Az alábbiakban a résztvevők képes beszámolója következik:

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Between the 28th of March and 7th of April 2023, a group of YFO volunteers have been participating at a youth exchange funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Their thoughts and pictures about the project:

Szabó Bence: “An adventure for a lifetime!”

Cseke Réka: “This exchange helped me a lot in my life, there were very interesting and educational programs.”

Dunkler Krisztián: “It was an honour to participate in this amazing project.”

Lakatos Kriszta: “I’ve been to 3 exchanges, but this was the best so far. I liked that the program was in the centre of the city, Kaunas is a beautiful place. The topic of the exchange was really interesting and useful.”

We, as staff of YFO would like to say thank you again to the amazing team of Unique Projects for letting this whole experience happen!

20 June 2022.

30 young foreigners from Greece, Turkey, Spain, Poland, and Portugal came to Odorheiu Secuiesc at different stages of the day. The participants were very open to the programme, still, after their arrival, they decided to relax and recharge.

21 June 2022.

On Tuesday morning, the participants were already excited as they lined up in the conference room of the Siculus Youth House, waiting to be introduced to the week’s activities. After discussing what they expected from the exchange and from us, and what we expected from the exchange and from them, we then focused on getting to know each other.
The ended the day with a welcome party after the cultural evening, where Turkey and Spain presented their respective cultures.

22 June 2022.

Wednesday morning started with a more in-depth project briefing, followed by a playful city mapping session. In teams, they had to find the places they would touch during the week in a “scavenger hunt” style.After the lunch break, we organized another team-building activity, followed by another cultural evening, this time with presentations on Greece, Poland and Portugal.

23 June 2022.

On Thursday morning we talked about the experiences of the 2017 exchange programme and watched the aftermovie summarizing the results.We analyzed it and shared our thoughts and stories. In the second half of the day, Gabriela Telekfalvi held a workshop and sessions for the participants on the everyday life of people with disabilities.After the evaluation of the day, we enjoyed the Udvarhely Days, where concerts and good vibes welcomed the young people.

24 June 2022.

On Friday we gave the reins to Arnold Buttu and his father Csaba – founder of the Hungarian Foundation for the Visually Impaired in Transylvania (EMLE) – and had our first session with them, their life and their story. In the next workshop, they presented their school for the blind, told us about their motivation, principles and goals, and invited the young people to an interactive discussion. In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to try out different exercises and games focusing on the sensitivity of the visually impaired.

The evening was also dedicated to the festival.

25 June 2022.

On Saturday morning, the big task began. We asked the young people, divided into groups, to follow a pre-assigned route with wheelchairs and white canes, analyze the facilities in the neighborhood and record them on video. The teams were each given a different route, covering the whole city. The second part of the day was a visit to the Rezső Haáz Museum, where the works of the blind artist Lajos Katona were on display.

We spent the evening at the festival.

26 June 2022.

On Sunday morning we asked the groups to draw a mobile map of Odorheiu Secuiesc from on sights and experiences of the day before, in order to be able to compare the results with those of 2017, and then asked them to prepare a presentation. We spent the afternoon with a youthpass session, where we mainly reinforced the 7 key competences, but also learned many interesting things together.

This day was the last day of the Odorhei Days, so the young people could attend the closing concerts and parties.

27 June 2022.

It was the big day, the highlight of our project. We started this day at the City Hall, where the teams presented the city’s accessibility, highlighted pressing problems and collected suggestions for the city leaders. In the second half of the day, as an optional programme, we went to the community center, where the founder of the institution showed us around the rooms equipped for people with disabilities with all kinds of mobility machines, and then demonstrated various interesting exercises. This evening was ours. With our volunteers, we presented Romanian culture through history, dances, videos and games.

This was followed by a farewell party, during which some of the participants had to leave the venue to go home. The rest of the participants tried to make the most of the remaining time together.

28 June 2022.

A sad, overcast morning. We waited for the transfer in front of the High School dormitory, during which time we gave out 2 sandwiches, fruit, water and at least one tearful hug to each young person. The minibuses arrived in order and picked up the young people from us.

During the programme, international contacts, best friendships and lovemaches were made. Participants created useful tools to identify accessibility challenges within the local community. They created maps and videos of the local council take-up.

But perhaps the most useful part of the project was their understanding of the importance of inclusion and their acceptance of the idea that everyone should be able to use the same facilities, participate in the same activities and enjoy the same experiences, including people with disabilities or other disadvantages.

Thank you for the opportunity! You were all great.

February 15^th 2022, Corund

The young delegates from Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Norway, Latvia and Lithuania  arrived in order, we were eagerly awaiting together with those who had already arrived. In the meantime, the participants who were already there, settled into their surroundings, had dinner and immediately started getting to know each other.

February 16^th 2022

After a rest, we presented the week’s program, ideas and house rules, then focused on getting to know each other. Two young people, colleagues of the Youth Forum of Odorhei lead this program with great success. Close bonds were formed between the participants right from the start of the exchange. And we couldn’t help but smile at the fact that such a brilliant team had come together, exceeding all our expectations. We had already realized that we would be dealing with 40 motivated, energetic young people ready to take action during the week.

February 17^th 2022

The first half of the day was also about deepening relationships through storytelling.

In the second half of the day, a young professionall introduced the young people gathered into the mysteries of storytelling. He demonstrated and taught specific methods of storytelling through various interactive activities.

This was followed by an intercultural evening with the Lithuanian and the Latvian teams presenting their respective countries.

February 18^th 2022

On this day we paddled into the deeper waters of storytelling, especially in the world of legends, where we used the word of mouth stories of our region as a tool for the program.

After the lunchbreak, we visited the Mini Transylvania Park run by Székelyföldi Legendárium, which turned out to be a very popular program. Some of our participants had already been to one or two Transylvanian castles, and for them it was a great experience to see them in miniature. For those who were visiting Romania for the first time, seeing Dracula’s castle was also a memorable moment.

Afterwards, we visited the Mayor’s Office of Odorheiu Secuiesc, where we were welcomed by the deputy mayor in the St. Stephen’s hall, where she told us her story of how she came to be in Odorheiu Secuiesc and to this position. She ended her performance with a cathartic reflection, teaching us that no matter where you come from, what your nationality, what color your skin is or what your mother tongue is, we all have many other common languages.

We then had free time in the city, and the team split into small groups according to their interests. Some people were sightseeing, some wanted to try the speciality cafes and gastro-pubs, others were looking for traditional places to visit or just to shop in the local supermarkets. Of course, kürtőskalács was also very popular.

Then at 8 pm there was the meeting at the Siculus Youth House, where the UFF members and volunteers were waiting with great excitement. We had some pizza, after which our volunteers performed folk dances in Sekler costumes. This had been an intercultural evening for us, the Romanian team. Soon the participants joined the dancers, so a great party quickly developed on the stage.

February 19^th, 2022

The day started a little rough due to the previous night’s debauchery, but an energizer helped the situation. Then we learned some cool visual storytelling techniques in a workshop with the aid of a volunteer.

Afterwards we created visual storytelling ourselves in small groups.

In the second half of the day the main topic was again storytelling, presented by one of the colleagues of the Youth Forum of Odorhei. She introduced us into the greatest secrets of writing by telling her own little stories. As it turned out, the greatest difficulty in writing is starting, so we were shown some great techniques to overcome these difficulties.

The day did not end without an intercultural evening, with the Norwegians and Croats as hosts.

February 20^th, 2022

It had been a long day. Knowing that we only had a week to enjoy each other’s company, we sang, used the hot tubs, danced, played board games, etc. at night, but even so, there were still not enough hours in the day.

The morning was dedicated to a walk to the bazars in the center of Corund. We browsed around, many people buying souvenirs for home, others taking photos, everyone impressed by the many stalls. We had lunch and then we gave the floor to talented young musicians to show how music can be used to tell a story.

And in the evening, the Turks will have us taste their fancy food and the Spanish their sangria.

February 21^st, 2022.

This day the participants were divided into small groups, whose first task was to tell each other a lot about themselves, and then find a single point in their lives that they had in common. That is their common story. They worked all day to present their own story on the big day after.

Finally, in the evening, the Greek and Italian teams presented their countries.

February 22^nd, 2022

The big day had arrived. The small groups took turns to present their own collective stories in different styles, such as comic, written, video, or even Google meet.

Afterwards, most of the group started writing letters to people they had become really close to during the week, or to whom they wanted, sharing a kind thought or a memory.

Two short films have been made as well, you can take a look at them here:

THE END

News report

In addition to the brief evaluations held each day, on the last day we also wanted to get an overall picture of the week’s events from the participants’ point of view, so we asked them to write their own slam poetry, their own story of the week. We would like to present a few of them:
”Lithuanians enjoyed the stay in Corund
But needed to steal a coat from Jon Snow
The rooms were warm
Although not like home
Hot tubs were the best
But not the smell
Mountains and beer was the best
Did not meet the bears
Bazar in Corund might be bis
But boring a bit

Breakfast and dinner was worth to wake up
Lunch and the soup not that much
Desert is always a cherry on top
But meat lovers needed to hunt
Workshops were better than we could expect
Because trainers, music and games were the best
Storytelling techniques were uniqeu
Although we required more sleep
We love UFF and call them ultra fun friends
Because the project was organized impossibly well
We will miss fun volunteers and Hungarian friends
Other as well”

”This is the first…
This is the first venue that has hot tubs we’ve never seen before
This is the first soup that we’ve not said as a soup before
This is the first youth exchange that we’ve never joined before
This is the first trip for 23 hours that we have never had before
This is the most professional association that we’ve never met before
This is the first breakfast that we’ve never seen without olives before
This is the project with troublesome task before”

”5 students gathered to enjoy Romania
Norway to Bucharest until they had a train ride.
Tchk tchk tchk on and on until we are tired.
Hoping to go back to Norway but then we came to Corund. to jump  into hot tubs in the calm nature.
What could be better than flavorful food?
Flavorful when becomes repetitive you start skipping it.
Repeat it repeat it repeat it
Soup it pork it bread it
Sleepless us needed energizers
Storytellers us needed music
Speakers us needed podium.
We never needed energizers for nights
Night owls we are
Drunk owls we are
All of boys bring on Dixit and conversations
Call it a best moment to give us time to relax.
Call it a best moment to take us on a trip
All of this was possible because of UFF
UFF be nice to give us free time
UFF you are caring and friendly
Let me tell you we came to Hungary in Romania.”

“Liquid distribution confused us…
Soup never ended, but water always did.
We were waiting for a coffee who was usually not there.
Our yaya will be mad because the food was not enough.
Crackers were nice.

We wanted to share our pictures of the beautiful place,
But the internet had a different opinion..
The hot tubs where smelling like tonninio.

We especially loved the gossip and acting workshops,
but during the photography presentation, we were mentally at the shops

Volunteers and facilitators were more than great
Energisers were fun
Good, Bravo, yay

Dimitris only stoped coughing when dead on the stair.
Argyro was constantly looking for products for her hair.
Eirini found the food exceptionally good, she had to see it again.
Ioannis was losing the eggs and paschals,
while Antonis was partying on his own… forever alone.

We had a real great time
and, despite the dehydration, we are all gonna cry.”

„We liked the good food
They give us best mood
We didn’t use beds
Because we drink all night

We always stay cold
But Laura falls in love
The project changes lifes
And put some shine in eyes

The workshops are cool
And energisers too
I can’t say just UFF
The UFF was really UUUFFFFF

(x2) We liked the good food
They give us best mood
We didn’t use beds
Because we drink all night”

„This is a story of a journey from the Comfort Zone to the Learning
one.
It was a beautiful place with snow & a scorching sun.
Huts like how we used to draw in childhood as a fun
There is a dreamy swing & two hot tub & HOT in the merely a pun.
This is a story of a journey from the Comfort Zone to the Learning
one.

Straight away from Carbonara to the sweet pasta in a plate
Italian can’t bear the peas on the pizza, for god Sake!
But we are satisfied by the freedom vegetables have
In the soup they wander around like they have no breaks
Don’t forget about the sweets that we get after lunch
It is more comforting than looking at your loved ones.
This is a story of a journey from the Comfort Zone to the Learning
one.

Everything there is a task that seems like pain in the ass
We are so cool that we laugh it off in a pretty sass
Sangria, Palinka, Wine or beer, we drink till we pass out
But still manage to get up and call the morning good
Even though our faces scream, have some shame aloud!
This is a story of a journey from the Comfort Zone to the Learning
one.

UFF is like a grandmother that makes you spoil and fat
With care and love, a lot of food and memories fixed in mind
Before this we never knew that learning could be fun
Until today as we know that we are almost done.
We hope and wish you luck for the future that has to come
Thanks timi, ester, and UFF to make this journey comfortable and fun
This is a story of a journey from the Comfort Zone to the Learning
one.”

„How does a Spanish
team end up in a small town,
forgotten spot in the middle of Transilvania,
it was the Hungarian side of Romania or was it the romanian side of hungaria what is this area the hot tubs had bacteria
*It’s a very cool place but we didn’t have space sharing beds I think somebody slept in the suitcase  *
to grab a bite was like a horse race,  wouldnt be so bad right
just to get some water was a street fight nobody was polite people had lunch outside

soup for breakkie
soup for lunch
soup for dinner every night
or its fried or its bread you don’t get anything else (x2)

we had several seminars storytelling all the time sitting on our flat ass
some sport wouldn’t kill us
all the guests are in fact very nice even had a film star played guitar had some fun
but we lacked the cool facts almost died in Tonno’s car
getting stuff for that night the sangria was so wild
Dimitris almost lost his sight
All or minds in a blank we don’t remember that much
After that storytime for some teams was so easy but for others was so hard

soup for breakkie
soup for lunch
soup for dinner every night
or its fried or its bread you don’t get anything else (x2)

*so guys to wrap up volunteers were so nice
but we missed Hungarian night.
Our stay here was alright
Gonna miss you all so much
I think we’re gonna cry
Enough tears to fill a tub
** (drop the mic)**”

„The venue was charming, the hot tub rash alarming, but we did not care.
We experienced joy fun and games, local’s ploy to engage was on full display.
Healthy food was not lacking in this project,
But we really missed more meat, almost as much as the sun and the heat.   But then again, Sangria.
We were always on time, while others were often late, but we hold no grudges, we feel no hate, infact we love you all.
We really liked all the workshops, and Timi you’re a real one for keeping everything on track, if you would have us again we would be happy to come back, and back, and back.
Our stories differed but were all sort of the same, none of them perfect, none of them lame, but still uniquely ours.
Who knew that UFF would turn out to be such a goof, the volunteers soooo cute and the team of powerful ladies never on mute, Salud!
We drank beers with bears, next to the evergrowing stream, basically living the dream, but surprisingly we were mostly fully awake.
Through the bites of the gray cat we learned how to fight, but sadly we soon will be taking our flight, but we know,
That friendships made here will not perish soon, as they were built on love and laughs stacked up all the way to the moon. Trust.”

At the end of this, we will close the exchange with a farewell party, marked more by tears than happiness.

February 23^rd, 2022

The young participants from Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Norway, Latvia and Lithuania set off to the airports. We all knew that we should make the most of the few minutes or hours that remained, but in the meantime, we could barely make a sound.

We will surely remember the year of 2020 as the one of COVID-19 pandemic, which changed our lives. These unusual times of our existence brought us at the same time – among others – some of the best youth exchanges in the history of the Youth Forum of Odorhei, which by the way celebrated in 2020 its 30 years of activity for the benefit of young generation living in Odorhei area… Happy birthday UFF and keep up the good work!

Unfortunately, we were unable to organize those projects when we were supposed to do so… The pandemic situation in Europe and the travel restrictions of authorities made all together a very difficult (let us say, impossible) task the organizing process of international youth mobility events. In this situation – having the support of our great partners from all over Europe – we decided to postpone all the youth exchanges of the Youth Forum.

Our philosophy regarding youth exchanges is very close to the traditional approach: if possible, we would like to avoid transforming activities for the online world… We think that the very essence of a youth mobility is the personal interaction and the close contact of the participants from several cultural backgrounds, which are of the utmost importance when you develop your project’s main purposes. As we see it, it is very hard (almost impossible) to transform youth exchanges to online platforms and reach the goals and objectives you were planning to achieve when you handed in the application in the first place…

We are strongly committed to organize the below described two exchanges as we planned to do so. However, the whole concept of the two youth mobility would have to suffer if we would consider changing (entirely or part of it) the programs for the online platforms… Therefore, we postponed them for a period of time, when our lives will be more predictable. At least we hope for that to come one day… This is not the situation we were expecting for, we are not happy at all, but the first concern in this matter has to be the health of our participants and alternatively the success of the exchanges!

We think that we can all agree that we are living some unusual times right now. To be able to predict the unpredictable and to organize our lives as NGO’s we have to be as flexible as we can and to hope for the best to come. You can read a description of our two extraordinary interesting youth exchanges in the coming sections.

The power of a #storyteller 2021

25^th of August and 2^nd of September 2021, Odorheiu Secuiesc/Székelyudvarhely

Youth facilitators and workers recognize the art of storytelling, as a non-formal educational tool for young people. Storytelling is an extremely easy set of methods to apply during mobility, young people can be easily engaged in the common learning process, because each one of us has a story (or even more) of its own, on which can share it and discuss it with others. Many aspects of stories are close to our daily lives, the way we think and understand the world around us: “each one of us is a story in itself …”. Storytelling is a powerful way of engaging young people and encouraging the acquisition of key competences, such as verbal and communication skills in their mother tongue or in a foreign language, imagination, creativity, intercultural and social understanding, etc. Although is appreciated, the storytelling method, as a form of development of the key skills of young people, it is unfortunately less used by the youth organizations in Europe.

The power of a #storyteller (#storyteller) aims to engage youth organizations in partnerships, which will provide them with positive direct experiences, examples of best practices, methods and tools that can be used to become more motivated when using storytelling as a form of learning for young people they work with. By conducting the #storyteller exchange, the Young Forum of Odorhei aims to encourage the use of storytelling by civil partner youth organizations as a non-formal learning method for adolescents. In this order, the aim of the #storyteller project is to involve the young participants of the mobility into a learning process based on storytelling methods, which will enrich their bag of key competences and the set of personal skills, which can be used in the context of the partners’ organizational development. The objective of the exchange learning activities is to create practical tools that can be used as best practice methods, which will contribute to supporting partners to use storytelling as a learning method for young people.

The activities of the #storyteller youth exchange program are essentially common to youth mobility and grouped around the set of learning methods of storytelling. Facilitators of the #storyteller exchange will use several of the following storytelling methods focused on developing more key youth skills: co-constructed-, shared-, unfinished-, zoom-, roleplayed-, analysed-, shrunken-, debriefed-, summarized- and prompted stories. The program is built in a balanced way, the activities allow the creative workshops, round tables and interactive debates, thematic presentations, simulations, role-playing games and reflection sessions on learning outcomes (both indoor and outdoor activities) to be combined with different other cultural-educational programs and recreational activities, where young people are beneficiaries and creators at the same time, creating frameworks for motivating thematic discussions, changing constructive ideas about various aspects of the existence of young people in Europe, including here topics related to multiculturalism, intercultural dialogue and the idea of Europeanism.

During the learning activities of the exchange there will be created an informative film related to the #storyteller program and a series of other short films with motivational messages from young people from several countries of Europe, which will present their own story and positive experiences related learning through storytelling. During the dissemination period, the participants will present these materials in local events to the teenagers from the entourage of the youth organizations, which form the present partnership.

The #storyteller exchange program will take place in Odorheiu Secuiesc, Romania, between the 25^th of August and the 02^nd of September 2021. The participants of the exchange will come from Romania (the Young Forum of Odorhei, as a host), Croatia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Spain and Turkey, each aged between 18 and 28 years (except the leader), the final group being composed of 45 young people, each 5 (4 + 1 leader) on each side. The young participants (except the leader) come from areas where mobility programs have a lower impact, where marginalized young people, with a high risk of social exclusion, have limited access to international mobility, which aims at developing and enriching their key competences. Leaders will have a minimum of experience in international mobility and will have the ability to converse at least medium to English, thus contributing as interpreters to those young people who require language assistance for engaging in storytelling activities.

The learning activities of the #storyteller exchange will result in the development of a set of key skills of the young people that they will be able to use in the perspective of their personal development and of a professional career, benefiting from the results of their learning starting with increased chances for their self-affirmation. The skills gained and developed by young people in the fields of language skills, learning to learn, civic, interpersonal, intercultural and social, cultural expression, etc., will develop the character and self-confidence of adolescents. By going through the learning process, young people will become more expressive in their daily lives, they will have a more developed imagination and creativity, and they will communicate their thoughts and feelings in a more articulated way. Teens will become better, more active listeners, better able to focus on their daily activities, receive and respond more effectively to different new situations.

The expected impact on the nine partner bodies refers to the development of their organizational capacity to carry out international programs and mobility’s, which aim to support the learning process of young people through the storytelling method. The commitment of the partners to continue the development of youth exchange projects by launching new applications in the topic of storytelling will create the framework for an efficient valorisation of the experiences and knowledge gained and will gradually involve new organizations in international cooperation.

At the end of the exchange, a joint action plan of the partners will be drawn up that will allow the desired impact to be achieved. This will consist in planning a cycle of exchange projects, to be submitted in 2022 to agencies in the partner countries. The common point of these projects will be their theme, which is the use of storytelling as a form of developing young people’s capacities in a multicultural context. In this sense, all the experiences gained during the exchange in Odorhei, all the learning methods used and the non-formal activities carried out, all the materials created (visibility, the film of the activities and the individual ones of the young people, the The handbook of a #storyteller for cataloguing and structuring of the ones learned by the participants, the model of the project itself, etc.) will be made available to the partners of the Young Forum for use as good practices.

Re-Access City! 2022

30^th of June and 8^th of July 2022, Odorheiu Secuiesc/Székelyudvarhely

The purpose of the Re-Access City! project cycle is to generate a positive change on the level of accessibility regarding cities, institutions and public services in Europe. The objectives of the projects are to develop key skills, raise awareness and increase the empathy of young Europeans for the inclusion of people with disabilities, and their active involvement in joint efforts to improve the living conditions of people with disabilities in Europe. The specific objectives are to identify the problems of accessibility of cities, institutions and public services, and to develop useful tools (adaptable and usable as good practices for other European localities), which will effectively contribute to overcoming them by people with disabilities.

The main activities of the project are the creation of a Wheel Map for an Accessible City (on panels, transposed on an online platform and edited in print format) about the main points, institutions and buildings, respectively public services of Odorheiu Secuiesc, where access for people with disability is restricted in one way or another. Another activity is to make materials for a Re-Access City! guide (edited print and online), which will contain the methods of accessibility of roads, buildings and local public services proposed by young people. Participants will create also a film of activities, which will contain an appeal on accessibility sent to local communities and local and European decision-makers on the needs of disabled people. All the materials produced by the participants can be used as tools of good practice by other European NGO’s and local communities for similar initiatives.

The Re-Access City! 2022 exchange participants will be 45 (36 + 9 leaders) of young people (of which 18 with physical, hearing or visual disabilities) from the organizations Young Forum in Odorhei (as host), Esenler Ortopedik Engelliler Dernegi-Turkey, Meraki-Croatia, Asociacion Juvenil Intercambia-Spain, Collippo-Organização Juvenil-Portugal, KINITRO Amke-Greece, Ipazia-Italy, The Change is in You-Bulgaria and Stowarzyszenie Sztukater-Poland.

The main result of the projects is the realization of the set of good practices on accessibility and inclusion of people with disabilities, which can be used as a useful tool by European local communities with a view to improving the living conditions of people with disabilities. Re-Access City! 2022 will have a direct impact on the 45 participants, who will benefit from increasing the level of knowledge in the field of accessibility, needs and rights of people with disabilities in Europe, young people being able to capitalize on their learning outcomes for the benefit of local communities in which are part. Supporting the activity of young people after completing their mobility and capitalizing on their learning will benefit the 9 partner organizations, which will develop their capacity to run information programs on accessibility, awareness of local communities related to the need to support the rights of people with disabilities.