TDM2000 International in cooperation with the European Youth Foundation Council of Europe, organised their first international project between the 21st and 28th of November in Strasbourg, France. The project, a study session, entitled “1 step in, 1000 steps forward towards intercultural learning. Exploring Intercultural Learning and the importance of having facilitators in the international youth work”, tackled the topic of promoting Intercultural learning as a tool to eliminate all forms of discrimination.
This study session brought together 25 youths from 15 countries including: Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Malta, Romania, Russia, Spain and The former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. Plus we had the pleasure to welcome a participant from Ghana, who has been with us for most of the sessions!
The participants together underwent a learning path through a number of non-formal learning methods, from getting to know each other, to understanding who they are and their identities to tackling various aspects of ICL. In a safe space, the participants had the occasion to give their opinions and views on the subject through their experiences and beliefs whilst challenging notions dealing with the matter. Moreover the participants were also given the opportunity to create and facilitate their own workshop on ICL and also to brainstorm together and set the foundations for the creation of new projects.
The study session was run by 6 experienced facilitators; Ivana Davidovska (from CID), Gianluca Massimiliano Frongia (from TDM 2000), Stefan Manevski (from CID), Marish Manucharyan (from JEF Armenia), Angelica Perra (from TDM 2000) and Nadine Amouri-Bajja (from the Council of Europe), who applied their different methods in order to give the participants a more global approach to ICL.
We would like to thank the Council of Europe for funding this study session and ultimately all the participants and facilitators for their contribution and involvement in the project, for expressing their ideas and for sharing their skills. All these factors combined, ultimately, enabled the success of this project and which certainly opened a doorway to a number of future co operations.