Youth Exchange with Georgia ended successful

«Prejudices Visual Catalogue»

Zugdidi, 03.10.16-05.10.16

On the 3 of October 12 German children have come to sunny Georgia in order to participate with Georgian students in the project – «Prejudices Visual Catalogue».

Yesterday the German participants arrived back in Germany, tired but more than happy. It was an exciting time with intensive contact to the Georgian partners. A time with lots of conversations and workshops, joint experiences with the exchange partners and the local people in general. And in passing a lot of friendships developed.

The idea that young people meet far away from prejudices could be realised and was a big success.

We give thanks for all the hospitality to our Georgian friends and are excited for them to visit us in the Easter holidays of 2017! 🙂

The main topic of this project is “discrimination” – different types of discrimination and ways of fighting with it. Furthermore, “tolerance” is also in the scope of «Prejudices Visual Catalogue» – to be exact, what the definition of this word and how we can learn to be tolerant.

The first two days were devoted to acquaintance and development of communication rules. Besides that, from a group of children that didn’t know each other, a dream team was created. All that’s only happened due to the Georgian coach Laliy, who prepared a vast number of games, which were contributing to deeper understanding, team spirit and support of each other. If there is a team – it is much easier to dip into such theme as discrimination and tolerance. The days after that the topics were a bit more serious. Of course, it was still learning in a playful way, but this time the focus was not on getting to know each other but on learning new things about discrimination and tolerance.

Undoubtedly, these questions are difficult and topical at the same time, and presented by games with various interactive elements, creative tasks and other amusement activities. One of the most important things in this project is that children will learn how to listen and understand each other, even though they have to speak in three languages – Russian, German and Georgian.

Moreover, they made a trip to the sea – in order to have a rest and relax. In Georgia it was about 30 degrees at that time, and, in additionto that there were ripe persimmons and feijoa, friendly people and a bunch of tasty traditional food!

Photos: Elena Pagel.

Recall that the project «Prejudices Visual Catalogue» is sponsored by fund EVZ in the framework of program EUROPEANS FOR PEACE. German partners are «Kultur Aktiv» and «Kolibri» from Dresden, and from Georgia – natural-scientific Gurtskaya Gymnazium and «Mercuri» from Zugdidi.