During the week from 18th to 25th July Globala Kronoberg welcomed 25 participants from Armenia, Cyprus, Hungary, Spain and Sweden to a typical swedish cottage surrounded by forests and lakes placed in Fylleryd, Växjö.
It was the fourth time that Globala Kronoberg organized this Youth Exchange with focus on outdoor activities. The daily topics of the activity days contained team-building, nature & environment, sports & health, urban challenges and cultural diversity. The goal of the whole exchange was to promote activities and experiences outdoors and also to give them an idea about group work and communication. Besides physical activities like canoeing the participants also dealt with the specific subjects through games, discussions and workshops.
This exchange showed them the importance of different competences like team-work, non-formal learning methods, ways of communication, identity- and role-finding. Moreover they became aware of issues in our society and environment, for example dealing with different cultures and individuals or problems caused by globalization.
After the daily activities concerning the specific subject, every day there were also working groups in which the participants could contribute their skills to or which could give them an idea about a certain work area. Each participant had the choice to join either the Food Group or the Media Group or the Entertainment Group. All working groups had the aim to give something back to the whole group including participants and organizators. This was fulfilled by preparing dinner each day, creating a memory book of the whole week or providing energizers and theatre plays to entertain the group.
The participants started to grow together as a group from the first day on, involving everyone and creating friendships. Although each day was very intensive and full of activities, all of them took part in the exercises and shared their thoughts and ideas with the group. They collaborated together as team during the whole week no matter what nationality, gender, age or background they have.
All in all this youth exchange was a success for everyone who was involved: the participants got closer to nature, learned more about the environment and urban challenges and became aware of the importance of cultural diversity and group work.
Memory book from Go out be in 2016
/Laura Esche, volunteer in Globala Kronoberg