Prepare for the worst and hope for the best

Youth exchange 22/07/2023 – 02/08/2023 in Kardzhali, Bulgaria

EKO is happy to announce that one more amazing youth exchange has been successfully completed. The project “Prepare for the worst and hope for the best” united 40 young participants from Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Italy. It was organized by the Bulgarian organization Analysis and Innovation Realization Association (ARNO), and took place in Kardzhali (Bulgaria) from the 22nd of July to the 2nd of August 2023. 

Aims & Objectives of the project 

The project aimed to gather youth workers to raise disaster awareness in the activities of youth people in their daily and work life, as well as to make them active roles model in society as youth leaders on the subject of disasters, and to contribute to the development of disaster awareness, to encourage and to contribute to the active participation of young people in disaster preparedness activities/services.

More specifically the objectives were:

   – Basic disaster knowledge and awareness

   – Methods and procedures for disaster prevention

   – Encouraging young people organize volunteer disaster preparation and awareness initiatives

   – Teaching young people about the organization, coordination, and allocation of tasks and responsibilities before, during, and after the catastrophe

   -Preparing them to work in collaboration with official institutions and other volunteers/NGOs.

   – Disaster plan preparation and reporting skills

Workshops & Activities of the project 

Through this project, participants had the opportunity to get better in some key competencies such as multilingual competence, personal, social and learning to learn competence. During  the week, they worked with a non-formal methodology, with dynamics, they worked in small groups, had creative workshops, presentations and brainstorming with the others.

They learned about civic and governmental initiatives in the environmental field. They acquired knowledge in the entrepreneurship field and they went further and deeper into social entrepreneurship. Knowledge, resources and opportunities about Erasmus+ were learnt by participants as well. 

In summary, all team members developed different skills and competencies while acquiring new knowledge. They were able to develop skills such as a sense of initiative, creativity, teamwork, the ability to energize, practice languages, reflection and critical thinking… and definitely lots of certain skills.  

An amazing opportunity and great experience for EKO’s team

Alexandros, Nikolaos, Florentia, Mariana, Stavroula, Maria, Kalliopi and Theodora were the members of this amazing Greek team whom we really wanna thank for all their contribution and collaboration throughout the project!

As EKO, we are very grateful for that amazing opportunity given to the Greek team and we thank our partner ARNO and the members of the hosting organization for all their hard work and for creating such an impactful project!

Thank you – Ευχαριστούμε – Благодаря