A beautiful tradition has been established in Mollina: every year, hundreds of young people from all over the world gather there to celebrate diversity at the University on Youth and Development. This year, the 17th edition kicked off with an impressive number of 215 participants from 59 countries, who participated in several activities organised during the event. Our team from CID took part in the training course organised by YEU International, which is part of the long term project called RESTART. Read below the testimonies of Marija and Angela:
Marija Krstevska:
”First I would like to say some words about UYD in general. This was my second time being part of it and I am sincerely hoping for many more to come because it is a lifetime experience which I truly recommend to everyone. If you want to meet people from all around the world, make connections, find partners and inspiration for projects, hear motivational stories, broaden your mind… then this is the right place for you.
Regarding YEU’s activity ‘Restart’, it was the final part of a one year project. I was not involved in the previous phases but from what I witnessed, the ones who participated through the whole process have learnt a lot about project management and youth organizations. I wish I was there from the beginning, but still I learnt a lot of things by hearing their experience, their successes and failures. I love the idea of long term projects like this one where you can apply the gained knowledge in practice. Before attending this seminar I had a chance to take part in organizing and implementing a local activity and now we have to work on the follow up. The process still goes on. This way we are trying to be multipliers, sharing our knowledge and acting for a change.”
Angela Veljkovska:
”This year I was a part from a Restart project, organized by YEU. This project took place in three places: Istanbul, Brussels and Mollina. In September I went in Mollina for the last part of the project and I got the best experience till now. There were a lot of organizations included and with all their participants we were more than 200 people from all over the world gathered in one place. This place first of all had more life thanks to Ubanda, that is the band that played music for us all the time. Then there were a lot of workshops organized, such as “No hate speech”, “Graphic design”, “Sharing stories” and a lot more in which everyone interested could have taken part. And not to forget that whoever wanted could help the ”Join team” in preparing the festival we had on the last night.
To summarize, this was the opportunity for me to expand my network of acquaintances, to meet people from other organizations and see how they are working, what they are working on, etc. I got the chance to hear stories, like the one of the guy from Syria who had to leave his home, or the girl from Mexico who was against the mafia and was brave enough to show it. After those 7 days I fill motivated, inspired and, of course, richer with knowledge.”
The girls came back with a luggage full of memories but also of ideas for follow-up activities.
