Be You Association was involved in „Open up” Erasmus+ as partner organization. „Open Up” can be defined as a trip to the self. The project explored the topic of identity, self-knowledge, European identity and values, promoted diversity, integration and social inclusion. During 9 days the activities helped participants to discover more about themselves, their personal identity, their personality profile, their skills and competences. Thanks to these activities participants appreciate more themselves and are able to valorise their skills in daily life. Letter to your self was an excellent way look deep inside, to look at our skills and values that guide us in the present and to set future objectives.
Special attention was accorded to integration through teambuilding activities, activities related to stereotypes and social inclusion. At the first glance it is easy to put people in boxes, but knowing them better we are able to identify common points that unite us.
An important part consisted of learning about European values and citizenship. Being part of this big European community we share the same values, that are very important in our daily life. Without freedom, democracy, rule of law, human rights, justice, and other values our life would be unimaginable.
Culture evenings helped participants to share from their culture, traditions, food and drink with the whole group, also to identify similarities and differences in each partner country.
Also, cultural activities like a horse slade ride in Poronin and visit to Zakopane city allowed participants to know more about Poland, its tradition and culture.
Thank you to FRATERNITAS that hosted this project! Thank you to all project partners (PRISMS – MALTA; Associação de Defesa do Património Cultural Natural de Soure – PORTUGAL; Educadaje – SPAIN; Cultural Bridges Foundation – TURKEY) for their effort and involvement!
Thank you to the Romanian team (Ilona, Cristina, Andreea, Adrian, Răzvan, Valentin) for being part of this journey and for their active participation.
Impressions:
„The identity is that thing which define us and make us unique. In „Open Up” project, I had the opportunity to find out more information about this topic. I realised that the identity is more complex and involves a lot of values, like the empaty, self awareness, unity, sensitivity, integration in society etc. This project had a real impact on me, because it helped me to develop my personality, it made me to get out of my comfort zone and this aspect made me more confident. It was a project that has been based on communication, I had the opportunity to make new friends from different countries and to discover a lot of cultures. The most important thing that I realised at the end of the project refears to the fact that it doesn’t matter how much different we are, there will always be a thing that unite us, it’s impossible to not have common points with other people.” – Cristina
„Open Up” Erasmus+ project was based on discovering the values of identity and of the European Union. During this week we have encountered different situations that highlighted teamwork, self awareness and reflection. Besides the fact that these activities had an educational and informative purpose, they were funny and involved even the most shy participants. Therefore, I could say that we have unconsciously learned what identity means, what we should do in order to improve our social skills and what values should we be aware of. For example, during and activity where we had to draw some posters that reflected the European Union values, a team pointed out the cicle of these values. Basically, sometimes people think they are entitled to eat a consistent breakfast, but they are not aware of the fact that having the free choice allows them to make that decision. To sum up, this experience consisted of many nice memories, because we got to meet new people and share our beliefs, our interests. It made us realise that although we may have some distinct points of view, there is a slight chance that we also share common things, sometimes those we don’t even consider mentioning in a brief discussion.” – Andreea
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