By Iva Veneva
Do you wonder whether to try European Voluntary Services (EVS)?
I will be sincere, the life of the EVS volunteer is often challenging, but also very colourful and full of plenty of different experiences every day. One of the good opportunities that I personally refer to be grabbed by every EVS-er is participating in all kind of trainings that your hosting organization facilitate, being a partner or initiator of. I had the big chance myself to be part of all trainings of the United Societies of Balkans - my EVS hosting organization.
Which training impressed me the most? Mh, ok. I can tell you one story. It is a story for the training that woke me up as an ambassador...of intercultural dialogue and education.
AIDE is a three-modules’ training course for improving the competences of the active youth workers from all over Greece on topics: intercultural learning & dialogue, conflict management, xenophilia vs. xenophobia. It is organized by United Societies of Balkans NGO and supported by Anna Lindh Foundation. Thessaloniki was a hosting city for all the three modules in May, July and October 2016. The programme was prepared following the methods of experiential and peer-to-peer learning. And, yes, I also was there…participating in and facilitating some parts.
Looking back, I am still wondering what was the biggest asset that I took from AIDE project (AIDE - Ambassadors of Intercultural Dialogue and Education). Maybe the amazing atmosphere of young active people, I met and communicated with. Or the topics that I reflected on for months. One is sure I really liked the activities and methods of learning that were used. So, let me tell you more details about it.
The first part of AIDE started in May. They were the first full sunny days in Greece and I was a kind of bored staying in the closed spaces of the hotel where the course was organized. Fortunately, after all the team building activities and ice breaking games (a usual part of every training) we had a time, planned in the program, out of the venue. The reason was a very funny city game in Thessaloniki which made us run all around and search for intriguing places connected with the history of the city but also with the topics of that module. Domenico, the main trainer of AIDE, saw the people’s distraction on the inside sessions and decided to activate us. After all the talks about Kolb’s cycle, intercultural learning and basic human rights, we were given all together a task to organize an activity which was to take a place in the programme of FASI Festival Thessaloniki - Festival of Awareness, Solidarity and Inclusion, which was happening at the same time in Thess. It was an event, supported by all the big youth organisations in the city, showing solidarity and helping the refugees by collecting clothes and products. All of this was happening and was gathering youngsters from all the city showing musical bands, workshops, discussions etc... So, all of us - the participants in AIDE- prepared our performance connected with stereotypes and prejudices and showed it there. We enjoyed a lot and became even more involved in the topics of the training and closer as human beings with a common generous goal - to be solidary.
The second AIDE module was dedicated to Intercultural Dialogue and Conflict Management. The intercultural atmosphere was completed by more EVS participants. This time there were people from Turkey, Italy and even Vietnam. All of us this time had a role as a facilitator of one session from the programme. Thao, my friend and flatmate from Vietnam, inspired us with her experience as a student from Asia in Finland and in the same time as an intern in Greece. She explained what she sees as a big contrast in the moral and prejudices in Europe and Asia, but also for the distinctions in the point of view in North and South Europe’s countries, as well us the common points and differences in the educational methods from all these perspectives.
I had the responsibility to speak about the Maslow’s Pyramid of needs and how they could influence creating conflicts. We spoke also for PPP Model of working in a team (PPP - product, process and procedure) and what are the phases of creating and rising a conflict. Following the principle that we should know as much as possible for the problem before start to solve it, we learned a lot for the intercultural medium and dialogue and the possible conflicts that could exist. This module was in the middle of the summer and yes, we all were ready for an activity on the beach. But...our outdoor activities this time was organized in the forest in the suburbs of Thessaloniki. Our day in Fragma Thermy included a lot of games for a team building and group problem solving. Conflicts of course were part of our learning process. We discussed how they could be prevented in reflection groups after each activity. The fresh air of the mountain and the sincere discussions helped us to feel even closer to each other at the end of the day. Funny format of the “graduation” ceremonies became a tradition at the end of each part of AIDE. We were laughing so much receiving our participating certificates which made the next day of closing kind of hard. But… for good because as they say every “Good bye!” is a chance for a new “Hello!”.
That is why we met again on the third module of AIDE in October. Full of new energy and prepared to prove ourselves as ambassadors of intercultural dialogue, we came ready to make “A Step from the “Xenophobia” to the “Xenophilia”. This part of the course was a bit different than the others regarding the type of included activities. Some of the previous participants were involved as facilitators of particular sessions. Some of us, EVS volunteers also prepared some interesting games. We had a lot of discussions and we were finding the tools of constructive dialogue to prevent xenophobic attitude. A debating simulation game of a municipality council also took a place in the third day. The main topic of it was the religious prejudices and the corresponding attitude to overcome them. Creative methods of reflection were helping us to realize what we learned in the end of the days. One of them included also crafts and pottery. Sounds intriguing, right? It was.
Through all the training the programme of AIDE was flexible and open for proposals from the participants. Before one of the sessions, someone proposed Mustafa to join us. And he did it. Who is Mustafa? He is one smiling and positive youngster with a degree in English literature. His home country is Syria but because of the war he came to Greece as a refugee. As true ambassadors, we embrace the idea that Mustafa becomes one of us, one ambassador. On the third module, it was impossible to repeat this because he was sent to another country to search for his happiness. I only wish him to find it.
Like this I am finishing my story for AIDE, a story of a group of young people who started their personal way as ambassadors of intercultural dialogue and education. The history will show us how it will continue in life because this was just the beginning.
Ambassadors of Intercultural Dialogue Education - AIDE was funded by the Anna-Lindh Foundation as a National Intercultural Action(NIA).
