In the end of February 40 young people from 8 different countries (Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, France, and Slovakia) met in sunny Sardinia in Italy to attend project “Capturing the Voice of Youth”.
On 21. February, I boarded plane with other four Slovaks and in couple of hours we landed in beautiful Cagliari. There the hosting organization took care of us – they showed us our accommodation and took us to pizzeria. The fun part started next day when we met all participants in Manufattura (place where workshops were held). We played many ice-breaking games to get to know each other. We also set some rules and the hosting organization introduces us to the agenda of the project. During night we walked crossed city center of Cagliari and saw Bastion Saint Remy which was beautiful.
The following day we talked about active participation and had to come in groups with 10 competencies that young person should have. Later we had intercultural night. We tasted a lot of food from Italy, Portugal, Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, France, and Slovakia. Slovak team prepared traditional sweets and tasteful beverage Tatra tea.
On day three It started to be more practical. We created videos which should people persuade to go voting in elections to European parliament. Then in groups we got an emotion which we had to reflect in our photos. Some got “love”, “excitement” and others.
During night we had fun in karaoke bar. “Photo-eporting” was a task for next day. We had to take pictures of various objects – bus, sea, person, animal, tree. Next photo session was prepared by Slovak team. The job was to capture Cagliari. Participants had to take pictures of the old generation, expressivity, joy and as a bonus recreate some iconic pictures.
Day five was very outdoorsy. We went to park Monte Urpinu where we saw peacocks, ducks, swans, chickens, and a lot of cats. In this park we also had a picnic. On the same day we went to the beach. Some people climbed on the top of Sella del Diavolo. It was a marvelous view.
On the sixth day we walked to market San Benedetto to photograph the atmosphere of the place. On this day we also danced and had two tasks. One was to choose best picture of youth exchange. The other was to create and tell a story using pictures that we took during project. Then also represent it.
The seventh day was a dissemination time. So, we had to come with ideas how would we represent the gained knowledge from the project in our countries. Some would do a presentation in school, photography workshop or exhibition. Others would use social networking sites to share the gained information. On this day we also had to say goodbye to each other.
On 28. February, we left Cagliari full of new experiences, connections, memories and good mood.