A Brief Report of Souls Without Borders Training Course organized and hosted by C.I.P. Citizens in Power Report Edited by GLOBE Global Learning Opportunities for Better Education No Profit Association PIC Code 928481576
ABOUT THE TRAINING COURSE Souls Without Borders (Project Code 2017-1-CY02-KA105-000932) The Training Course was organized with the involvement of the following Sending Partners: C.I.P. Citizens in Power (CY) Coordinator GLOBE - Global Learning Opportunities for Better Education (IT) Sending Partner JUBUK (DE) Sending Partner OFCI (FR) Sending Partner USB (GR) Sending Partner Association Building Bridges (ES) Sending Partner SEIKLEJATE VENNASKOND (EE) Sending Partner Teatro Metaphora (PT) Sending Partner Tmelnik (CZ) Sending Partner SYTEV (SK) Sending Partner This Brief Report illustrates the learning experience realized by our italian team during the ERASMUS+ Training Course Souls Without Borders, organized and hosted by C.I.P. Citizens In Power, Organization from Cyprus. The Training Course involved 20 participants from 10 different European countries: Cyprus, Italy, Germany, France, Greece, Spain, Estonia, Portugal, Czeck Republic and Slovakia. It was held from 24 st to 30 th October 2017, in Larnaka Cyprus. The Focus of the Training Course was to transfer a new approach-system of integration of refugees/migrants, throught non-formal methods of education. The Training Course was aimed to: identify concrete methods of inclusion and integration of refugees and migrants into modern EU societies; promote the exchange of the best practices; reinforce the partnership between youth organizations at European level; improve the quality of training and youth work. The activities of the training course Souls Without Borders was concentrated on a plurality of related concepts, such as social inclusion, integration, intercultural dialogue, tolerance; all these concepts were approached through creative, experiential methods, based on non formal educational tools, including simulation exercises, role play, creative activities, structured dialogue, group building, energizers and breaking the ice activities, games, guided discussions, presentations, activation of the five senses, on-line activities, experimental processes, cultural activities and strategic planning.
During the training course all participants worked together to know each other, their Countries, national languages, traditions and cultures, and to share their own experiences. Participants collaborated during the workshops and the work groups planned and gave their contributes in order to better understand the concept of refugee, social inclusion and integration. During the first evening was organized the intercultural evening and each national group organized a presentation of his country offering some typical foods, sweets, biscuits and beverage to taste.
All participants worked actively during the activities and created a good and positive team, they spent their time to analyze the focus of the project, discovering their self and different cultures and creating new friendships. The ERASMUS+ Training Course Souls Without Borders, offered to the participants from different European Countries the opportunity to: - know the difference between migrants and refugees and understand better the condition of refugees, - develop abilities correlated to conflict management, direct thinking and structured dialogue within the notions of tolerance, freedom of speech, anti-racism and multi-cultural bonding, by simultaneously experiencing feelings of sensitivity, compassion and comprehension of common human nature regardless the factor of nationality, ethnicity and religion, - acquire the knowledge concerning the notions of diversity, cultural awareness, citizenship, leadership and active participation and develop specialized knowledge on human rights, - overcome the stereotypical behaviour towards disadvantaged groups such as migrants and refugees cultivated through social networks, - promote the intercultural dialogue in an European dimension, - improve their communicational and relational skills, their ability to work in international team and their language skills, - discover a new city (Larnaca) and the Cypriot culture, - to know the culture of other Countries, national traditions and national languages. We thank the host organization C.I.P., the Trainers Angelos and Giota, the Italian participants, Serena and Gaia, and all participants for their active participation and their contributes.
Memory of Italian Participant For me this Training Course was a very positive experience. It represented the first experience focused on refugees/migrants integration and I was very curious to better understand the condition and dimension of refugee and migrant and to acquire methods to improve the sensitization about this topic. I discovered also some practical activities to gain this result. During the days, as always, I had the opportunity to meet very nice people, to discover new languages and traditions from other European Countries. This experience offered me the opportunity to increase interpersonal and social competences, emotional skills, cultural awareness and self expression. In my opinion the Trainers, Angelos and Giota were super! The daily planning was equilibrated among workshops, debates, brainstorming, working groups, simulations and free time. I appreciated in particular the developing of the following activities during the week: - Brainstorming and debate - because these methods gave us the opportunity to express our thinking and opinions about the condition of refugees, or migrants and about the situation in each country. - Team work - because it gave us the opportunity to share our opinions, negotiate our positions and understand each other - Simulation exercise and role play - because these exercises offered us the possibility to experiment some specific conditions and understand what is the better solution. In my opinion the most interesting sessions/topics of the training were: 1. The Workshop "See refugees in the eyes" because it was very interesting and emotional to watch the video of Amnesty Poland and experiment this activity with
other participants 2. The Workshop "Museum of Syrian Civilization" because it was a dynamic activity and thanks to the collaboration of all participants we discovered the different dimensions of Syria Moreover this Training Course offered me the opportunity to know and discover a new Country of the Mediterranean Area, the beautiful island of Cyprus, with its history, tradition and culture. During the week I had the opportunity to visit and discover the city of the Training Course, Larnaca, and other 2 cities, Limassol and Nicosia, to discover the traditional streets and markets, the Castel, the typical food, and much more and I found many similarities with my island, Sicily. With my new friends I also visited the Salt Lake and the archeological area Kourion. If I have to identify some key words in order to represent this experience, I could say: respect, tolerance, diversity, freedom of speech, cultural awareness, integration and friendship and Peace as the word that we found in Nicosia! I am very happy to have taken part in this Training Course and I thank you Angelos and Giota for the great work, Gaia, my travel Italian friend, and all participants from other European countries for their positive contribution and good mood! I hope to meet you again in somewhere else :) Serena
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