EKO is happy to announce that one more amazing youth exchange has been successfully completed. The project “Turn your habits green” united 35 young participants from Italy, Greece, Spain, Poland, Romania, Turkey and Latvia. It was coordinated by the Romanian Organization HAIR REDIVIVUS BUZAU and took place in Sarata Monteoru and Buzău, Romania from 25 of September to 4 of October 2022.

The aim of the project was to raise awareness on the importance of “green” actions and habits in our lives. The Greek team really enjoyed every day, which was full of smiles, new friends and lots of fun!

Aims & Objectives

During 10 days, the participants from 7 different countries had the opportunity:

– to develop civic competences for increase youngsters’ awareness on environment sustainability

– to promote healthy and active lifestyle as alternative for a better life

– to stimulate a more responsible consumer attitude through creative activities

– to cooporate in a multicultural environment.

Workshops & Activities

During these 10 awesome days of the project, the participants got the chance to take part in a series of interactive and creative workshops, discussions, team-building and intercultural exchange activities. Also, they experienced non formal education with presentations, outdoor activities, theater, video, upcycling, workshops in plenary and teams, intercultural evenings, and visits.

Day 1

The first day of the project was mostly about getting to know each other! The amazing coordinator of the program – Tolea – did a short introduction of the program and its aims, participants introduced themselves and they set some house rules and safety measures. Αlso, the secret friend game started, in which they randomly picked another participant and they were supposed to make him/her nice gestures. By the afternoon, they started the first Workshop: Are our habits green? They separated into groups, they drew a flower and in its petals they wrote principles for a sustainable environment. After that, the coordinator presented them a short introduction of Erasmus+ Programs. By the end of the day, they played some board games in the conversion room.

Day 2

The team was very lucky, since the weather was good and that extremely helped  the implementation of the outdoor activities of the program. This day included trust games, team building games and the fascinating ‘’Land Art‘’ in the forest, where participants unfold their creativity. In the second part of the day they learnt more about carbon footprint and how their habits actually influence our planet.

Day 3

The morning had a new energiser and then the participants got involved in a Workshop called “Green habits vs Red Habits”, in which simulations and role plays took place. After the presentation and the delicious dinner, artistic activities like creation of poems, songs, theater plays happened in the next Workshop: Can’t live without.. in the end, everyone was ready for the first intercultural night of the project with the participants of Spain, Italy and Greece to present their beautiful cultures with their special and entertaining way!

Day 4

The fourth day, known as the video day, began with breakfast and the morning energizer. Following that, the exhilarating  and demanding Workshop 5: Turn your habits green took place, in which the participants were requested to create a video concerning the environmental safety importance and leading a greener lifestyle. The first part of this project about  the  video creation contained the input, brainstorming, strategy, and script creation. After lunch, the second part was initiated and successfully completed which was focused on filming and editing of the video. Succeeding the dinner, the second part of the amazing intercultural night occurred presenting cultures of Poland, Latvia and Turkey to the rest of the participants!

Day 5

A really demanding day started with the beginning of the Workshop: Lets save the planet! Each participant should work in teams in order to create leaflets, flyers, posters and memes about the project. They “worked” hard, so the next Workshop aimed to relax them. The Eco Disco-Cooking workshop was really fun as the participants had to cook in national teams whatever they wanted and at the same time to dance in the rhythms of the music played!

Day 6

After the morning energiser, the whole day was devoted to the 8th and final Workshop: From Trash to Cash. Participants learnt the meaning of upcycling by making themselves new things (objects, clothes, etc) from a variety of unused materials. After the presentation of the outcomes, one exciting night waited for them. The Romanian traditional evening was great, with barbeque and traditional food, local dancings and of course lots of fun!

Days 7

The 7th day the participants changed their location and they went to Buzau for the last 2 days. They had the chance to visit Vulcanii Noroioși, muddy volcanoes that are unique! A beautiful and peaceful place for all.. Afterwards, they visited the Pumpkin Festival which had delicious traditional food and great traditional music.

Day 8

During the last day all the participants were quite emotional. They had time to explore the city of Buzau and to complete some specific tasks in the route. But the night came and the Youthpass Ceremony was touching for all. They had a great pizza party, they danced a lot and they found out who their secret friend was. This magical night ended with big hugs and the feeling that they will meet each other very soon!

Day 9

Departure: 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!

Stavroula, Loukianna, Kyriakos, Eleni and Eirene 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 Bogdan Chiriacescu and Fabi & Tolea, the rest members of the hosting organization for all their hard work and for creating such an impactful project!