(This is an old post dated March, 2020)

I had participated in a short term EVS in Romania before, and that’s when I decided to take part in a Youth Exchange project as well. When I was searching for exchange opportunities I found this beautiful one. As I read the infopack I understood clearly that I am very much interested in its topic “bullying”. I think it is a very big problem all over the world – so many youngsters face it in their lives…

The project took place in the wonderful city of Barcelona and was hosted by YouthBCN organization. On the first days we worked on finding the best ways to raise awareness of bullying. We decided to use theatre and filming methods for it. We created mix-cultured groups to work together with people from various backgrounds, opinions, experiences. The main goal was to make short films introducing the negative consequences and the importance of bullying. At the end of the project we watched all together the short films made by the groups and voted for awards. My team won best sound mixing award.

The video that was elected as “the best” was the real story of Elia. During his childhood he faced bullying and in the video, their team explained and shew how it happened, and how he could get over it and be happy again. It was a very honest, deep, detailed and emotional video. I think that real stories make people/viewers connect better and feel and understand the situation of the abused ones.

I believe that these kind of projects have a huge effect on participants’ personalities, improve young people a lot and make them more respectful and tolerant. So I suggest everyone to take part in a youth exchange at least once in their lives. Erasmus+ projects are life changing.