One of the Denmark team’s participant Yuki Yasumiba shares her experience about “Do it Online”- Erasmus+ Youth Exchange Project in Samobor, Croatia
In the beginning of this month, I participated Erasmus Youth Exchange program in Samobor, Croatia. It was a 9-days program with a lot of diverse people from UK, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Turkey. The theme this time was “Do it Online”, aiming to develop digital citizenship among youth.Through the project, we discussed about active citizenship, what is “civic engagement” and “civic participation” and how could we utilize digital tools to promote that.
Once each national team shared each country’s cases of digital civic participation and engagement and it was quite interesting for me to learn about it. Each country had a different case but especially the case in Turkey was a bit shocking for me because when it comes to “freedom of speech”, it is completely different from our situation.
Besides serious stuffs, we also had “culture night”, a night each national team introduce their culture. We learnt some cultural dance from Turkey, curious tradition in Czech and more! We, Danish team also hosted one night and we danced boogie-woogie and read one famous fairytale writer, Hans Christian Andersen’s short story. Of course, we ate some cultural snacks and drinks (woo-hoo).
On the last day, we held open-dancing event in the middle of Samobor as a culmination! Our idea was sharing “happiness” through dancing because we sometimes focuses on cyber world too much and forget to live in our moments.
To host the event, we also used some digital tools. We created event-page on Facebook, shared information through Instagram, Twitter and so on. I tried video-making for the first time and it was great experience for me to try something new. At the event, everyone danced on the stage in the town center and some tourists or local people joined dancing, We also distributed heart shaped paper with some quotes about happiness.
It was very pleasant to see people smiling through dancing and papers. At last, the best thing I got through projects was “friends” from all over the world. You know, if you have someone you want to cherish around the world then, the world becomes more peaceful and beautiful. I am so convinced that we will see each other again.
Thank you so much everyone who I met through this project and see you again.
By Yuki Yasumiba
For more information on Erasmus+ visit: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/
And keep an eye out for future opportunities to participate through Erasmus+ with Crossing Borders!