story written by Arantza Belmonte

NenesGrupo1eee

Youth! Together!…What?!

This story starts long, long time ago.
This story doesn?t have a prince and a princess.
Actually, this story has a lot of them.
And, as the stories for kids, it has a happy ending.

Ten months ago, in the mysterious Poland, the project called ?Youth! Together! Now! ? started.
It was a difficult mission for four beginners volunteers. Four knights from all around Europe?Their names were Ksenia, Patricia, Endre and Arantza.  I?m one of them and I?m going to tell you the magic story of the crusade ?Multiculturalism? that took place in Krakow.

Chapter 1

All started with a meeting with our coordinators.

At the begging of the mission we were lost. Even our superiors were confused.
It was so difficult to define the purpose of our work: Why are we doing this? What are we going to talk about? What do we want to share? Who is going to do this? or that? or whatever? Will the people listen to us? What the hell is ?Multiculturalism?? Co to jest ?zine??

?We are doing this because now we are involved in a European program and we should spread the European values in the community where we are living now.? To find out that answer was easy. Multiculturalism? Well? It?s something about opportunities, differences, culture, art, to discover? That one was not so clear.

Due to that chaos in our minds we decided to draw a map to order our thoughts. Then, we started to talk and share our ideas until we found the way? after few months.

firstprojectmeeting2

Chapter 2

After thinking a lot we met again with our coordinators to talk about the mission and the strategy we decided to follow.

We are knights, but we love kids and we want to teach them the right path. We wanted to know how they see the world so we can help them to understand it and to respect other people. We wanted to show everyone that ?Multiculturalism? is not only a topic for adults and cultivated people. Kids can also understand what it is. Furthermore, it?s a topic that goes by our side since we are born until the day we die.

So, this was the strategy:  we needed to split up to cover more territory.
Then, each of us had their own task. One of us had to prepare workshops to teach the kids (and also the adults) about different topics such as sexuality, dyslexia or gender.
Other knight had to record a movie to explain the people that sometimes discrimination is not as visible as it seems. Then, the other two of us were going to interview the kids to know more about their perception of the world and the main topic. Also they organised workshops to get deeper inside the investigation. Finally, the mission was heading to end up in a public event exhibition to show everyone what we have found out during our crusade.

Chapter 3

Each one of us got on its way.
We worked a lot. We spent a lot of time to accomplish our mission. We visited so many different kingdoms and regions.
The kids had a lot of things to say. They had a lot of things to dream about.
Workshops were done, for kids and adults. Interviews were done and even one of the volunteers did handmade portraits of some of the kids. Different kids, with different appearance and smiles. But, despite that, all of them love each other so much.
It seemed that all the knights were doing their work well. But sometimes it?s difficult to reach a happy ending?

Workshop_patricia1NenesGrupo1eee

Chapter 4

Like in every mission, not everything it?s perfect. Like in good stories sometimes there are some obstacles that make the knights work harder. Like in good stories, there?s someone who don?t arrive to the end….
Our obstacle was the time. EVS time was going to end and we had to manage to finish our tasks on time. When can we show the results of our work? Each of us had a mission somewhere else?(We were busy knights)
Finally we agreed in the place and date. Our final battlefield was going to be Łaka Café.

Chapter 5

21st of June arrived and we were ready to face our last challenge.
The exhibition was prepared: we hung in the wall the answers of the kids and the portraits. Also we had the collages that kids made and some delicious food was served in the table; delicious traditional food from different countries to celebrate the triumph of an intercultural crusade.
We offered also some games related to the topic, and, furthermore, one knight prepared a workshop for those who came to join us in our last day of mission.
We explain our crusade, our goals and how we reached them. We explain how hard we fought. But we also explain how happy we felt after all the effort.

Now there?s just one thing left? the final report. Something that in our EVS lands it?s called ?zine?.

The End?

Organizers: EVS volunteers “Youth! Together! Now!” project, Internationaler Bund Polska
Disclaimer: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission within Erasmus + framework. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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