My grandmother used to say: “When people invite you to the table, don’t go under the table, because there could be some tasty things up there. Take advantage of opportunities in life”.
This became my life principle: ALWAYS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OPPORTUNITIES… And this is how I joined the wonderful TC “EUROIMPACT”, taking place in UK near the lovely city of Newcastle. The project was hosted by the British organization “Opportunity UK” and the partner organization from Moldova was “INVENTO”.
From Moldova, 3 participants joined the adventure: Catalina, Eugenia and me. All of us involved a lot in the TC’s activities and also had some good inputs. We had a wonderful experience with a variety of activities, which were combined in a very logical way: starting with teambuilding exercises, icebreaking games, discussions about ERASMUS+ opportunities; going through more concrete subjects like: impact of international projects, tools for measuring impact, logical framework matrix, case studies, etc. We made a lot of assessment, feedback and reflection, which was very useful.
Later in the week we had to get out of our comfort zone and to organize a challenge in a public place – this was our communication campaign. People from 8 countries mixed to come up with brilliant ideas. It was unbelievable how much creativity was there.
Of course one of the activities was the Intercultural night. It was so much fun and knowledge about various cultures, international habits and stereotypes.
I personally think this kind of projects can ensure a better future, because (as a smart politician once said) “If we make friends all over the world, there are fewer chances to drop bombs in the future on foreign countries…”
Me personally, I look forward for the summer, when our NGO “Filocalia” organizes the summer camp for our 40 new and old volunteers and I will have the opportunity to share (as a trainer) all I have learned in this beginning of spring during the TC in UK. Thanks for this unforgettable experience to everyone involved!
Text by Corina Ershov