FOUR ELEMENTS: LET’S PLAY TO SAVE THE PLANET
FOUR ELEMENTS: LET’S PLAY TO SAVE THE PLANET, YOUTH EXCHANGE, 22 August – 2 September 2021
EKO is happy to announce that one more awesome youth exchange has been successfully completed. The project under the title “’4 Elements – Let’s Play to Save the Planet” united 40 young participants from Bulgaria, Greece Italy Poland Romania, Serbia and Spain. It has been coordinated by the Romanian Organization ASOCIATIA ODEN NEHOIU and took place in Busteni, Romania from 22 of August to 2 of September 2021.
The aim of the project was to strengthen awareness in the mind of young people regarding the importance of environmental sustainability through a better management of the interaction with the four (4) elements of nature (water, air, earth, fire). EKO`s team enjoyed everyday which constituted a different challenge, a source of new knowledge and a pile of amazing experiences for our participants!
Aims & Objectives
During 10 days, the 40 participants from 8 different countries had the opportunity to
- increase the responsibility of intervention on the planet and the safety of the population by preventing disasters caused by water, air, earth, fire.
- develop new personal and civic competences to promote the prevention and control of water, soil and air pollution.
- strengthen their creativity and innovative potential to support the environment by building board games by recycling and over recycling of reusable materials.
Workshops & Activities
During these 10 fascinating days of the project, the participants got the chance to take part in a series of interactive and creative workshops, discussions, debate simulations, team-building and role-play games, cultural visits, intercultural exchange activities, short-film makings, theatrical plays and generally non-formal education activities. Everyday a daily evaluation was conducted.
Day 1
The first day was rather introductory, including lots of name games, individual presentations of participants, hopes and fears as well as house rules and safety measures. The facilitators talked about the Youthpass and key competences. Furthermore, they presented the topics of consumerism, pollution and natural disasters where every national team had the chance to talk about their situation upon these subjects.
Day 2
The day of the ‘’City bound” in Busteni was devoted to the exploration of the surroundings, interact with locals and collecting of trash during a beautiful route to a waterfall.
In the afternoon, during the ‘’World cafe” session, the interaction between humans and environment and the relationship with the 4 elements was thoroughly discussed.
This very same day in the evening, the first intercultural night took place.
Day 3
Our team was lucky, since the weather was good and the outdoor activities took place normally. It also included trust games, team building games and the marvelous ‘’Land Art Project ‘’ in the forest, where creativity was unfolded.
In the evening, it was time for stories and the ‘’Storytelling’’ were each team had to create one story about 1 out of 4 elements and narrate the story in a creative way.
Later on the second intercultural night took place.
Day 4
The day of the cultural visit in Bran and the Dracula’s Castle and Brasov.
A day of relaxation and interaction with the Romanians and their culture.
But also, in the evening it was the time for the ‘’Yes/No Debate’’ which took place in the conference room and everyone had to choose a side/opinion towards various environmental dilemmas related to the 4 elements. It included the hobby games too!!
Day 5
From the 5th day, the main activities started, demanding dedication, time, responsibility, skills and good communication among the members of each team, the day that each team had to prepare a Theatrical Play. During the morning, the design of the play took place, and in the afternoon, it was time for the performances!! All the teams thrived, antagonizing each other in innovation, creativity and humor. Later on the participants enjoyed the third intercultural night.
Day 6
The whole day was dedicated to Video Creation, and all teams worked hard and with excessive zeal to accomplish the task. The whole procedure was demanding, but also enjoyable.
In the evening the participants watched previous short movies from other projects in order to be inspired!
Day 7
The day was devoted to the creation of Posters and Flyers. Each team had to edit their own digital posters. Such an interesting task! In the evening, the participatns watched the Videos and the Posters! Everyone enjoyed watching their creations on the big screen!!
Days 8-9
These two days were dedicated to the creation of boardgames using recyclable materials, or reusing old ones. What a great idea! Again more and more innovative ideas emerged. ‘’Ecoscrable’’ and ‘’Thrashopolis’’, were only two of the many boardgames that came to life that day.
The 8th night was devoted to the Romanian Traditional Evening, during which the facilitators made a barbecue for all and everyone enjoyed the night and the food, along with intercultural conversations and stories about Romania.
During the 9th evening everyone enjoyed playing the Board Games that the teams had created; local youngsters visited the accommodation and the participants had the chance to discuss and interact.
Day 10
During the last day just before the departure, the ‘’Youthpass moment” evaluation was conducted in national teams and the ‘’Youthpass ceremony’’ was organized where everyone received the ‘’Youthpass” and the secret friends were revealed.
All national moderator teams did their best to create a successful content of the project and the heterogeneous, active and amazing groups made the project work through smooth collaboration, fruitful discussions by breaking prejudice and stereotypes. Long term friendships and bonds have been developed and it has been an amazing week thanks to all!
Iro, Vasileios and Theodora were the members of this amazing Greek team whom we really wanna thank for all their contribution and collaboration throughout the project!
We as EKO, we are very grateful for that amazing opportunity given to the Greek team and we thank our partner Bogdan Chiriacescu and Fabi & Tolea, the rest members of the hosting organization for all their hard work and for creating such an impactful project!