After the kick off webinar that was organized online in the month of May and the offline gathering of the participants in the Swiss city of Zug, the first four-day-long site visit took place as a part of the We make democracy project.

In the period between December 1 and December 5, first participant group met in Ljubljana where its member worked intensively and together with their trainers and experts on developing ideas and tools regarding the theme “How to empower the change makers through non-formal education?”

Klemen Balanč, one of the trainers and representatives of the youth network Mreža MaMa, said that non-formal education is one of the most important and valuable mechanisms of the social integration of the youth, their competency and entrepreneurial thinking build-up, perseverance and continuity of the active citizenry, psychological support for the youth, etc.

“Youth centers and youth work are the most important mechanisms that support young people and help them develop their potential in a way that might not be possible within the formal framework that schools represent and operate in” – Klemen shared his thoughts.

WORKING ON THE INITIATIVE

During the four-day-long site visit, members of the first group worked on developing ideas that they first came up with while staying in Switzerland. This time, they worked more thoroughly on gathering the material, as well as planning the concise and succinct activities that will be realized next year.

On the second day of the site visit, participants could hear stories of four Slovene experts whose experiences will be included in the brochure that will aim at bringing together all good practices found in the field of youth work. Beside Slovene experts’ experiences, the brochure will also include the stories of the experts coming from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Switzerland. In other words, the brochure will include examples of good practices that are found in all of the countries that participants come from. 

In the following months, members of the group coming from these countries will work individually on the preparation of the texts that will be included in the final brochure.

In addition to brochure, participants will also present four episodes of the We make democracy podcast as one of the tools that were created within the initiative. Four experts will be introduced:

-        Klemen Balanč, Mreža MaMa

-        Ana Marija Lukenda, SFYM (Slovenian Falcon Youth Movement)

-        Nežka Agnes Vodeb, Zavod BOB (BOB Association)

-        Damjan Vinko, Fondacija Študentskih Tolar (The Student Tolar Foundation)

The ultimate goal of the initiative EduAction is to enable people from the NGO sector to have access to the information about good practices in different countries that use non-formal education for empowering youth.

As a part of the initiative, a final event will take place in the form of an online conference. During the event, the said brochure and podcasts will be presented, as well as the good practices that aim at educating youth non-formally.

PARTICIPANTS’ EXPERIENCES

The site visit held in Ljubljana was an opportunity for the participants to become closer, exchange ideas and thoughts, and discuss a variety of topics.

Žaklin Ferencek, a 25-year-old participant from Slovenia, reflected on the reasons for which she decided to join the project We make democracy:

“I have never been in contact nor have I worked with people from the Balkans, even though Slovenia was once part of Yugoslavia. To see that the issues we have are all similar, only from a different perspective, was an incredible experience for me.”

The whole conversation with Žaklin will soon be available in one of the episodes of the We make democracy podcast that will be published on RadiYo Active social networks.

Ljubljana site visit saw participants that were unfortunately prevented from participating in the exchange that took place in Switzerland. One of them was Anida Gjurgjiali, a participant from Kosovo that shared her impressions of the four-day-long program.

“To be a part of the site visit in a multicultural environment is very useful and beneficial, both personally and professionally, because it contributes to the development of our horizons and it opens our minds for new ideas, thoughts, and projects. I experienced and felt all of that during the site visit in Ljubljana.”

Michéle Häfliger, a Swiss participant and representative, emphasized that We make democracy is her first international project: “I am enjoying myself and I find it interesting how we are all able to work together.

I wanted to participate in this project because I can really work on something concrete and solid, and that is what I like the most about the site visit in Slovenia – we got a chance to create a big project and interesting initiatives in just a few days.”

The first group is already on the half way to achieving their goals, and in the following months its members will be working on finalizing brochure, broadcasting podcasts and organizing the final event. We invite you all to follow We make democracy social networks and all the future planned activities.

Other two participant groups are yet to go to visit sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina (in March) and in Albania (in May) next year. In September 2022, all participants will gather once again and present their projects at the final conference in Switzerland. 

 Text: activezenica.org

Photos: SAJV