Implementation Cyprus

ACT FOR CHANGES - took place in Pedoulas village in Cyprus from 21 to 27 June 2021 and was implemented by ACPELIA organization. The Project Manager was Nikolas Nikolaou and the trainers were Elene Kapanadze, Salome Kurdadze and Erma Georgiou. Project gathers together 32 participant form 7 countries: Georgia, Cyprus, Portugal, Armenia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Belarus.

The activities that were implemented were the below:

22.05.2021- Day 1

main topic: Get to know each other, team building and team dynamic.

I session: Opening session - GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER:

• First day start with introduction of program and present trainers. In this session participant got information on hotels' rules and some emergency issues.
• Activities to encourage the getting know of all the participants:
• Name, Surname, and one important fact about me: participants, on the cercal are saying Name and Surname and funny or important fact.
• Participants are taking paper tap and one pen. They have to draw as many lines as there are letters in the name and start walking in open space. They need to find the letter of their own name in another person's name and make up a personal name to stick on the shirt.
• ID card : participant have to make personal ID cart with the required information : Name and Surname, Age, Country, working place and hobbies. They need to paint on the paper and after they are sharing this information in pairs. After this exercise, they are putting this ID cards on the wall and participant ID cards turn to the "mail box" for letters.
• The session finished - Name and action - participants have to say name and make an action and everybody needs to repeat. Each subsequent participant repeats the names and actions of the previous participants and last participant repeats every participants names and actions.

II session - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

Idea behind this activity is that teams discover that they can work together instead of compete against each other.

Tasks for mission impossible:

III session - Open space with four corner

Every corner have one responsible person to provide participants with information specifically on this corner. Youngsters will be divided into 4 groups and each of the group will go to each corner. after a short while they will be changed.

• Expectations, Fears, Contribution - participants reflects on their role in the project and their personal feelings connected to it.
• Project aim and objectives and what will be during the training week day by day.
• Knowing me knowing you-Participants will be provided with a flipchart where they will draw their hand on the flip chart and in all fingers they will write something about their self.
• Tell us one message.

IV session - Team Building Activity

Exploring village. Participants will be divided into 2 group, each group have 8-9 task to explore the village.

Tasks in Pedoulas village :

Task 1

You must find the most ancient church of Pedoulas, to name it and also to have one photo of the church with all the group with name

Task 2

In the village there is a church on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Which church is can you discover it? If yes, we need another one photo of the group with the name

Task 3

There is a point of view in the village. Where is it? Can you find it? Go there and take a photo of the view from this point

Task 4

We are leaving in a lovely hotel but there is one hotel which is much more expensive What is the most expensive hotel in Pedoulas? What is the history of this hotel? Can we have a photo of the hotel?

Task 5

Also, Pedoulas is growing and there are some restaurants in it. Can you discover the newest restaurant in the village?

Tasks 6

What is the main church of the village? Can you find it? (there are a lot of churches and small churches in the village but we want the main one. A photo of th group in the church is a must for our tasks

Task 7

Is there a police service in the village? Where is it? Can you find a policeman there? What is the name of the police officer?

Task 8

The small church of 25 meters Stavros is located on the west hill of the village; find it and have soe photos of Stavros with your group and the view from there Difficult task but you can see STAVROS from anywhere in the village the task is to go there for the photo

Task 9

Each village has a community council and community council's offices. Find the offices of the village community council and learn which is the name of the president of the community council. If you are lucky maybe you will also find the president to have a photo with him as a group

Task 10

There is one bank in the village, is the village bank open daily? If not opening daily which days is opened?

Task 11

What is the hotel of the community with the largest capacity? When was it first built?

Task 12

In the village there is an environmental center which before it was a primary school. You have t find where is it and have a photo of the place to prove it (Task 12) that your group was there.

Task 13

There are 2 small museums in the village. Are they open? What is the object of the two museums of the village?

Task 14

There is a Monument to Michael Stavros by Pedoulas in the village. Where is it? Who was it and what he has done to have a monument?

Task 15

Is there a hospital in the village?

Task 16

What is the most popular fruit of the village? Can you find some of these fruits for photo? 

23.05.2021- Day 2

main topic: Discrimination and Tolerance, stereotypes, local realities in that issues.

I session: Take a step forward

We are all equal, but some are more equal than others. In this activity participants take on roles and move forward depending on their chances and opportunities in life. In this activity there were different situations coherent with discrimination, human rights, entrepreneurship and society, where each participant randomly took a role. At first, they were all in a line and then, when the trainer was reading a question. if the answer was positive, the participant would make a step forward, otherwise he would stay in his position.

Objectives:

• To raise awareness about inequality of opportunity

• To develop imagination and critical thinking

• To foster empathy with others who are less fortunate

II session: What is Discrimination?

Session started with individual work on question- what is Discrimination for me? After individual thinking, participants are discussing on this issue in pair, next pair to pair and finally discussion going to go in two group. Each group have to analyze and finalize what is discrimination for group.

Last exercise for each group is to make one sentence and Logo on what is discrimination for us.

After working in a big group, they need to present "one sentence and Logo" and explain for other participant why and what are they thinking about Discrimination.

The last part was focused theoretical input by Trainer. The issues was Discrimination, forms of discrimination, Non-discrimination and tolerance. Presentation included the videos , Which showed the content of the forms of discrimination.

III session - IV session: Discovering Local Realities

Work continued on the third and fourth sessions in national groups. Each national group have to make newspaper with their local realities - they have to paint, write, use magazines to show us the local situation in the field of Discrimination.

After the working on newspaper, each national group present and discussed with the other participants (Q&A) on this topic - everybody shoved the others "what is real local reality in that field".

24.05.2021- Day 3

main topic: Mechanisms, instruments and institutions for social inclusion. start thinking on youth participation, meeting with representative of local NGO in Nicosia. Visiting in Nicosia (free time)

I session - Mechanisms, instruments and institutions for social inclusion.

The first session of the third working day start with brainstorming on What/Which instruments are for protection of Human Rights local, national and international level.

After the brainstorming trainer started presentation on (included videos):

• Council of Europe;

• European court of human rights;

• Charters and recommendations;

• Erasmus+ as a opportunity to promote and spread information in young people;

• No Hate Speech Movement campaign - as a good example to protect humans rights in online, which was implemented by youth (example for youth participation).

After first session, participants of ACT FOR CHANGES went in Nicosia and met the representative of local NGO in Nicosia. The main topic was youth participation in Cyrus and in Nicosia.

Guest speaker discussed with participants on the:

• Environmental problems in Cyprus
• Youth participation in the process against COVID-19
• Youth participation municipal level
• Government for youth people

After this meeting, participants had a free time to visit in Nicosia, to got familiar with architects, people and cultures of Nicosia. Participants had the opportunity to see the border located in the city center. 

25.05.2021- Day 4

main topic: youth participation, forms of youth participation, activism.

I session- youth participation

where we are standing in the community - trainer made activity "where do you stand ". In this discussion activity people literally stand up for their opinions.

Participant have to choose answer between 2 poster - one saying, "I agree" and the other saying, "I disagree" with that people can form a straight line between them. This activity was customized on the youth participation and statement was changed for this topic. The trainer used 10 statement and participants thought about and chose the answer. They had an arguments to solidify the answer.

The session finished with presentation on youth participation and Roger Hurt's ladder of participation.

II session- what is activism?

The session started the brainstorming on what is activism? Participants start thinking and brainstorm on activism. after this action, group divided in 8 group and each group had a topic to work on it.

Working topics was a eight form of activism. each group had one topic and they have to write down answer on "what this topic include for you ? ".

Topics for group work:

• ECONOMIC activism
• ENVIROMENTAL activism
• POLITICAL activism
• SOCIAL activism
• CULTURAL activism
• DIGITAL activism
• NEGATIVE activism
• PEACFUL

And the end of the session each group had a time for the presentation of the paper. Final part took trainer and made theoretical input - presentation and videos of activism. also, Cypriots present one campaign which was a example of environmental activism by young people.

III session - IV session:Follow up

Project include follow up action between Cyprus part of project and Georgian part of project. Each participant (personal, group or pair ) need to do activity in own country or city...

Session started with explanation of follow up form. For include some question :

• NAME, SURNAME, COUNTRY, CITY
• NAME OF ACTIVITY
• ACTIVITY TOPIC(S): Please, describe the topic(s) of your activity
• AIM AND GOALS OF ACTIVITY: please, describe the AIM of the activity and write three or four main GOAL of the activity
• DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITY: What specific activity do you plan to implement / describe, the ways of implementation
• WHEN AND WHERE WILL YOU IMPLEMENT THE ACTIVITY: Please write the time interval and place (city, village) where do you plan the implementation of activity?
• EXPECTED RESULTS OF THE ACTIVITY

The next step was to develop the idea of follow up and made a poster showing the content and themes of the activity. They had a time to prepare poster of activity.

In open space was arranged exhibition of activity posters. All participants had the opportunity to submit their work, as well as get acquainted with the ideas of the other participants and asked questions about the activity. 

25.05.2021- Day 4

main topic: future plans and cooperation with mentors, trip in Caledonia Nature Trail, evaluation.

I session- Future plans and working with mentor

On the session, participants had a small introduction on mentoring and mentoring process. Every activity will be under the control from the mentors. One mentor have responsibility for two countries. Mentors will have a position to support the participant and help them to make the follow up activity.

The participants worked with mentor in a group and they agreed on working methods, deadlines, group and personal online meetings, discussed on challenging issues and after, each mentor presented their decision.

II session - evaluation of the training

Open space - what I learn? What I like ? what can be improved? What I expect from ACT FOR CHANGES II (Georgian part). Every participant had a opportunity to writ the answer on small paper and share information on the flipchart.

Second part of the evaluation was form of evaluation. Participants got the form of evaluation with different topics and they had a time till the end of the day to complete it. 

III session - IV session - trip in Caledonia Nature Trail.

Trip was organized by Cypriot participants. The Safety norms were observed as much as possible during the trip. Also, participants cleaned full way of Caledonia trail. The cleaning activity was organized by the participants.

The last activity of the day and also, of the training was a Ceremonial handover of Youthpass.