Greenwalk, Sigueiro – Youth exhange Erasmus+

BACKGROUND

The program was organized by a cultural association from A Coruña, Spain called Ingalicia with the participation of 25 people aged between 18 and 27 from five countries: Spain, Greece, Turkey, Slovakia, and Hungary. Ingalicia is an NGO that works on the field of organizing youth organizing events to promote a community spirit, integration, and knowledge of European culture among young people. The aim of the Greenwalk Youth Exchange program was to explore, discuss environmental issues and adapt sustainable habits. Politechnikum was represented by four students: Karl Szonja, Erdősi Soma Zoltán, Kocsis Karolina Réka és Gorincsek Petra Fruzsina, and one team leader, Baráth Béla.

ACTIVITIES, EXPERIENCES

Formal and informal methods and regular energizers supplemented the diverse daily activities, and they were all well-tailored to enhance the understanding the importance of sustainability while improving soft skills. The tasks were always carried out in groups of randomly selected members, so the participants continuously worked in international teams. This management method was suitable to strengthen both cross-cultural communication abilities and leadership skills. The groupwork was monitored and evaluated by the organisers who provided positive feedback and constructive criticism after the presentations. The participants were always encouraged to exchange ideas freely. The tasks were engaging and designed to unleash the full potential of participants’ creativity (e.g. creating art from recycled rubbish collected in the neighbourhood of the venue, designing electoral campaign of an imaginary green party, inventing a fictious country). Through collaboration with peers from diverse backgrounds, they learned to adapt their knowledge on sustainability and explore the common threads that connect their views on environmental issues.

On the last day, we had the opportunity to visit Santiago de Compostela where the participants had the opportunity to experience the local cuisine, discover the landmarks of the town, and meet some pilgrims at the end of their journey of El Camino, the renowned pilgrimage of medieval origin.

LEARNING OUTCOMES AND IMPACT

Our participants immersed themselves into the workshops and greatly contributed to the seamless collaboration during the teamwork sessions. Their maturity and conscientious mindset enabled them to make the most of the Greenwalk YE program both socially and culturally.

Baráth Béla, team leader

At the end of June, I had a chance to participate in an Erasmus+ project called Greenwalk which took place in Oroso-Sigüeiro, Spain. The Hungarian team spent six days there with the other participants from Greece, Slovakia, Spain, and Turkey.

This youth exchange focused on sustainability, recycling and climate change. Every partner had two presentations during the week. One was about who they are, and the other was related to the topic.
We had a presentation about Poli, and the other was about the 5Rs. Throughout the week, we learnt new skills and methodologies to implement more sustainable habits and contribute to Future generations’ education and empowerment.
On the last day, we visited Santiago de Compostela, which is the destination of El Camino. We spent the whole afternoon in Santiago sightseeing.

I had a perfect time there. It was lovely to meet people from other countries with different cultures. We were able to learn tons of new things not only about the topic but also about each other. Fortunately, the energizers and coffee breaks helped a lot in this. I feel lucky to have been a part of this experience.

Karl Szonja (Bermuda)

We traveled to Spain to Sigüeiro (near Santiago which is the final station of the El Camino) end of this June where we had an Erasmus+ project with Slovakian, Turkish, Greek and Spanish participants.

During the project we spoke about climate change, 5Rs and sustainability. We created a lot of teamwork, such as presentations, podcast making, imaginary country creating… Moreover, we had eco-friendly activities like trash collecting, recycling… By the time the youth exchange started every nation had to prepared with two presentations, one was connected to the topic and the other one focused on the different places where we came from.

I was the youngest participant from all of us and I had known before the project that we would meet with university students in Spain therefore I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to make any friends. Fortunately, my doubt was false and I think that I could make fantastic friends. We had a really good time in that little town and I miss everyone from there. I am hoping that we will see each other in the future. The only bad thing was that the project was too short.

It was my fifth Erasmus projects and I can still claim that it is never enough. I am thankful that I could be part of this beautiful journey.

Erdősi Soma (Sisó), (Bermuda)

At the end of June, five of us from Poli had the chance to travel to Sigüeiro, Spain for an Erasmus+ project.

The topic of the program was sustainability, and it included many important and interesting details, such as current environmental issues, sustainable living, global warming and pollution. We discussed the main problems of the world in this field and learnt about how we can prevent the worsening of climate change as individuals and also as a society. We spent six days in Sigüeiro with participants from Spain, Slovakia, Turkey and Greece. All groups had to prepare two presentations. One of the school or organization they were representing and another one of an important topics that is essential when talking about the environmental crisis or helping our planet. The Hungarian group made a presentation about the 5Rs of Zero Waste. During the daytime we had energizers and tasks to complete, but luckily, we also had coffee breaks to relax after working hard all day. In the evening we could walk around, explore the town and get to know each other with participants from other countries. It was nice to make new friends and it seemed like everyone had a lot of fun during the exchange. For some of us, this was our first Erasmus+ project and it surprised me that this experience was so entertaining, and how it actually made my English and social skills improve.

I’m glad I participated in this program, because I could learn about other cultures, make friends and visit beautiful places like Santiago the Compostela, which is the destination of the El Camino pilgrimage route. This project was the perfect way to start the summer holiday.

Kocsis Lina (Anonym)

At the end of June I had the opportunity to participate in an Erasmus+ project called Greenwalk. We spent a week in Sigüeiro with our peers from Turkey, Greece, Slovakia and Spain learning about sustainability and eco-friendly living. Needless to say, it was as eye opening as it was frightening. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed getting to know everyone through the fun games we played.

On the first day we were the first ones to arrive so we had some time to explore the town and its beautiful parks. Later it turned out that not everybody was as lucky as us to catch their flight so some of the participants arrived a bit later than planned but we still managed to get together after dinner for a little introductory meeting.

The best thing about the second day was the trash collecting game as they made it a competition and each team got a different area to clean up. Whichever team managed to collect the most rubbish within a given time was the winner. The creative part of the day was the country creation where we had to create our own green country as if it was real.

On the third day came Poli’s time to shine as we had to present the 5 R-s of zero waste and as usual everybody was in awe of our presentation skills. On top of this we also prepared a very cool and fun game of Kahoot too. In the afternoon the hosts surprised us by bringing out all the trash we collected the other day to make something useful out of them. My favorite one was the Trash Band team who played us a song using mostly plastic waste.

The fourth day was a very interesting day because after a horrifying presentation on climate change we had the chance to do something unique. We recorded podcasts on various issues climate change brings! It wasn’t as easy as it sounds and we had a whole studio set up in the kitchen for a few hours.

The fifth day was technically our last day as we had to leave pretty early the next day. We started the day with a mission impossible game that turned out to be my all time favorite activity. We got some riddles and every solved riddle earned us small clues or additional tasks. In this case the fastest team who got everything right won. After lunch we spend the whole afternoon in Santiago de Compostela which is the final destination of El Camino. We played a quick game of gymkhana to get to know the city a little bit better and luckily it wasn’t hard to convince a pilgrim to take a selfie with us. Before we went back home our hosts were kind enough to buy everyone an adorable souvenir bracelet.

This was my first Erasmus experience and I did not regret applying as it was very interesting to learn about other cultures and make international friends which is something I thought I would never be able to do. It not only expanded my knowledge on sustainability but it also greatly improved my social skills. I’m grateful to have been part of this exchange!

Gorincsek Petra (Anonym)