At the City Hall of Krakow

Getting to know about Poland

– or meeting people from Eastern Europe (written by Marianna Horváth)

Last Saturday I got a unique possibility: I could spend a whole week with people from 10 different countries (Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary and Armenia) having the task of getting in touch with Poland through a one-week training which aimed at the promotion and implementation of Polish cultural diplomacy and good Polish practices in the fields of politics, education, society, etc?

During the one-week project we had workshops on various aspects of Polish culture, such as Polish history, regional structure, its international role and Polish diaspora in the world. The project was organized by Instytut Wschodnich Inicjatyw [Institute for Eastern Initiatives] and was financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. Throughout the project the trainers were using non-formal educational techniques; for instance, groupwork, project work, simulation games, etc? in order to help us digest the material in an enjoyable but fully educational way at the same time. We also had the opportunity to visit important places in Krakow, such as the City Hall or Małopolska Regional Development Agency as well as outside Krakow, Wieliczka Salt Mine or Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camps.

Also, some pictures of our projects and workshops (all pictures were taken by Bartosz Kazek, photographer):

We had a very interesting game which aimed at simulating the negotiations between the Communist Party and the Solidarity Party in 1989. Quite frankly, we had lots of fun while playing with it, and we kept our roles even during the lunch break and continued the game afterwards as well. The second picture is my personal favourite, it really looks like a film poster for a political drama.

Two interesting events took place in the frame of the project: networking night, where the representatives of Eastern European NGOs could meet Polish NGOs and had the chance to talk about possible future collaboration.

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Another event was on Friday night, it was the Intercultural Evening where we all had the opportunity to discover each other?s countries through films, commercials quizzes and to the joy of all of us, through traditional food/sweets and drinks. Hungary, of course, represented itself by its pálinka