You can see, but do you understand?

25-31 October

Berlin, Germany

"You can see, but do you understand?"

Acive is going to do something that we have not done before! Next seminar will be organised in cooperation with visually impaired and blind people - even the application and program was written in cooperation. But why?

Quite often people do not know how to behave with disabled people, as they have no experience before. In most of the European countires, lack of experience and knowledge is the result of certain social systems that bring togehter the people with same disability and quite often these people do not feel confortable to leave this group to be randomly also a part of an average social group of young people. Additionaly, the prejudices are leading to the exclusion, because if a young person do not know how do behave while being in a same group with a disabled person, young people start avoiding this kind of situations. By gaining knowledge and personal experience on the topic of disability in today’s society, or moreover, by making friends with disabled people and vise versa, the prejudices will be decreased and there will be less cases social exclusion of some groups of young people.

Or should I just quote my blind friend...

Me: "Do you think, that you would change anything in your life, if you could see"

My friend: "Actually there's no difference, if I see or not. But it's needed to break the stereotypes personally for every single person - to represent myself as a totally normal person, who has a lot of different qualities and who also, by the way is blind - and to meet with all the people, I do not have time and energy for that.

Want to be in a PREP TEAM?

In the preparation team for the seminar, there will be 6 persons, 3 visually impaired persons and 3 persons from Active member organisations. The first preparation team member has been already chosen, Jürgen from Estonia, who has been a great help while writing the application and finding other cooperative organisations.

If you want to join Jürgen in the prep team, send a motivation letter to office@activeeurope.org

Being in preparation team means following:

• participating a 3-days prep team meeting in September in Sweden
• organising a very specail seminar, opportunity to bring new ideas and to create an unforgettable week for participants
• developing a program, organising the travel and accomodation for participants
• during the seminar being resposible for your tasks and being responsible for the general success of the seminar
• all the travel, accomodation and food costs for prep team are covered 100%

Deadline for motivation letters is the 31th of May

And here's the greeting by Jürgen:)

Today

After final party and a lots of " bye bye" hugs and tears conference room and participants are carrying pitiful sight- It was so sad to say good-bye.
Some left in the night, big group left straight after breakfast, some just woke up, some just went to sleep.
The rest of us, who are going away tomorrow, are brainstorming in groups about design for ACTIVE t-shirts and after lunch will prepare workshops for Norway camp (where we, by the way, all should meet again! And I am not even Petter, who is saying that!)

It was so nice to read the notes we left to each other! I would like to again and again tell you how much I enjoyed your company! You were(ARE) really great people! And I do believe that we can, ou yes WE CAN make big changes in things we don't really want to accept in this world. We all here were extremely high potential personalities- Lets use it in right way- remember, there are two kind of people- one are leading world, and other are running near by and shouting" were does this world lead to?"- in which category are you?

HUGS to everybody!
Call me if you are sad- brlbrl, laugh- free of charge-24hours 7days a week:)


Yours Sincerely,
Kristīne

Final day

Today was the final, ordinary day of the seminar. We started the day by reflecting what we had got from the seminar. This resulted in the quiz and several interesting performances. After several more evaluations we started the farewell party by watching pictures, we also got to know our secret friends which lead to many surprises. The participants recieved diplomas and the participants from the prep team gifts from the participants. And all agreed that it had been a wonderful seminar.

Stian aka "that guy" - Norway

Last day ...

Last day last day das last forever

Evaluation all day
Party all night

Free hugs for everyone and cookies on the table
What more to wish for?
Maybe that it really would last for at least one week more!

Motivated people
Motivated members in my organisation
a feeling that we can do it!

Planning for when we can meet next in Macedonia ofcourse!

Happy 3,14 day!

By Emma - Sweden/Macedonia

12th of March

It was a loooooong , full of fun, but also quite tiring day for us.We danced alot, blowed balloons alot, huged alot, singed alot, ran alot, jumped alot, drew alot, interwieved SOME, took photos alot, smiled alot, felt the cold alot,got attention alot , played games alot, laughed alot, got fresh air alot,got famous in Bratislava alot, did not sleep alot, finally got potatoes alot. Although we were so tired as we went to beds to sleep, we all were soooo happy and satisfied because of having such a productive day and participating to change the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glny4jSciVI

We Are The World

There comes a time
When we head a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all

We can't go on
Pretneding day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of
God's great big family
And the truth, you know love is all we need

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

Send them your heart
So they'll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

When you're down and out
There seems no hope at all
But if you just believe
There's no way we can fall
Well, well, well, well, let us realize
That a change will only come
When we stand together as one

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

Undina and Fatih ( From Latvia and Turkey)

Bratislava streetaction!!!

Today, after few hours of preparation, 50 crazy and sober people went to the city center of Bratislava and things started to happen.

It's too difficult to put it into the words, therefore it will be in photos:)

FREE YOUR MIND!!!




Patrick (Slovakia)



Kristine (Latvia) & Bledi (Albania)



Preparing the traditional dances

Ballons with human rights

Kristina (Slovakia) & Bledi (Macedonia)

Janika (Estonia) & Lazjon (Albania)

Gabriela (Sweden), Max (Germany), Eliina (Estonia), Rosi (Germany)



No drugs, more hugs

Max (Germany) & Hilde (Norway)

People getting ballons with human rights

Traditional dances from different countries

Traditional dances from different countries

Hilde (Norway)

Meelis (Estonia) & Helena (Sweden)

Kristine, you are the sunshine of my life!

From your secret friend who loves you and your contagious Latvian laughter :)

The Active Song

Many participants have heard the Active song for the first time today, so here are the lyrics for further practice:

Come and sit by me
Take my hand carefully
Dream my dream internationally
Make believe the world are we

One hand goes a yard
And twentyfive can't reach as far
As a million people's hands
Throughout the globe in every land

We can break the chain
We can ease somebody's pain
Our fight won't be in vain
And we'll do it again and again
(repeat 3. verse)

Come and sit by me
Take my hand carefully
Dream my dream internationally
Make believe the world are we

Today Pierre Andersson held a lecture on the implications of the alcohol industry's economic activities in developing countries.

Ideas for themes for the street action in Bratislava tomorrow

Happy Estonians

We're Watching You!

In Europe there are several networks and organisations that deal with alcohol policies and who work for the reduction of alcohol-related harm. The alcohol industry is strong, but they can't do whatever they want. If they are crossing a line, there will be repercussions. Because we are watching them.

But what about those parts of the world that do not have a long history of "alcohol culture"? Globalization is not passing them by and particularly developing countries with large populations are an interesting market for the alcohol industry. But they have no protective network to fall back on, no infrastructure of organisations that can have an eye on the moves the western alcohol giants make. And the alcohol industry is shamelessly abusing this by targetting these countries with aggressive marketing strategies.

So maybe it is time for us to start looking a bit further than our own boarders and to expand our networks. The alcohol industry is working hard to maintain a "clean" image in Europe, but on other continents they are breaching all the rules that they continuously claim to play by. And once again those people who are already born with less opportunities than others are the ones who have to suffer. Let's stop this vicious cycle and let the alcohol industry know: We're watching you!

(For further information on this topic watch the 17min documentary "Global Hangover" or go to ADD - Alcohol, Drugs and Development, Global Alcohol Policy Alliance and the WHO.)

A hug from me

Today we were discussing how to free our minds, because then the rest would follow. One idea was to hand out balloons with human rights, another one was to give out free hugs. The great thing about the concept of free hugs is that they are for free, but yet they have a great value. The advantages are that hugs are easy to give, not very time-consuming and it can be so nice. But a hug is a quite intimate action. Not everyone enjoys hugging (pressing their body against another, perhaps unknown, body). This is also a question of culture since some cultures are more huggy than others. To hug is to offer a part of your personality, but also to respect the other person's private space. More hugs to the people!

The impressions from international evenings

Country presentations was one of the interesting activities during the first day. There every country made a short presentation about itself and also gave us the opportunity to taste countries traditional food and snacks. For example we found out that in Island they have 5 different words for snow; that Serbians feed the whole word with raspberries; that Estonians have traditional dish - Kama; that they can dance great in Lithuania and in Turkey and much more.

Diversity rocks!

Photos from the international evening and the "culture day"

This is how every evening ends for some participants

Estonian food was popular
Lazjon from Albania surved trying Estonian national food "KAMA"

Vova from Ukraine in his national clothes (the shirt :) )

What is Macedonia not!

Yes, the people from Turkey, they danced!

And also did Norwegians:)

"Secret friends" were doing a good job!

...also video/photo recorders

"Sharing" new knowledge
"Sharing" new knowledge vol 2

"Cultural differences"

Intercultural dialogue 10.03.2010

Hi sweedy!

My name is Meelis and I come from Estonia. My nickname is Mel, like Mel Gibson but I am known also as Sweet-Beautiful-Lier... "Melman"

I am going to tell you about activity that we had today. Every country had to make up one question to other nationality. Since the topic was Intercultural dialogue our main goal was to develope our assertive behaviour. We learned how to create suitable evironment for asking and answering questions. Some questions were recorded so later could every country answer to certain question that was specifically made to them. I hope that someone puts these videos to youtube too so everyone can think about cultural differences. It was very interesting to discover how many misunderstanding is between different cultures but even more interesting was to find out reasons why people have these prejudices.

That is it for now. Enjoy the life - it is so beautiful!

Meelis Sikk
The King of Massage
+37258006283
meelis.sikk@gmail.com

Tadaaaa! 09.03

Okay, we´re officially the first group to post on this blog, and we must say it´s an honor to be the first to write about our experiences here.

After a yummy breakfast, all the participants found their way to the conference room, where fun was just waiting to explode! After the very entertaining opening ceremony, the prep team suggested that every participant should share their expectations of the seminar, other participants, and the prep team itself. And just seeing how many people want to cooperate and learn more about each other´s culture was an amazing feeling!

Other activities included more name-games (Bulldog!) and a roleplay regarding fake nationalities. Each participant had to pretend his nationality was different, and just by pretending to be someone else – everyone understood their own culture better!
My personal favorite was the “Secret Friend” activity, based on the popular “Secret Santa” game, where each participant had to draw a name from an envelope, and remember that person as their secret friend. They got the mission to make that person feel special, but they would have to be their SECRET friend, they cannot reveal their identity! I cannot wait to do something sweet for my secret friend, and I am also looking forward to seeing what my secret friend will do for me  (Alisa from Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Of all of the activities that we had today, I believe that my favourite one was the “Fake Nationalities” roleplay. My character was a rich Saudi-Arabian man. He did not communicate well with the other participants. This is due to the fact that he would hardly talk to women outside his family at all. As many of the participants are women, the character would not explain his views very well in the discussions.
Another interesting incident of the day was dinner. The reason for this was that there was not enough dinner. I could hardly notice that I had eaten any. Luckily for me, it turned out good in the end. Multiple kind people who were either not having dinner or were only eating parts of it supplied me with the food that I required.
Overall I would say that today has been a great day. (Sveinung from Norway)

First of all i am so pleased to be there. Because we are having good time, learning too much, having lots of friends...I think role play is the best part of the day. At first we learned about another culture then we role like them. It was really different experience for me. Because it was not like as me in my normal lifeWe learned about another culture and have guesses about life of them. (Pinar from Turkey)

I liked all the activities today. The activity I liked the most was “role play”. The only thing I didn`t like was that the “bulldog” was a little too long. Message to the prep team: keep it up (Edvina from Serbia)

It was a very nice day. There were too many new participants that I meet and I hope they will be my friends.Except the bulldog everything else was very good.It is the first day and we had a lot of fun,imagine the following days...(Bledi from Albania)

The Prep team is already there!

Helooo participants!

The prep team is already at the spot, preparing the last things before your arrival. We are glad that the weather is sunny even though the temperature is below 5 degrees. So dont forget to pack everything you need for the marvellous week.

We cant wait to meet you here.

with love

your five sweet fruits :)

Pierre Andersson talking about problems in developing world

My name is Pierre Andersson and I am a journalist and the editor in chief of Accent, a monthly magazine for all the members of Swedish IOGT-NTO.

I'm really looking forward to the Active seminar in Bratislava. I will talk about a subject that I have been working with quite intensely the last couple of years: Alcohol and development. Or the lack of development to be more correct.

In 2007 I wrote a book called Global Hangover about this subject. Last year I completed a short documentary with the same name, hopefully it will be possible to show it to you during the seminar.

Alcohol causes huge problems all over the world, but in developing countries the consequences are often even more serious than in our parts of the world. Combine this with an international alcohol industry that is desperately seeking new markets and we have a recipe for disaster.

See you in Bratislava!
/Pierre

Intercultural learning prevents from global chaos

One part of our seminar will be an expert lecture about cultures, diversities and intercultural learning etc. For that we have invited the expert Mrs. Anna. Here comes a small introduction of her and the topic... (for more visit our seminar :)

Looking at your CV, it is obvious that you have spent a lot of time in studying and giving lectures on the topic of intercultural learning. Why did you choose this field and when did it all start?
For me as a teacher of foreign languages (German and English) the interest in culture came very naturally. As we know, language and culture are interconnected and the study of a foreign language somehow automatically leads to the study of the “target culture”. But in the past decades the cultural element of foreign language teaching and learning has gained on greater importance than ever before: people get in contact with members of different cultures on daily basis. Your organization ACTIVE, your seminars and activities, the internet connections, opportunities to travel, etc are much different from your parents´and grandparents´ opportunities to communicate with the world.
From this standpoint I started to implement more cultural knowledge into the teaching of English for Business (where the knowledge of culture is vital for doing business internationally) and designed courses on Intercultural Communication in Business, in International Tourism and general courses on Culture Studies.

Why do you think is the intercultural learning for youth important?
Living in a multicultural society brings along a lot of challenges that people of your generation will have to face. Global village is the reality already today. To prevent it from becoming a global chaos, it is necessary that as many people as possible get the understanding of cultural diversity and develop positive attitudes toward otherness (tolerance) which I believe are prerequisites of managing future life on this planet.

What do you expect from your lecture at the seminar?
In the seminar I hope to mediate the basic knowledge about how a culture functions and develop some ideas for further considerations and thinking. As the seminar offers a multicultural setting I also expect to learn new things from all participants, to share their views and way of thinking. This will definitely extend my horizon and become a valuable experience.

What are you looking forward to when it comes to your lecture at the seminar?
I look forward to meeting young, active people who are ready to learn in interaction with others. I believe that the seminar will be a mutual enrichment for all of us.