Romania
1. Difference and Identity. 11-17 August 2003, Bucharest, Romania
The ''Difference and Identity'' meeting was centred upon the interrelated concepts of personal identity-national identity-European identity in the attempt to overcome mental barriers of prejudices and stereotypes and to develop an unbiased way in which different cultures can co-exist in a climate of mutual acceptance and respect in Europe.
The group that gathered in Bucharest found hard in the beginning to approach subjects of discussion as political situation in the Balkans, the ethnic and religious conflicts, stereotypes. Switching to a programme that insisted first on more knowledge of participants one about other, and setting up a very comfortable and intimate atmosphere in the group they managed to attack more sensitive problems such as situation in ex-Yugoslavia, Macedonian-Albanian, Bulgarian-Romanian stereotypes and relations. The group found its own dynamic and accomplished the tasks of the meeting, established an active network, and most of the participants started local initiatives in their own NGOs and communities.
2. Young in Europe. 17.11-1.12. 2003, Bucharest, Romania
Concept and idea
In today’s Europe one can find different ways of being young. „The situation” is determined by various factors, first and most important being human uniqueness, but as well: place of birth, family and community, socitey and culture in terms of nationality, traditions, state and its political organisation, pop culture, access to information, the personal awareness and interest in different phenomenons. A youngster behaves according to all these coordinates. Different dichotomies appear when one thinks to Europe: East vs. West, rural vs. urban, traditional vs. new pop culture.
Interested or not in the process of creation of a European identity youngsters are affected by it, as well as they are affected by their background and community. A set of values in today’s Europe comes in conflict and most of the times we come to speak about different identities or facests of identity: personal, national, European are just few common examples.
Acknowledging all these Baraka initiated a project starting from the question: ''who am I?'' and going further to ''what is identity and which is my own construct as a youngster in Europe today?''. The project consisted in a 14 day conference for 46 youngsters from 7 European countries that approached and confronted participants with the aboved mentioned questions and topics using non-formal ways of work and expression. The outcome of the conference was a theatre presentation, entitled ''Shadows of Identity'', result of the work within the two weeks, under the coordination of an international team trainers and youth workers.
''I liked very much the moment after the performance when we all were hugging each other and could feel how much we have grown together.''
''Towards the end of the whole thing I started to feel as if all these people I have never seen before were my family.''
''I really enjoyed it, especially the communication between people and exploration of each other.''
From participants evaluation
Young in Europe was realized by Baraka social cultural association in cooperation with:
Community Arts Berlin (Germany)
Cooperazione Internazionale Sud-Sud Napoli (Italy)
Youth Alliance (Macedonia)
Youth Forum Eye (Macedonia)
Association IZVOR (Bulgaria)
OKC (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Youth National Forum (Slovenia)
Young in Europe was realized with the financial support of the European Commission.
The European Commission is not responsible for the content of project.
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