Chronicle

You Play

from 05.11 to 05. 11. 2021

 When this year's summer camp was over, we decided that we wanted to enjoy the beautiful summer weather at our campsite a bit more this year and we managed to organize one more project there before the holidays ended. The youth exchange "You(th) Play" brought together young people from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia and the topic - as is obvious from the name - were games. Our aim was to find out, how much we can learn about each other and about the world around us by playing games. And I must say that it was definitely a lot. We also enjoyed two outdoor games at night and an adventurous game that helped us to get to know the town of Tábor. At the end of the project, we were supposed to create our own games, which was a challenging task, but we had a lot of fun fulfilling it.

You can see photos from the gallery HERE.

Mája

Summer Camp Adventure

from 05.11 to 05. 11. 2021

 This year's summer camp was very successful. We had quite a high number of children and thanks to an Erasmus+ project "Summer Camp Adventure", we could also welcome foreign leaders - this year from Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey. During the 14 days, the children were travelling around the world, visiting various countries, getting to know new cultures and also a little bit of political systems. The children will for sure never forget the visit to North Corea. Besides that, we also took part in a Brazilian carnival, fought with the Russian mafia and learned to create origami in China. In the second week, we also visited the town of Český Krumlov - we visited the gardens next to the chateaux and had lunch right at the castle. Because a professional filmmaker joined us this year, we are happy to have also our first summer camp video.

You can check out photos from the camp here and the video here.

You can see photos from the gallery HERE.

Lukáš (Dum)

The Long Way to Europe

from 05.11 to 05. 11. 2021

The second weekend in May, representatives of our organization took part in an international training under the Erasmus+ project "The Long Way to Europe". This time the meeting took place in Krakow, because this place is in many ways connected to antisemitism and holocaust. 28 participants from eight countries got the opportunity to visit Schindler's factory (famous thanks to the Spielberg's movie Schindler's List) and also the most famous concentration camp Auschwitz. The training ended by organizing a street debate in the streets of Krakow, which motivated the participants to be more active in the society when they come home.

You can see photos from the gallery HERE.

Lukáš (Dum)

Training course "Games for Change"

from 05.11 to 05. 11. 2021

 In the first week of February we organized a training course for youth workers named "Games for Change" in Říčany, Czech Republic. The participants had a great opportunity to learn to use games as a method in non-formal education and also as a tool for spreading tolerance and inclusion. People from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Latvia, Estonia, Spain and Turkey took part in the project. After the theoretical part of the project and a half-day excursion to Prague, which everybody enjoyed quite a lot, the participants got the chance to put into practice what they learned and create their own educational game. And the results were very interesting - besides using the knowledge and skills they gained during the project, they also used a lot of their own creativity and originality. The project brought together a group of great people enthusiastic about games and so we spent most of the free time playing board as well as non-board games and we had a lot of fun and gained new contacts as well as good friends.

Photos from the project are in the gallery.

Mája

Erasmus+ project "Digital Youth"

from 05.11 to 05. 11. 2021

 In October 2017, we organized our first international project outside of the Czech Republic. Between 11th and 19th October we met in a Turkish town of Patara with more than 30 people from Greece, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey and Latvia, who work with young people and want to broaden their horizons in this area. This time the topic of the training was using audiovisual technologies as a tool for making young people more interested in other cultures and make them more tolerant towards people who are different. During the first days the participants discussed about intercultural learning and youth work and at the same time learned to use a camera and shoot and edit videos. At the end they split into groups and created five original short movies that somehow address the topic of intercultural diversity. And because everybody worked hard and with a lot of enthusiasm, we also had the time to explore Turkish nature and culture - we visited a traditional bazar, a ruin of ancient parliament and on the last day we went canoeing. We are now enriched by new experiences, but also new friendships and common plans for the future.

You can see the movies frome the project here.

For photos, check out the gallery.

Mája

Summer camp

from 05.11 to 05. 11. 2021

 This year, our summer camp was a bit of an experiment, since we had made two significant changes in the way of organization. The first one was joining the two terms (for younger and older kids) into one. The second change was taking the international side of our camp to the next level by connecting it with a youth exchange under Erasmus+ programme, which was called "Summer camp adventure". This way, we could use the help and enthusiasm of 18 young leaders from the Czech republic, Slovakia and Spain. They were accommodated in the two cabins on the other side of the river and their main programme was exploring what being a youth worker/camp leader is about, what it is like to organize games and activities for children, but also taking care of themselves, cooking their own dinner, etc. It was a great opportunity for them to experience life in the middle of the Czech countryside, learn to canoe (God knows it wasn't easy), etc. During the camp we also organized a trip to Tábor, where the kids as well as the foreign leaders could explore the historical sights and Czech culture and then challenge themselves a little bit by walking back to the campsite. As a reward, they organized for the children Spanish and Slovakian evenings, in which they introduced to them their food, music, languages... On one rainy day we also had a movie marathon of animated movies. For next year, we have this project already approved, this time we will host also young people from Finland and Italy. 

You can find all the pictures from the project here.

And some of them also in the gallery.

Mája