Erasmus+project, Sex and Gender from the students perspectrive
My experiences at the Youth Exchange
It was such an honour to have the chance to participate in this Erasmus. Most people, when considering going on a Youth Exchange, choose based on the accommodation, but I chose by theme. And did not regret it. In my opinion, most of us were a bit more sensitive in every way, that is why we could not only work together more effectively but form a very deep bond between ourselves aswell.
I had no idea what to expect from the workshops. I did not think they would all be this educative and fun to participate in. I found it very interesting to listen to other opinions than mine regardless of gender, age or nationality.
We talked about some topics that are very important to know about, but you must educate yourself about because people do not talk about them enough. For example, gender roles, LGBTI rights and needs, how to maintain a healthy relationship, giving and getting consent and sexual education in partner countries. We held our workshop about porn which turned out great, thankfully we were able to get them to speak.
All in all, for me this was an experience I never want to forget. I got out of my comfort zone several times and I came home with a lot of knowledge, less afraid of using English, strong friendships from my and other countries and some heart-warming memories.
Barbarás Villő
Erasmus
Sex Education
Introduction
I joined this Erasmus with Bandi in February one week before the journey. First, I was happy that I could go however my second thought was that it would be difficult for me because my English isn’t the best. Moreover, it was also scary for me that Rico and Misel came with us who cannot speak Hungarian. Accordingly, I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy it.
Accommodation / place
We were in a little city (rather in a village) in Orahovica. I didn’t have an idea what we would do there for 9 days. Although, we were in the city almost every day. We drunk coffee, ate pizza, bought something, or just hanged out with each other for these reasons, I liked the town.
Our accommodation looked like a clinic moreover it was dirty, and every room had a different temperature which was frustrating, so it didn’t have a good first impression. There was a dining room, a workshop’s room, and bedrooms. There were 2-2 bunk beds and one simple bed in each room. I think that the bunk beds were planned for 5-year-old kids because you couldn’t sit on those in a comfortable way. However, because of a lot of experiences and the people I finally liked it as well.
Workshops
I am interested in this topic but when I heard that we would have 4 workshops a day I got scared, it sounded too many. They were really tiring but we could finish the workshops before the lunch almost everyday so after the workshops we had time to relax. I loved the constructure of the workshops (energizer, teamwork & brainstorming, presentation). Unfortunately, I couldn’t be as active as I wished because I couldn’t understand a lot of things, so I lost the line sometimes ☹. However, the parts which I could understand were interesting and I think that I could extend my knowledge.
People / free time
I met with very nice people. Everyone was open, kind, and friendly. Thus, it was easy to make friends. I could communicate and understand things so much easier in my free time than in the workshops. I lived a very sociable life there, so I didn’t sleep much 😊. I loved hanging out with the people. And I really thank Bandi who helped me a lot. With one of them I still make contact, although before the project I was sure that it would be impossible for me to have someone like this. But now, I can see that it isn’t 😊. So, I am very glad to meet all of them and I hope that I can see everybody again in the close future.
Summary
In the beginning I was afraid from the youth exchange, because of my English. But now I am more confident to use it, and I am happy that I could improve my English skills.
The first two days were hard, and I was struggling, but after those two days I really enjoyed every moment in Orahovica. However, I am sad that I couldn’t understand the workshops as well as I wished.
In total it was one of the best experiences of my life.
Siso
The Sex Education Youth Exchange in Orahovica
This was my first ever Erasmus+ project so I did not know what to expect. I did not really know what was going to happen or what our days would look like, but it exceeded all my expectations.
On the first day, we played energizers and games to get to know each other more which all were fun and creative. I normally do not like icebreakers or these kinds of exercises but for the first time, I felt like I could participate even if I am not the most extraverted person ever. Everyone was open and inviting so that made it even more easy. After that, every day we had 4 workshops starting from 8:30 and we tried to do all of them before lunch so that we could have a free afternoon. The food was good, not always for everybody, but I could not complain. On the free afternoons we either visited the town centre and sat down in a bar or a coffee shop, or just stayed inside, relaxed, talked, or played some games. In the mostly 1 and a half hour long workshops we learned about different gender roles, safe sex, consent, violence in families, the LGBTQ+ Community and many other things around these topics. We talked about the partner countries’ views on these matters and had an open discussion about what we personally think.
We all were given roommates from another country which was good for getting to know people. In our room, with 2 Hungarians and 2 Portuguese girls, we got along great. Talked a lot and got to know a lot about the other country’s traditions and habits. Not just from them, but from other people as well. Especially on the international evenings when we all showed our traditional food or dances which were all fun and interesting to see. The people I met here, are one of the nicest people I have ever met. There were lots of hugs and conversations. Everyone was so open, inviting, generous and kind-hearted all throughout the whole experience.
Overall, this was an amazing, eye-opening experience where I became more educated in these important but not really talked about topics and also more confident in my English.
Gyöngyösi Hanna
Sex and gender erasmus program
On February 15. we arrived to orahovica where we went to a student hostel.
We met there with the other countries teams.
First day morning we had some group building games which were so much fun. In the afternoon we went to the coffee shop together to get to know each other better.
On the second day we had 4 workshops which were about gender rules.. the workshops were really long but we had some coffee breaks. After the workshops we had our interesting croatian’s lunch, than we had a free afternoon. After dinner we had an intercultural evening.
The other few days was almost the same, until the pool opened. We spend every night in the pool after dinner. In the 6. Day we had a dance night when every countries presented their own traditional dances.
The last day when we said goodbye was awful, everybody cried.
Personally this project was really good for me, I learned a lot about the topics. I socialised with everyone, everybody was so nice, helpful and understanding. In the last day I didn’t want to go back home. This was my best erasmus project so far.
Györkei Luca
On the sex and gender Erasmus project we were in Orahovica, Croatia for ten days. On day one we participated in group building workshops and introduction. We met with the other students from Romania, Portugal and Croatia. After that we talked about Youthpass, its history and purpose.
From day two we had workshops when learned about gender stereotypes, how we judge people by their sex and how we do everything differently according to their sex, how our sexuality and gender identity affect our everyday lives and the biological reasons behind these. We got to know the LGBTQ rights of the partner countries more, explore the differences and similarities.
We also learned how to recognize a healthy relationship, how to maintain it and how to recognize the red flags, how to get a better relationship with family members, how to ask for consent, how pornography affects our lives, how to recognize and how to help with violence in families, the threats and pros of online dating. We talked about if the #metoo movement gone too far, and if we need sexual education and if we do, do we need to change it from today’s sexual education or not.
We made videos about the camp, wrote mid-term and final evaluations and also our Youthpass too. On one of the afternoon we had an international dance evening, when every country showed and taught traditional dances to each other. On another afternoon we had an intercultural evening, where we showed the food each other every country brought from home. We tried a lot of interesting food we’ve never seen before. As Hungarians, we brought Túró Rudi and different kinds of szalámi. We had a pool too, which we were in since Friday, when it opened. It was a lot of fun.
I was really happy to be able to participate in this project, I learned a lot and met with new, interesting and friendly people. I’m really glad I had this opportunity.
Lakits Hanna
Orahovica
About the trip itself, and how we got there.
I loved the bus journey, I was basically listening to music the whole time, and just enjoyed the farmlands. The best part was when we got to the Croatian border, and we had to stand there one by one, next to each other for them to check everyone. (Soma could not really open his covid pass thing lmao).
About the place where we stayed.
When we got there, it was not promising. It looked like a hospital, everything was dirty, and mostly messy. We, the Hungarian boys, were in one room with 2 other Romanian guys, that was a problem for us at first, especially that there were 3 Romanians in our room when we got there, and confusion struck on us.
About the best people I have ever met.
All the people I met; were literally the best people I have met in my life. I love them, (as a friend (except for one of them)), I enjoyed their company. Once we stayed up all night, (Carol, Eszter, Dorian, Patrik, and me), that is when I started to see that those people are going to be my best friends there in this project. At the end that was not true, because I was basically best friends with every single one of them (except the Croatian girls, who I did not really talk to for some reason). Overall, these people will have a place in my heart forever.
About the workshops.
We had 4 in a day, which made it tiring, but at the same time, it me know where we are in the project. I loved every single one of them, except for the LGBTQ+ one, because I do not really care about that kind of topic, and I do not want to get into this whole thing. I loved that there were energizers before every workshop, those made me pay attention more, and more throughout the whole day. I loved the punishments, which you had to draw one, if you were late from the workshop, it pumped things up.
About the challenges, envelopes.
I did not like the fact that you could not write challenges to anyone, (although everyone did that) that way I could not give one very cool challenge to Carol, especially that she did not get any challenges from anyone throughout this project. ☹ BUT I like the idea and made us actually think outside the box to write the cheesiest stuff possible. BORA BORA was smart, it made me speak way more English than I normally would have. The country envelopes did not really matter for me, I did not even write something useful, just something that I knew that I was going to learn anyway, I think that was unnecessary.
About all other events, like dancing, singing, other kind of dancing.
I was able to show off my true dancing, singing skills, and how much I love to do them. These “parties” thought me other countries’ national dances, and fun songs.
Overall, the trip was great, the best “Vacation” I have ever had in my entire life. Thank you.
Bandi
Erasmus sex and gender
The project that I participated in Orahovica was my first ever Erasmus program and even though, I was a bit scared at first, I’m really happy that I went. The camp in Orahovica was great, I was happy with the food and generally the place we stayed at. At the camp my job was to talk about the topics and discuss it with others, make presentations. We also made a workshop about porn and the dangers of it. At the end of the project, we also had to make a video and, we decided to go with the story of Abigael. Me and my friend did the producing, filming planning out the how we will make it, and the acting was left for our team to be done. Throughout these workshops I learned about how people view and learn about sex in different countries. My perspective on a lot of things changed and got to know more about sexuality, the differences between sex and gender and also about what is happening in today’s world regarding sexuality and LGBTQ rights. The camp went pretty well overall, the workshops were fantastic, and while learning about people’s cultures and discussing variable topics, we had a lot of fun. I made a lot of friends and while doing that, all that talking and socializing also improved my English. I didn’t even realize but what felt like talking to a friend, was also learning experience for all of us.
Nagy Andris
Sex, Gender and Relationships – Erasmus +
This programme theme was sex education. Throughout the week, each day we worked on a different aspect of the topic. For example, on day one we talked about the differences between the two genders. Later on, we had discussions about consent, the LGBTQ+ community, domestic violence and lots of very interesting topics.
The four participants country was Croatia, Romania, Portugal, and Hungary. I didn’t even know the Hungarians, let alone the people from the other countries. I am not always the best with new people, so it was a bit scary for me at the first night, but in the morning when I saw how nice everybody is I knew that there would not be any problem. Soon enough I made some friends that I hope I can maintain for my life.
We had four workshops a day, which means that we had most of our afternoons free. In this free time, we socialised a lot. You could always find a group who were playing with some board game. If we didn’t feel like sitting, we went out to play some football, or invented a new game like volleyshark. We often went into the town for a walk or a nice coffee. Orahovica is not a big place, but it has its charm. I must tell you, the coffee vanillin that they served us, was the best thing I have ever drank.
During this week I have learnt so many things, about our society, my own and other countries, sexuality and most importantly myself. I am very thankful for everyone who helped to make this project as wonderful as it was.
Nyilas Dóra
I really enjoyed my time in Orahovica. The first day was a little rough for me because I didn’t know anyone even from the hungarians, but things quickly turned around. We had a steady daily schedule, we woke up, had breakfast and then the workshops started. After an energizer, we had a workshop about various topics and then a coffee break. We did this four times, lunch and we usually had a free afternoon. The town was beautiful, very small but charming, I knew my way there after one long walk. Even though we had some communication difficulties, all of the participants were so nice, open and friendly. I made very special friends with whom I will keep in touch for a long time. We had a lot of fun, we got together almost every night in the swimming pool. I liked our accomodation, the place was clean, we were a little crammed in the rooms but we made it work. Overall, I loved this experience, I made life-long friends, got to know a lot about the topic and if I could do it all again, I would 😊.
Szabó Sára
Sexual Education Erasmus Project review
After a very long bus ride, we finally arrived to Orahovica, where the project was taking place. The place seemed a little bit sketchy at first, but later on, we discovered its more charming attributes. Even though we had dinner with our teammates, we didn’t really talk to eachother, everyone was probably nervous, trying to familiarize themselves with the new atmosphere. Thankfully, this changed the very next day. On our first official day, we started our morning with breakfast. The food was good, we were able to arrive to our first ever workshop full of energy. Our very first workshop was all about getting to know eachother. At first, only on a first name basis, getting familiar with everyone’s home country, and later on, we talked about ourselves, in a little bit more detail. All thanks to the great workshops, Ivan had planned for us. After lunch, we occupied ourselves with team building activities. We played trust games, and learnt what is really important when working together as a group. We also gathered more information on what Youthpass is really about. We spent most of our days in our workshop room, in hour and a half increments, discussing issues and topics related to relationships, gender and sex. We talked about LGBTQ+ matters, views of sexual relations, the differences between genders, the need for sexual education and much more. It was so interesting to be able to hear everyone’s take on a topic. I was able to put myself in other people’s shoes, tried to make myself think about, how certain issues can affect others. With this, I was able to widen my world view and reform my opinions accordingly. For me, the exchange was one of the most fun and rewarding experiences of my lifetime. Many people only say this out of formality, but I feel so fortunate, that I’m being a hundred percent honest, when I say, I’ve met some of the most geniunely amazing people, that I never thought I could have, had it not been for this project. I am extremely thankful.
Takács Eszter Flóra
