Youth exchange in Germany – who was there?
In September 2015 it was signed a Partnership Agreement between the District of Lippe (Germany) and Lutsk. And in August 2016, both partners in cooperation with other European cities organized the youth exchange "European dream - vision and reality" held in the administrative center of the District of Lippe – the city of Detmold, 5-13 August. The event attracted 48 participants from all Europe: Savonlinna (Finland), Sent-Omer (France), Haselt (Belgium), Oreokastro (Greece), Verona (Italy) and partner-cities of the District of Lippe - Kaunas (Lithuania), Chodzież (Poland), Lutsk (Ukraine). Lutsk was represented by pupils of the specialized school №1 Olexandra Kolykhan and Maxym Nawrotskyi, the pupil of the school № 18 Alina Savaryn, and the pupil of the specialized school № 5 Vladyslav Zubach, who won in the open competition conducted by Lutsk City Council. The delegation was accompanied by the chief specialist of International cooperation and project activities department Iryna Kulesha.
Within the youth exchange participants learnt about the history of the EU, its institutions, had an opportunity to communicate in English with the experts on the core values of European integration, freedom of speech and intercultural aspects. In addition, young people visited the University of Bielefeld, learnt about its educational offers and participated in the guided tour around the institution. After all the participants of exchange visited the employment office in Detmold and passed the test for career guidance.
Not the less interesting point of the programme became the visit of the Islamic Cultural Center, where his founder spoke about the activities of the center, peculiarities of Islam and stressed that today Koran is often interpreted incorrectly.
Other interesting events of the programme were the creative workshops during which young people played "Romeo and Juliet" and created the tree of friendship that was decorated by plates, brought by the participants from their countries or made during the workshops. Young refugees from Afghanistan and Syria living in Germany without their parents, far away from home joined these workshops as well.
The intense week ended with the visit to the Administration of the district of Lippe and Detmold City Council where the participants of youth exchange had a chance to present the results of the productively spent time.
Everyone returned home full of impressions, experience, established new contacts and drew the conclusions for the future. We believe that this project will become the basis for the future development and the working out of new youth initiatives between Lutsk and its partners.
