"Know your roots!"

Aims & objectives

The project aimed at:
-raising young people's awareness on the cultural-historical heritage of Europe;
-acquainting the young people with the culture and traditions of the ancient Volga Bulgarians;
-promoting social inclusion, tolerance and mutual understanding ;
-fostering intercultural dialogue;
-presenting the European cultural and youth capitals;

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

The project involved 37 participants from 7 countries- Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Lithuania.
The team of trainers and facilitators included:
Mrs. Tsvetina Zaharlieva- main trainer,
Albina Valieva -chairperson of the host organisation and facilitator
Galinia Miskiene - guest lecturer from the University of Vilnius

Training methods used & main activities

For reaching the project's objectives we used a variety of non-formal methods such as:
-group building and getting to know each other activities;
-tolerance building session;
-mission in the town to get to know the cultural-historical heritage of teh region;
-creativity workshop for making traditional Volga Bulgarian boots("chitek");
-study visits to the office of Plovdiv- European Capital of Culture 2019 and the "Europe Direct" Centre in Plovdiv;
-cultural presentations for the project countries+ a common intercultural night;
-sharing games from the past, discussing similarities in proverbs based on cultural and traditional beliefs;

Outcomes of the activity

The participants learned about the history and culture of teh Volga Bulgarians, as the Bulgarian, Hungarian and Lithuanian teams were representing that ancient culture; They also stepped into the shoes of teh different disadvantaged groups in our society and learned that they have to be more tolerant and accepting differences. They also learned that it is important to keep traditions but live in harmony with other cultures as well. They also understood the concepts of the European initiatives for European Capital of Culture and European Youth Capital and got to know that Plovdiv will be European Capital of Culture in 2019 and Varna -European Youth Capital in 2017.

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was the main trainer and the one scaffolding the training agenda so as it could lead to reaching all the project objectives.

I worked on this training for 6 days as a full time trainer.