Youth Exchange

9th – 18th May 2010

Lusakert, Armenia

Turkey – e-gençlik Dernegi

Armenia – International Supporters of
Youth & the Environment (ISYE)
Georgia –Youth For Future
Ukraine – NGO People
Poland – Stacja Stronie Association
Latvia – Environmental Youth Union (EYU)
Greece – Environmental Group of Municipality of Kessariani
 Contents

Page 1 – Contents
Page 2 – Intro
Page 3 – Project Summary
Page 4 – Background & History
Page 5- 3 specific project aims and how they were achieved
Page 7 – Project Preparation stage
Page 10 – Project Main Activity
Page 15 – Project Dissemination / Evaluation stage
Page 17 – Conclusion
Page 18 – Links

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 Intro
This small booklet is mainly intended to show the results of the EU commission funded Youth In Action 3.1 Youth
Exchange called “Going Green for Intercultural Peace”.
As well as to show the results of this project, this booklets purpose is also to make this project more visible in
general, to continue to spread the message that this project was spreading (what can you do to improve our
environment?) and to show good practice by distributing this booklet amongst partner NGOs, to national agencies,
to interested youth, and to any other youth workers, youth, or NGOs working in the field of youth and the
environment.
“Going Green for Intercultural Peace” was active from 10/03/2010 until 17/08/2010. This includes the Preparation,
Main Activity and Evaluation stages. It was only possible due to the funding by the EU commissions Youth In
Action programme through the Turkish National Agency, coordinated by e-genclik Association and hosted by
ISYE.
In the following pages will be very briefly described and shown the details of this project, as well as providing
useful links on the last page for you, the reader, to become more active within your community.
Please read and enjoy!

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 Going Green for Intercultural Peace
Summary and Main Aims / Objectives:

“Going Green Intercultural Peace” was a 10 day multi-lateral youth exchange themed on interculturalism and the
environment. It took place in Lusakert, Armenia, with the main activity lasting from the 9th May 2010 until 18th May
2010, and the APV on 10th and 11th April 2010, involving 42 participants from 7 countries. The main objectives
were to encourage positive integration of youth from different countries; to raise awareness about environmental
issues in Armenia & in the participants‟ home countries and to relate these issues to a wider context with the aim
of integrating global change issues, such as sustainable development and climate change, into the intercultural
European arena; to enhance a sense of common identity within a European context; to celebrate the diversity of
intercultural youth; to promote international youth and „Youth in Action‟ program activities; and to establish &
expand contacts and networks for future cooperation in the international environmental youth field. Non-formal
education methods were used to meet these objectives. The main activities involved environmental issue debates;
intercultural dialogue; intercultural and environmental presentations created by the participants themselves; YiA
presentations; networking sessions; as well as the main project activity which was a creative and innovative group
process to produce a photo exhibition, a „mini street-cleaning‟ campaign and informative publication materials
addressing the environmental/intercultural issues arising from the project activity sessions, which was
shown/presented to the public in Yerevan during the main activity and in the participants‟ home countries during
the evaluation stages.

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 Project Background / History:

The idea originated from our concern for more environmental awareness-raising cooperation in the international
youth field. As we are in a rapidly changing period of time, in almost all ways (environmentally, globally, culturally...
etc) it is very easy for different branches of progress to separate and sometimes contradict each other from one
country to the next. We felt the need to encourage more international integration of youth from different cultures to
help inspire a more harmonious path of international progress, specifically with regard to environmental issues like
global climate change and sustainable development where there is a clear and definite space for public
participation in making a difference to national and international environmental policy through social activity and
awareness-raising campaigns, thus an underlying reason for this projects‟ “mini street-cleaning campaign” and
“photography exhibition” is to spread/raise awareness about how the public can become more active in the
democratic life of international policy-making (through info/links contained in the campaigns leaflets), as well as
sending the more direct message of how the public can NOW make a difference through their personal decisions
(such as not dropping rubbish on the streets or using a bike instead of a car). This project was chosen to be
directed to international youth because young people will shape our future progress. Our thinking is that by
addressing the participants‟ intercultural diversity and unity, they can find cultural connections and diverse beauty
through which a common sense of identity can hopefully be developed. This common sense of identity is the
joining stronghold from which we wish to cultivate a cohesive feeling of international environmental
unity/cooperation which can be expanded on and cultivated both during this project (for the “mini street cleaning
campaign” and the “photo exhibition”) and after this project from the participants‟ own newly-inspired initiative.

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 Three Specific Objectives and how they were achieved:

1. PHOTO EXHIBITION – To undergo creative group work sessions, stemming from the intercultural and
environmental activities of the first few days, to produce a photo exhibition in collaboration with a local
photographer/graphic designer, the specific theme of which was WASTE whilst keeping within the more general
theme of interculturalism and the environment, which was presented to the general public in Yerevans Waldorf
School during the Main Activity, on 17th May 2010, and during which time (on the exhibition day) the participants
actively presented and discussed their work & activity themes with the school children and public who attended the
exhibition in an organised conversational session. This exhibition activity was also used as inspiration by each
group of participants from each country to present a similar exhibition in their home countries, as part of the follow-
up activity, after the main activity phase in Armenia was finished, and now we have the possibility of re-
producing/re-presenting these exhibitions a number of times again, in the future.

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2. “GOING GREEN” STREET-CLEANING CAMPAIGN” - To produce a “Going Green” street-cleaning campaign in
collaboration with the same local photographer/graphic designer, which involved information leaflet/booklet
productions designed from the participants‟ own initiative, themed specifically on “making the streets cleaner”.
These leaflets were distributed on the streets of Yerevan on the same day as the main activity exhibition, and then
again during a follow-up leaflet campaign during the evaluation stages of this project, and they can be continued to
be produced and distributed in Armenia as many times as needed. Follow-up leaflet campaigns were also
produced in the participants‟ home countries during the evaluation phase of this project.

3. PUBLICATIONS – To produce this information booklet and a DVD as dissemination materials, to highlight and
present the activities and results of this project. The DVD contains the leaflets produced for the “mini street-
cleaning campaign”; the main activity exhibition photos; general photos from the project; this information booklet in
electronic version; and additional linking/design material. You can ask for a copy of this projects DVD from e-
genclik Association or ISYE by emailing afenerli@e-genclik.org.tr or isye.ngo@hotmail.com.

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THE „PREPARATION‟ STAGE:

The project preparation procedures included all partners selecting their 6 participants (7 countries, to make a total
of 42 participants); bonding their groups; the Host and Coordinating Organisations (ISYE from Armenia and e-
genclik Association from Turkey) giving all the necessary project info and agreeing all details of the project with the
partners; specific preparation requirements for each partner organisation; and the Advanced Planning Visit (APV).
Before the Main Activity started, the following specific preparation stage activities were carried out, which related to
preparing for the Main Activity:

 Every partner organisation helped their participants to come up with

ideas/themes about the main activity photo exhibition and compile a
selection of photos from their home country based around their ideas
and themes to take to the main activity in Armenia to use in the
exhibition discussions & photography session group work activities as
inspiration & discussion material.

 Every partner organisation

helped their participants to come up with ideas and have inspirations
about the content and running of the “Going Green” street campaign
activity which took place during the main activity in Armenia. This was
so that the whole group already had lots of formed ideas to work with
by the time the participants arrived at the main activity.

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  Every partner organisation helped their participants
to create a “Country Presentation” which they
performed during the Main Activity. These were
varied and different, depending on the country,
partner NGO, and group of participants, but all of
them involved working together in their groups to
creatively present their countries culture. The
groups prepared to bring food, drink, clothes,
cultural objects, CDs, short films, and even musical
instruments which represented their culture. Most
countries groups also prepared to teach the rest of
the Youth Exchange group their country dances
and songs. Some countries groups were better
prepared than others ;) However all countries
cultural presentations during the main activity were
effective and a great experience for the other youth exchange participants.

 Every partner organisation helped their participants to create an

“Environmental Presentation” which they showed during the
Main Activity. The groups worked together to decide what was
the most important environmental issues affecting them which
they wanted to show/present to the whole group in Armenia.
Some countries groups brought backing materials for their
presentations, like short environmental films, documentaries, or
information leaflets.

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Advanced Planning Visit (APV):

On 9th–11th April 2010 was this Youth Exchanges Advanced Planning Visit (APV), where the representatives from
each partner organisation came to Armenia to meet together at the venue in Lusakert to discuss and finalise all
details of the project. All issues were talked about during this meeting, it was extensive, and everyone developed a
good clear understanding of the project requirements & details from this meeting, it was an essential part of the
preparation stage, not only because it was the chance for every Partner NGO to meet eachother in person which
bonded the partners, but also because everyone understood the project clearly after this meeting, the Main Activity
schedule was improved according to everyones input and the project activities became very clear so every partner
NGO was able to be fully prepared for the Main Activity.

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THE „MAIN ACTIVITY‟:

The Main Activity involved all 42 participants coming to Armenia, Lusakert, for 10 days of group mixing,
discussions, session-making, creative presentations, cultural games, environmental debates, active thinking,
making the street campaign and producing the photo exhibition. It
was a busy, active 10 days! We battled through language barriers,
cultural differences, personal differences, health problems and
temperature changes to successfully complete all the planned
activities, positively influence the participants and those affected by
the participants‟ activities, as well as give the participants memories
which will hopefully last for their lifetime.

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The schedule that the
participants followed Going Green for Intercultural Peace - Main Activity Schedule
was an improved DAY 1 (Arrival)
sunday
DAY 2
monday
DAY 3
tuesday
DAY 4
wednesday
DAY 5
thursday
DAY 6
friday
DAY 7
saturday
DAY 8
sunday
DAY 9
monday
DAY 10 (Dep)
tuesday
9 May 10 May 11 May 12 May 13 May 14 May 15 May 16 May 17 May 18 May
programme adapted 08:30-09:00
Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast
09:00-09:30
from all the inputs 09:30-10:00 Energiser - ARM Energiser - GE Energiser - UKR Energiser - PL Energiser - GR
Go to Yerevan Go to Yerevan
10:00-10:30 TU - Local & Photo
during the APV. 10:30-11:00
UKR -
Team Building
Global Excursion in preparation
Street Campaign
NGO
Presentations
11:00-11:30 challenges local area to session
During the APV all the 11:30-12:00 Break Break Lusakert Bio- Break
in Yerevan Putting all
Break
photos together
Photo Exhibition

partners‟
12:00-12:30 ARM - Armenia, Gas plant YiA in Yerevan &
PO - Go to Yerevan
12:30-13:00 Caucuses & Presentation & Living Library
Team Building
13:00-13:30 Arrivals International env Youth Pass (with packed
representatives gave 13:30-14:00 lunch and
14:00-14:30 Lunch Break Lunch Break Lunch Break Lunch Break Lunch Break relaxed free
their views on how to 14:30-15:00
Photo-taking
Photo-taking
session-time in
time)
15:00-15:30 Energiser - GR Energiser - TU Energiser - LV Energiser - ARM Energiser - GE
improve the main 15:30-16:00 GR - What is LV -
session - time in Yerevan (with
Campaign leaflet Yerevan (with packed lunch) Dissemination
16:00-16:30 culture? Why Environmental Return to
activity schedule and 16:30-17:00 stereotypes? Simulation
designing &
preparation
packed lunch)
Organising
Activities
Lusakert Departures
17:00-17:30 Break Game photos and Break
so the final main 17:30-18:00
GE - Cultural
Break Break choosing photos
Reflection &
Final Evaluation
18:00-18:30 Street Campaign for the exhibition Dissemination
Intro & welcome Simulation Finalising
activity schedule was 18:30-19:00
Game
intro & creative
Campaign
Return to Return to Activities
Making photo
19:00-19:30 schedule group work Lusakert Lusakert
DVD
produced as a team 19:30-20:00 presentation CULTURAL TIPS Reflection Group Reflection Group Reflection Group Reflection Group Reflection Group Reflection Group
20:00-20:30
during that APV 20:30-21:00 Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner
21:00-21:30
meeting. The Main 21:30-22:00
22:00-22:30
ARMENIA - GE & LV - GR & TU - UKR & PO -
International & International & International & International & Farewell
Activity schedule was 22:30-23:00 Welcome Party
23:00-23:30
Environmental
FREE TIME
Environmental Environmental Environmental
FREE TIME FREE TIME
Party
Evening Evening Evening Evening
as follows: 23:30-00:00

During the discussions and session work, the participants looked at many different cultural and environmental
issues. Non-formal methods were used all the time to provide relaxed but effective and inclusive communications.
From the results of the main activity, if we can take some kind of general conclusion of the results, it might be
something like this:

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 This is a very important time for youth to be active in their community about
environmental issues because the entire world is currently going through some of the
most major and challenging changes that it has ever faced, and it is possible to turn
these changes into a good direction, better for the environment, rather than letting our
environment be destroyed by the many many negatives factors alive and acting against
it today. The youth of today can especially make a difference both by acting more
positive for the environment themselves, as well as positively influences others to
behave better to the environment.

 Becoming active in your community is easier than it might first seem. You simply have
to first realise what message you want to say to people, then go out and say it!

 There is not one way to improve our global environmental

situation, not one great solution, rather all the many many
small positive changes will add up and make a difference
in the big picture with time, so to make a big difference,
you have to start with the simple and small.

 For this project we concentrated on the simple message

of making our streets cleaner by not dropping rubbish.
This message was not going to change the world but it
did contribute in a small way to making a positive
difference for the people who were influenced by our
projects street campaign and photo exhibition. Especially
the group discussions with the school children in the
school where the exhibition was.

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 You don‟t need a Youth In Action project to become
active and make a small difference, simply find your
message and tell people!

 By uniting together, internationally, we can make a

bigger difference, and especially on the European
level, we can make a difference by lobbying the EU to
make changes to their environmental policy.

 One of the best and easiest ways to take part in

international change is by taking part in petition
signing which many major lobbying NGOs are
producing regularly on many different issues. This is a
good, easy, modern and effective way of making a
difference because anyone can easily take part,
simply sign up to petition emails through your email to the NGO which you want to represent who is doing these
lobbying petitions, and when they send you a petition to sign, read it and if you agree, then add your name and
forward it to any friends who you think might be interested. This process is totally free and you don‟t need to take
part if you don‟t want to. The aim is purely to gather as many names as possible who agree with the issue that the
NGO is trying to lobby against, so that every persons signature can be presented to a member of council or a
parliament representative who is in charge of policy-making and if there are enough peoples signatures then it
shows this policy-making representative that many many of her/his citizens demand that this policy be changed.
This is the modern method which public pressure can make a difference. The links to some NGOs who are doing
great public petition lobbying are included in this leaflet on the last page, so please follow these links and become
active by adding your name to a petition to change our environmental policy for the better!

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 Other more direct ways of becoming active in your community can be creatively showing what you feel about in the
streets directly to the public. This direct way is up to you what you want to show and how you do it. For this project
we did 2 types of this direct public awareness raising message giving by making a small 2-sided A4 leaflet themed
on waste and distributing it to the public by doing a street campaign and by producing a photos exhibition
highlighting the negative effects of dropping rubbish and also showing the ways how you can change your lifestyle
to become more environmentally friendly.

 After discussing the most

important environmental
issues for our group of 42
participants (from 7
different countries), it was
agreed that even though
different cultures
definitely have a different
approach to the same
environmental issues, it
was generally agreed that
we ALL need to work
together to make the
biggest difference, on a
local and global scale.

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 THE „DISSEMINATION‟ / „EVALUATION STAGE:
The dissemination stage of this project involved every partner NGO evaluating the whole project with their group of
participants and doing specific dissemination activities to highlight the results of this project, to spread the
message of this Youth Exchange, to promote this project and the Youth In Action Programme, and to try to make
the results of this project have a bigger knock-on effect & be more sustainable with follow-up activites. The specific
dissemination activities were as follows:

 Every partner organisation helped their 6 returned participants (and others who wished to take part) to produce, at
least once, another photo exhibition based on the exhibition that was made in Armenia, with the creative changes
or suitable adaptations of the material needed to fit their home country.

 Every partner organisation helped their 6 returned participants (and others who wished to take part) to produce, at
least once, another street campaign based on the street campaign that was done in Armenia, with the creative
changes or suitable adaptations of the material needed to fit their home country.

 Every partner organisation helped the Turkish Coordinating Organisation to make a small information booklet
about this project (this is the booklet that you are reading ) and distribute it amongst themselves, their members,
their contacts, other NGOs, youth workers, youth and the general public, appropriately.

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 Every partner organisation helped the Turkish Coordinating Organisation to make a DVD which contains the
leaflets produced for all the street campaigns; the exhibition photos; this information booklet in its electronic
version; photos in general from the Youth Exchange; Youth in Action material and links. This DVD was copied and
distributed to this projects partner NGOs, their members, their contacts, other NGOs, youth workers, youth and the
general public, appropriately.

 Also the compulsory project final report was completed and given to the Turkish National Agency by the
Coordinating Organisation, e-genclik Association, after the main Activity.

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 CONCLUSION AND THANKS:

In conclusion, we hope that you, the reader, have learned something positive from reading about this youth
exchange and that you feel some inspiration to become active yourself in your community, and if you are already
active then we hope that the links below and the information in this booklet will be useful for you to continue!
If you wish to find out more information or contact this projects Coordinating or Host Organisation, or any other
NGOs or people involved, please refer to the links below.
The Turkish Coordinating Organisation and the Armenian Host organisation for this youth exchange, e-genclik
Association (Turkey) and International Supporters of Youth and the Environment (ISYE, Armenia), would like to
thank the EU commissions Youth In Action programme for the funding to make this project happen, without the
funding received we could not have been able to bring the 42 participants from the 7 different countries to do the
activities that we did. We wish to thank the Turkish National agency for accepting this projects application after it
was applied for to them in September 2009, and after for issuing the project funds and helping and overseeing this
project on the whole, from the application stages through to the final report. More thanks is for the partner NGOs
involved in this project – Youth for Future from Georgia, Stacja Stronie from Poland, Environmental Youth Union
from Latvia, NGO People from Ukraine and Environmental Group of the Municipality of Kessariani from Greece -
and all of those representatives from these partner NGOs who organised their participants and helped facilitate
this project in cooperation with the coordinating and host NGO. Ofcourse huge thanks is to all the participants from
each of the 7 countries involved for coming to Armenia to take part in this youth exchange and make it a success.
Finally most thanks is from all the partners and the project team to Aydin Fenerli and Ash Dunlop who lead the
coordinating and hosting of this project, working incredibly hard to make this project happen, from before the start
to after after the end!

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. 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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 LINKS:

ORGANISATIONS:
e-genclik Association – Turkish coordinating organisation for this project: www.e-genclik.org.tr - afenerli@e-
genclik.org.tr

International Supporters of Youth and the Environment (ISYE) – Armenian host organisation for this project:
isye.ngo@hotmail.com

Youth for Future – Georgian partner organisation for this project: ngo.youth@yahoo.com

Environmental Youth Union (EYU) – Latvian partner organisation for this project: eyu.ngo@hotmail.com

Stacja Stronje Association – Polish partner organisation for this project: jacek.kadziolka@wp.pl

NGO People – Ukrainian partner organisation for this project: people_ngo@ukr.net

Environmental Group of Municipality of Kessariani – Greek partner organisation for this project:
nmargari@hotmail.com

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YOUTH IN ACTION PROGRAMME INFORMATION CONTACT LINK PAGE:
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth/doc152_en.htm
This link is to the Youth In Action website contact list page. On this page you will find easy links to contact:
 Every National Agency (NA) working within the YiA programme (if you want any information on the YiA
programme then contact your NA)
 Contact information to directly contact the European Commission
 The contact for the SALTO Resource Centre (which provides youth work and training resources)
 EURODESK contact information (EURODESK is a European network responsible for the dissemination of
European Union information).
 Other useful contact links

The homepage of the Youth In Action programme is: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/index_en.htm

SOME RELIABLE INTERNATIONAL NGOS USING THE PUBLIC PETITIONING METHOD FOR POLICY-
CHANGING LOBBYING:
 AVAAZ - www.avaaz.org/en/contact
 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH international homepage- http://www.foei.org/en/get-involved
 350.org - http://www.350.org/
 SHARE THE WORLDS RESOURCES - http://www.stwr.org/
 GLOBAL RESPONSE - http://globalresponse.org/index01.php
 ALLIANCE FOR A NEW HUMANITY - http://www.anhglobal.org/

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