From 25 February to 4 March was held in the town of Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain, the first meeting planned under the project “Peace Bag for EuroMed Youth”, a training seminar and write-shop on peace and intercultural understanding in youth work funded by the Anna Lindh Foundation, in which CESIE is partner with other thirteen countries: Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Romania, Palestine, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey.
The project consists of three phases in which the objectives are to promote intercultural understanding and mutual respect through dialogue, and at the same time to develop skills and expertise to work for peace among young people. The ultimate goal is to build a toolkit useful for all partners of the Euro-Mediterranean region to improve intercultural understanding and conflict transformation in youth. Participants were introduced to the work of the organizations, they exchanged good practices, they deepened in the theoretical and practical concepts of peace and intercultural dialogue and they used the facilities of the venue to do many outdoor activities related to youth work. During the days of the meeting it has also been developed an intercultural coexistence, very interesting for their social experience. Furthermore, the President of the region of Catalonia has received in official ceremony the whole project group in the Parliament located in Barcelona.
The second phase of the project, where partners are required to test the dynamics learnt in Spain in their local activities, is now in progress. A working team has been formed to write the final document that will serve as a tool for all partners and that will be translated to all languages of the partnership.
Now the project involves an evaluation meeting to be held in Alexandria (Egypt), where the toolkit and the partnership will be consolidated.
For further information: jorge.carbajal@cesie.org
