in the society of the past. There were opinions that if those men could live today, they wouldn't have said such diminishing things.

After the lunch, all the participants came right into a new world of the Albatros Culture. This role-play activity provided the group with an outlook on how far would people go to embrace a new culture. Afterwards, we discussed our feelings that we felt during the workshop with an unexpected plot twist about the roles in the Albatros Culture.

After the dinner, we finished the day with intercultural evening, where we presented our cultures. Also everyone could taste amazing Polish and Czech delicacies and the best beer and vodka on the planet Earth!

DAY 5: Women and Expressive Art

The day begun with the usual energizers at the park where we all obtained some energy for the activities to come. 
Then, participants were divided in groups and they discussed the existing gender imbalances in different aspects of life such as in politics, in economy, in social life. They also referred to the stereotypes of the genders. In the afternoon, they explored Athens while interviewing the locals about the gender roles in greek society. 

DAY 6: Employability Think Tank, Treasure Hunt

We started the day with some energizers and had a nice activity with cards where we were supposed to sum up our feelings about the project so far. It was cool. Very deep. 

Later on we presented the interviews of people in Athens.

The afternoon was just perfect. We were exploring the treasures of Athens in groups (and some people were lucky enough to discover the jewel of the city, Omonia, and actually survived).

DAY 7: Cultural Visit

DAY 7: Gender Trip into 2020

Lecture by an expert

After our morning energizer we started working on the issues of gender equality and discrimination against women. Divided in small teams we created our 'Equality-land', a perfect land where there is compete gender equality. 

This activity stimulated our imagination and our drawing skills. After deep brainstorming, we had some very nice outputs. 

In the afternoon, Miss Ada Kalogirou, national expert at the Ministry of Culture was our invited speaker and talked to us about the existing gender inequalities in the sector of Culture and Arts. It was a very interesting talk that broadened our minds and opened our horizons. Participants had the time to ask questions and reflect on the topic from a different perspective.

DAY 9: Persepolis &Poster creation

Next session was actually watching movie 🎥 PERSEPOLIS. Movie, which should be seen by everyone… Seriously everyone! Every person, every student. You don’t have to be interested in history, or gender equality. This movie was also about relationship, how hard it is to live alone abroad, to face cultural differences, to find new friends, to survive this world since young age, without your family, with facing loads of stereotypes ect. It was about family, about life, about freedom, about love.

What were our thoughts/feelings about this, we could put on a paper. Mostly words like sadness or rebellion, stop fighting and war is useless. Our lunch took a place as usual, in our favourite tavern (where they mostly serve beans and cabbage salad). In the afternoon session, we saw some examples of posters and pictures, that shows gender inequality, domestic violence, stereotypes, sexual harassment, etc. We got 3 hours for finishing this task, and we can say, it was fun!

DAY 10: How to make a good campaign?

Photo&Video making Skills

The group agreed to climb a little hill to have a quiet and nice place. It's always a good idea to share life-changing experiences with others. So there were many nice talks between participants after the meditation activity.

Afterwards participants watched examples of videos from different projects, social advertisements to have the overall idea how they can make an impact with the help of a simple video. And during the whole second part of the day we had the time to work on our own videos. 🇬🇷 🇦🇲 🇪🇪 🇵🇱 🇨🇿 

DAY 11: Youthpass

Final evalutation

Open event: presentation of our campaigns

The result of our activities during the 11 days of the YE 'Gender Equality Through Intercultural Learning Vol.3' were summed up in the video campaigns that participants created. We will be posting the videos day by day.