The Flash Mob in front of the European Parliament

What a great experience for everyone, going outside and let the public know about our experience and commitments!

Last day - The story of creating a team: the facilitators

There are times in life when you do not get what you expected.... You get something better. This is the feeling I've had since the first day of the „Let’s take care of the planet” European Youth Conference. As a facilitator, you start with many fears and uncertainties. You do not know the participants, their expectations and how active they will be. You do not even know how effective you will be, because a facilitation process is always a two ways street: you and the participants. A thorough preparation and optimism can help you shape a positive image of the final results but reality will always add new colours to this image.

In terms of preparation, the team of facilitators benefited from a two days training course during which they got the chance to know each other, learn from the different experiences they each shared, meet experts in the field of sustainable development, try new teaching and learning methods and plan the activities of the conference. In terms of optimism, funny energizers, songs, smiles and hugs brought a naturally positive atmosphere and confidence. In just a few words, the training course for the facilitators was a story of creating a team. A team that gave their best to answer to the participants’ needs and achieve the planned objectives while encouraging everybody to have fun, to work with passion and enthusiasm. A team that went beyond their formal responsibilities, which ignored tiredness and which  never forgot to smile.

Now, on the last day of the conference we all agree that it was worth it. The young delegates shared the facilitators’ enthusiasm and positive attitude. They contributed actively to each session and amazed everybody with how competent, well informed and committed they were. They worked every day with the true belief that their opinions, ideas and actions can save the environment and that together they can take care of the planet.

A reflection of one of the participants that will stay with me for a long time is this: “You must be crazy in order to save the environment”. Indeed you must. You must be crazy enough to do things differently than the majority of people, crazy enough to start creating new paths instead of walking on the old ones and ultimately, crazy enough to believe that you have the power to change this world, you in your small town, in your school, in your home.

At the end of this long beautiful road on which we did not walk, but ran together these three days, my only hope is that we, as facilitators, were not the stones in the road that made the young delegates stumble, but the ones that were there to quietly show them the way. I hope they too got more than what they had expected.

Florina PAVEL

APSD-Agenda 21, Romania

Life at the conference

All the delegations arrived the 13^th of May between the morning and the evening.

My own delegation arrived much dispersed; half of the delegation (Catalonia and Madrid) arrived at 17:00 after walking from the metro station (20 minutes’ walk).  Then, people from Basque Country and Canary Islands arrived at the time we were presenting all the countries by their self, by 21:30. Finally, the girls from Galicia arrived by 1:00 the 14^th of May, because they had some problems with their train/plane/bus.

We are sleeping in 3 different rooms, 2 in the 4^th floor and 1 at the 3^rd floor (the girl’s one).

In our delegation, we have celebrated 2 persons’ birthdays, one was on the 14^th and the other was in the 15^th. It was a good coincidence that the 15^th we could go to Brussels and we celebrated both birthdays at the same time in the restaurant singing “Happy birthday”.

At the night, we spent our free time together in the boys’ room or in the girls’ room and we are talking about our things until we go to sleep like at 2 or 3 o’clock.

Before we start the working days, we presented each other and at dinner time we put some typical food of each country.

Group visits (15 May)

 On 15^th of the May the delegates were divided into 5 groups and every group had its own programme. Groups 1-3 visited European Parliament and then had debates with European deputies, group 4 visited Parlamentarium and had debates with Committee of the Regions administrative members. Group 5 was walking in the park and listening to the information about the project, which were organized here last time.
 We were in Group 3 and would like to say some words about our visit. In the European Parliament we had a small excursion, where we had watched a video about the Rome Treaty, heard about functions of European Commissions, European Parliament and Council of EU and had seen the hall, where the politicians discuss different topics.

 After this we went to the Committee of the Regions to debate with the deputies. Group 3 was talking with Philippe Lamberts, representative of Green Party, about his life, job, environmental problems in the world, responsibilities of adults and young and his opinion about “Youth European Conference: Let`s Take Care of the Planet”.

 It was our first time talking with a politician, and we really liked it.  He looks like a simple man and was very friendly to us. His speech was rather fast, but legible, and all of us understood everything. We were impressed by this meeting.

                                                                                                                           Liza and Dasha, Russia

Thematic workshops (14 May)

On the first day of our conference - May 14^th - we had our first thematic workshops. We were divided into six groups: consumption, natural resources, energy, solidarity, transport and biodiversity.

We all discussed about what responsibility is and then we talked about our topics. We decided what was the most important thing in our subjects. For example, in consumption group we came to the conclusion that every person can manage to do the 5R’s: Rethink, React, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

We created responsabilities for each topic.

Consumption: “We feel responsible for what we buy.”
Natural resources: “We feel responsible for raising people’s awareness in our community on the importance of Natural resources.”
Energy: “Raising people’s awareness about reducing exhausting and polluting energies and replacing them with renewable energies.”
Solidarity: “Create social connections between people of all ages in local and international communities.
Transport: “We want to reduce carbon emissions and air pollution by taking the public transport, walking, riding bikes or skateboards, consuming local products and encouraging people to do the same.”
Biodiversity: “We want to make people aware of the stakes of biodiversity and make them protect it from the danger of global warming, in order to preserve it for future generations.”

Biodiversity workshop

On 15^th May we continued on working in the same groups. We discussed about same questions with delegates from other groups and we were told to have few minutes writing on the subject and expressing our ideas about them. Thematic workshops were really interesting and inspiring.

     
I, Amy from Malta, was in the Consumption group. I enjoyed discussing my ideas with other delegates from other countries. I liked it because some things that you can do were really fascinating. I have to tell my friends in Malta about it, so together we can take an action.

I, Adelė from Lithuania, was in the Biodiversity group. I enjoyed our workshops very much, because that was experience that I have never had before. It was something new and very interesting for me. It inspired me to love our planet even more and take care of it as good, as I possibly can.

  Amy, Malta
Adelė, Lithuania

The River Of Hope (14 May)

The opening ceremony of the conference "Let's Take Care Of The Planet- Europe"

Hopeful young people at the formal start of this adventure which must lead to changes if we want a bright future here at our sensitive planet. The atmosphere summed of hope, and light were in everybody's eyes already when the very first word at this special conference was spoken. Now it really begins...

Reported by Sidsel Sofie Poulsen and Maria Louise Jensen, Denmark

Presentation of delegations (13 May 2012)

                                                           

After arriving to the hostel everyone should get to know each other; how would we cooperate without knowing each other? We had a delegation presentation ceremony. Everyone brought traditional things from their country. Some of us used their national costumes, candies, music, etc. Turkey, for example, brought Turkish delight which had different flavors like rosewater, lemon peel, etc. Sweden presented one of their most famous dollies; Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump, in Swedish) made by the writer Astrid Lindgren. Now I think you understand how different it was, from one corner of Europe to the other! This way we understood each other better, we got to know other cultures better. Our mission was not just to present our own country; we should also begin presenting next country with three words about the country and end our own presentation with three words about our, this was also a way to make the delegates closer. For instance, we used words like capital cities, famous people and famous places. 

 

In Turkey’s presentation, they wore their traditional clothes; boys wore fez, which Turks used to wear at the time of Ottoman Empire, and girls wore traditional dresses, which sultanas used to wear. They also distributed their special dessert, Turkish delight which had different flavors. Furthermore, they showed their flag and they distributed ‘evil eye’, which they believe that this bead protects them from bad events.

Sweden presented some Swedish traditions, Pippi Långstrump, the Maypole (a pole you are dancing around and singing happy songs in the end of June to celebrate the summer solstice) and of course, the pop band ABBA which won the European 1974 with the song Waterloo.

Denmark sang a children song about a snail and a ladybug, showed their red and white flag and they also taught us Danish which was hard!







Fredrik/Sweden
Ezgi/Turkey