Erasmus+ project ‘Planet 1st’ took part in Zakopane (Poland), 24 February – 3 March, 2015. There were 30 people from 5 different countries: Poland, Romania, Croatia, Italy and Lithuania. Participants were discussing how young people can support environmental protection and how to take advantage of values that nature gives us without destructive influence on it. As well we were raising environmental awareness through outdoor activities.
This project was a great change to share good practices regarding environmental protection and experience from our countries since in every single one of them environmental issues were tackled in a different way. Spending a week in Poland gave us new ideas about nature protection and empowered us to do ‘something good’ in our local communities. We focused on supporting active participation during all stages of project from planning to implementation and follow up in order to show young people that only being active can help to change their local communities and their way of perceiving environmental protection issues. Apart from main topic we also focused on the multicultural aspects of the project. For some of the participants this project was the first chance to work in international environment, learn about other cultures and lifestyles.
While working together in international groups I had a chance to compare my way how I see the surrounding world with our peers from other countries, see how much they have in common. This project helped me to break stereotypes between groups from different countries supporting tolerance and mutual understanding between nations. During the project we used non formal education techniques such as creativity workshops, integration games, discussions, brainstorming, theatre techniques, orientation games and outdoor activities since they are the most effective ways of working with youth.
