The Exchange
Here you can find all the activities done during the exchange, all the people who intervened, all the workshops which took place.
We started the day with an energizer that involved putting clothes pegs on each other. Playing is a wonderful way to break the ice and get closer to someone without the need of using words.
Since we didn’t really know each other and the others' countries we started by setting things down. The Portuguese group, from Viana-Do-Castelo, showed their kindness and happiness by sharing a song for us. We could feel their experience in youth exchanges. The presentation from the Spanish group was really well-made and made us all want to go to Arguedas. The Basque group gave an insight on their not well-known culture and the complex political situation of the area.
After lunch, each groups held a presentation they had prepared in advance. The presentations had the goal to make everyone aware of the minor migrants that came to Europe and specially in Portugal, Spain and France.
In the end all the groups seemed to understand more about the situation in their countries and in the others' ones, making them more aware about this subject. It was a great way to introduce the theme of the exchange.With the free time that was given to us, we all together decided to go to the beach. The Basque group brought us to an hidden beach, for which the path was difficult because we had to climb rocks to get there but it was worth it or how they say in Portugal “valeu a pena”.
Since we didn’t really know each other and the others' countries we started by setting things down. The Portuguese group, from Viana-Do-Castelo, showed their kindness and happiness by sharing a song for us. We could feel their experience in youth exchanges. The presentation from the Spanish group was really well-made and made us all want to go to Arguedas. The Basque group gave an insight on their not well-known culture and the complex political situation of the area.
After lunch, each groups held a presentation they had prepared in advance. The presentations had the goal to make everyone aware of the minor migrants that came to Europe and specially in Portugal, Spain and France.
In the end all the groups seemed to understand more about the situation in their countries and in the others' ones, making them more aware about this subject. It was a great way to introduce the theme of the exchange.With the free time that was given to us, we all together decided to go to the beach. The Basque group brought us to an hidden beach, for which the path was difficult because we had to climb rocks to get there but it was worth it or how they say in Portugal “valeu a pena”.
Then we went to eat dinner that was paella. The majority loved it but as it was expected the Spanish people said that they make it better.
“30.000 minors missing”, is the name of the documentary directed by the Italian filmmaker Chiara Sambuchi that we watched that night. The story of minors in the country that is giving them asylum is told and the conditions that we saw were awful. Their basic needs and rights weren’t covered. It was a touching movie that made us more aware.
It was our first day of “hard work” and made us excited for the rest of the week.
In the morning we went from Ciboure to Hendaye, and we heard the presentation of the Emanik association. This association works in territories hit by natural disasters, like the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. It provides not only emergency help but also professional formations and education for disabled children, in countries like Philippines or Peru.
After that, we divided ourselves into small groups to speak about the causes of emigration in the different countries: Gambia, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Iraq and Syria.
From this research, we reached some conclusions that we wrote on posters, and we presented them to the whole group.
In the afternoon, we went to Asporotsttipi, where we visited a museum about the Basque Corniche, the basque coast specificity, its geology, its fauna…
At 5 PM, we went to the townhall, where we attended the official reception of the Youth exchange program. We shared our program with the local municipal councilors, the mayor of Hendaye and of Arguedas.
Some of us went to the beach, and then we met at the Caneta harbour, where we had dinner with the municipal councilors. Finally, we came back to Ciboure, to sleep.
On Tuesday, 24th of July, our goals were approach subjects such as the « Fundamental Rights » and « Local Development ».
First of all, we started with an energizer that was realized by the Spanish group to make the people more active. Then, we did an activity inspired from the Youth European Parliament. In this activity the group was divided into three smaller groups- favorable, unfavorable and undecided. The statement to discuss was : « Each asylum seeker must apply for asylum in the first country he or she enters ». We have disscused about that problem and made conclusions. At 12 :30 we were lunch and then, at 2 :00, we transfered from Ciboure to Hendaye. Another energizer was done by the French group.
It was the time to start the second main point of the day « Local development ». A local association called Planet’ Ecole was invited to take part in our project, explained us their charity and social projects in developing countries. Then, we played a modified version of monopoly in order to better understand the differences existing between rich and poor people in our society.
We also visited Planet’ Ecole library where we had the chance of helping by buying books. We also visited their books' warehouse. It was an amazing experience.
Afterward, we transferred from Hendaye to Ciboure to have dinner.
It was an hardworking day but also a productive day with experiences that improved our soft skills and knowledge fulfilment. Take part in Youth Exchanges is a great opportunity to discover yourself.
The 25th of July, we had a very intense morning: a Syrian man came to tell us the story of Anas. Anas is a Syrian refugee who is in Germany nowadays, and today we all had the chance to know about his hard journey from Syria to Europe. It was very moving, as we really felt very close to him.
After listening to him, we played a game, where we had to write 9 things that we considered essential in case of fleeing our country. It was a touching game. During the ‘’journey’’ we had to get rid of each thing/person, one by one. At the end, we could only keep one thing, and all of us chose a member of our family, specially our siblings or mum.
Thursday was a very intense but interesting day because in the morning we went to Anglet to visit a child house, CESTAC. We had a meeting with 8 minors that escaped from their home countries because of the war. They told us how tricky their journeys were and the difficulties they had to overcome to finally get to France. It was an enriching experience as we didn’t know how it really was to leave your country all on your own. In their trip they carried with them only the very important things as water, their savings and some clothes.
Then, we all had lunch together (they brought us chicken and drinks) and later on, some of us played football and basketball with them.
At 2:30PM we left the center and had one hour of break to go to the beach or have something to drink in a bar. Afterwards, we went to the Yatch Club of Hendaye to listen to Magalie from the organisation Pistes-Solidaires who was talking about Erasmus+ programmes. We divided into groups and prepared different kinds of advertisements to convince young people of the community to join and try the volunteering and working programs of Erasmus+.
Afterward, we went to a bar in the center of Hendaye, where we had the opportunity to taste the typical gastronomy of the Basque Country “pintxopote”. We had fun playing cards all together and in the end, some of us went to a Market which was nearby the beach and there, we saw all kinds of stuff like jewelry, posters, clothes, perfumes, decoration…
To sum up, we would like to say that it was a great day as we acquired knowledge about things we weren’t aware of.
This morning we met Mikel Epalza who told us about his life experience as a sailor/fisherman and priest. It was interesting to know how he helped migrants and whoever needed help, while he was doing what he loved, being in the sea. He did some projects such as organizing a collect of fishing equipment for fishers from underdeveloped countries (e.g. Senegal), helping widows of fishers in Galicia, Portugal, Basque Country, etc. He is also engaged in a program which takes care of unaccompanied children from Senegal and in the building and maintenance of hospital ships (Mercy Ships).
After the meeting with Mikel Epalza, we used his speech in order to make some conclusions about how we, young people, can help migrants. To summarize our findings, we should:
- Spread the voice/share
- Get engaged (by taking part into elections, associations, youth initiatives)
- Gather information (knowledge, critical thinking...)
- speak up against injustices (by doing flashmobs, demonstrations, through the social media)
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