March 2020

Volume 19

 Mid-term training MID-TERM TRAINING  Presentation on Loesje posters From 12th to 15th of March solidarity corps volunteers from , and  Cleaning day went to the mid-term training in Bakuriani organized by Salto Youth (EECA).  Animal game The mid-term evaluation allows volunteers to assess their experience so far and to  Online reflect on the activities, role and support of the Host Organisation and on their own courses contribution. The mid-term evaluation is essential for risk prevention and crisis  Upcycling management and it thus facilitates conflict resolution — if necessary! In addition, workshop volunteers share positive experiences and increase their motivation. The evaluation provided the opportunity to learn from everybody’s ‘ESC story’ and enables the volunteers to plan developments and/or further improvements in their service and to think about what they will do in the longer term, once their period of service is over. The evaluation should also raised awareness of the personal learning process, linking it to the key competences of the Youthpass. Overall, the mid-term evaluation should offer a relaxed and informal atmosphere so the volunteers feel comfortable sharing experiences and saying whatever is important for them. Although the volunteers had very serious reflection sessions during the day, in the evening they had a lot of bonding time. An informal communication with each other is also very important - it helps with sharing various event, activity ideas, tips and experiences. Erika Lithuanian volunteer: “It was really reassuring and wonderful to see the faces of my colleagues from the on-arrival training. Since it has been more than 6 months of me staying here, I didn’t feel nervous about reflection sessions, I was actually looking forward to them. We covered a lot of topics, even the ones that I didn’t expect. We talked a lot about what we did, what key competences we learned and what are our future plans. I didn’t expect us to work on our life after ESC in such detail. But it helped a lot, it seems that there is less confusion. What I’m really glad we worked on is putting our gained key competences and skills into clear, short sentences. I knew that I learned a lot in my ESC project, but it was really hard to say what exactly. So in general, I’m really grateful to our trainors and all the volunteers who made this learning experience really delightful.“

2

Short presentation about making Loesje posters

In the middle of February GYE office was presented Loesje writing technic for people who didn't have information about it. Loesje Georgian activist tried to talked about the history of Loesje creation, what are the main principles of it, achievements and the goal. After that we had workshop and we tried to teach the participants how to write Loesje posters and what the main structure looks like. Participant of the meeting had really creative minds, together they wrote and chose best posters about different topics, such as tolerance, racism, sexism, integration and so on. Due to coronavirus pandemic we have to stay home and distance ourselves from society. But latter we will prin out the posters and spread them out throughout Rustavi for all to see. Loesje activist Tinatin Dadunshvili „On GYE fb page me and Coordinator Nana from the office posted information about upcoming event. Frankly speaking many of users were interested in it. It gave me more motivation. I made presentation and planned to have a workshop too. In December I was in where I had a possibility to have the Loesje creative writing training and a workshop and tried to apply my knowledge and experience for GYE volunteers and other participants“.

3

Cleaning day

At the beginning of March GYE office volunteers together with some local citizens organized another Cleaning day! We were cleaning a park in front of the office. Even though it was cleaning day number 11 and we always clean the same park, we found the same amount of trash (if not more) as last time all throughout this park. It is extremely obvious now that there is some more work that needs to be done. The target should become the people and their persuasion to care more for their environment and not the trash itself. If we would be even a little bit successful in raising environmental awareness, the results would probably last longer than just picking up the trash. If we eliminate the source of the problem, the problem itself will decrease. So let’s be conscious of our everyday actions and lifestyle, let’s put in effort that does not cost anything. Let’s clean together next time!

Animal game

On the 10th of March we had another fun event called “Animal game”! This game is played when everybody sits in a circle and one person is in the middle. Everybody chooses what animal they want to be and then shows their sign. The key is to remember all signs and send signals so that the hunter (a person is the middle) will not catch you. This game is one of the stables in GYE office life. It is played without any words, but somehow everyone always ends up laughing. That’s why we wanted to share it with as many people as possible. Many youth came interested in what is this game. With the help of this event we attracted more youth people and most of them are recently involved in a lot of other activities.

4

Online courses

In these difficult times of social distancing and quarantine, GYE members were still here to support youngsters in their learning process and offer some activities. Since the middle of March we have been doing online meetings in which we taught Spanish and English. Here is our ESC volunteer feedback about her lessons:

Hanna Polish volunteer: “The quarantine can be really boring, but at least we can keep on working online... and there has never been so much time for studying languages! I keep leading the GYE Spanish club online. We have also opened a new online group 'Spanish for beginners'. The new classes aroused really big interest, I have students from all around Georgia. People are very motivated to learn Spanish and I must say they are super fast learners. It is really satysfying to see how fast they are making progress!“

Up - cycling workshop

Environment has been a very important topic of GYE. We hosted an up cycling event. Upcycling, also known as creative reuse, is the process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products of better quality and environmental value. Designers have begun to use both industrial textile waste and existing clothing as the base material for creating new fashions. The participants of this event used unwanted and letfover clothes from „Swap shop events“ events and a metal carcass from a broken chair. By tearing up the clothes into thin strips, braiding them together and tightly wraping around the chair frame, we ressurected broken chairs to new life. We also thought of a way how to turn a broken guitar into a shelf. All we needed to do was breaking off the front part of this guitar, add some shelves inside, paint and decorate it - and here we have an interesting- looking item that did not have to go to waste and can serve some purpose.

Georgian Youth for Europe

Batumi Street 22 Rustavi 3700 Georgia

[email protected] You are 14 – 30 years old, you are interested www.gye.ge in leading a club or participating in our workshops? Youtube: If so, come and register to be a GYE member. GeorgianYouthForEurope Contact: [email protected] EVS Blog www.evsrustavi.blogspot.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/geo

rgian_youth_for_europe/

Bulldozer Editors: March 2020

Nana Nikabadze Goda Knyvaitė Erika Doraitė

Hanna Kochanska

https://www.facebook.com/GeorgianYouthForEurope/

ASSOCIATION “GEORGIAN YOUTH FOR EUROPE” Georgian Youth for Europe is a non-governmental organization that was established on the 25th of December 2006. The organization is based in Rustavi City, in the Kvemo Kartli Region of Eastern Georgia. GYE promotes learning through peer- education training and workshops on art and management; healthy lifestyles by organizing outdoor activities, hobby clubs, first aid courses; democratic principles by offering workshops on human rights; environmentally-conscious behavior by raising public awareness about environmental issues through yard clean-up campaigns, after-school programs on environmental problems.