Date: 24-5-2022 - 02-06-2022
Venue: Viesu Nams “Vecmuiza”
Location: Vecmuiza, Liepupes, Latvia
Brief Description of the Youth Exchange
Culture takes diverse forms across time and space. This diversity is embodied in the uniqueness and plurality of the identities of the groups and societies making up humankind. As a source of exchange, innovation and creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature. In this sense, it is the common heritage of humanity and should be recognised and affirmed for the benefit of present and future generations.” Article 1 UNSECO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity.
For a society to become really intercultural, every social group must be able to live in the conditions of equality regardless of their culture, lifestyle or origin. This means reconsidering not only how we interact with cultures which seem strange to our own, but also how we interact with minorities who face many forms of intolerance and discrimination. Intercultural education is one of the main tools we have nowadays to help us take advantage of the opportunities offered by multicultural societies.
Lack of intercultural understanding often leads to racial discrimination, intolerance, denigration and violence locally and globally. The nowadays conflicts in the world are sad illustrations of the problems that can arise from an inability to respect and live with other cultures. Intercultural education is also an effective way of addressing the modern phenomena of racism and racial discrimination and intolerance.
Goals and Methods
With the youth exchange "Beyond Borders' Youth Camp" we aimed to gather together youngsters from different cultures, backgrounds as we believe that young people are the ground of the community we live in. We believe that this project will help to change attitudes and behaviours of young people towards diversity and discrimination and encourage adults to recognize the value that young people’s contributions bring to society at local, national and international levels. Through the exchange, the participants understood that their differences are enriched for all of them, and that all of them are part of the common idea of European Identity.
The objectives of the youth exchange was:
- To enable young people to learn more about their own culture, to deepen their cultural roots and to reaffirm their identity
- To support the development of their common European identity.
- To promote the EU values and cooperation under the Erasmus+ scheme
- To inspire local youth to be engaged in similar youth activities and to learn about Erasmus+ programme.
- To develop creative thinking, soft skills, of youngsters and youth leaders.
Beyond Borders Youth Camp, Erasmus+ youth exchange - 2019-3-LV02-KA105-003006
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