LATVIA

Participants from Latvia Sergejs Stelmahs, Jevgenija Kopilova, Irena Reina and Svetlana Zuravela implemented their follow up activity in Riga, Latvia, Young Folks LV office - Skolas street 27-11, LV-1021, at 16.12.2022. - 3hours. There were ~25 people (18-60 years old)

The above mentioned participants of the project have prepared follow up activities in Latvia, Riga in the Young Folks organization. The project Re-Establish Diversity and Inclusion in Environmental Location, that took place in an amazing envirment in Cyprus had a profesional partner organization Active Cypriot Programs and European Learning Into Acceptance (ACPELIA). After we landed in Riga, we started to find a better option for making follow up activities and introducing other members of organizations with a project topic that we had.

The activity took place on 17.12.2022., and had a great follow up so that we decided to do 2 more activities in January. It was a 3 hour long meeting with people in age 18-35, where participants had time to introduce the main topics that were covered in the Cyprus project, told about Erasmus + opportunities, and answered the questions. The aim was to show a Latvian people with disabilities needs to be included in environment and the problem of environment to include such people, to share examples of Romania, Portugal , Cyprus, Estonia, and other countries that took a part in a projet, to establish trust in Erasmus+ projects an encourage people to take advantage to take a part.

They had held a follow-up meeting for the GICE (GREEN INNOVATION AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY) and the REDIEL project ("Restore Diversity and Inclusion in the Environment") with several new participants. We talked about the experience of participating in Erasmus+ training courses, explained how the projects are created and carried out, discussed the opportunities of participation and also create discussion about topics Green innovation and Inclusion. About 25 people came to the meeting, who were interested in participating in the future projects. We answered all of their questions about the Erasmus+ and we really hope we managed to inspire everybody! They can join Young Folks to follow the news and get involved in the future projects. #erasmusplus #gice #rediel

Links for online dissemination

What our participants said for the project

Jevgenija Kopilova about a project:

"Project was an amazing chance to educate and have a rest from routine in life. Sun, sea, people from other countries - it all made the education part much easier and more funny. I loved our activities - observing the territory and finding what can be better for people with disabilities. I loved exercising near the sea when we walked with closed eyes. I loved intercultural nights, it was always fun. The place where we lived also was very nice. That's why one more exercise - observing the place (in my case the territory of hotel) was also very useful for me. Thank you for this opportunity!"

Svetlana Zuravel about project:

"We spent a bit more than a week in Pissuri,Cyprus at REDIEL project together with participants from other European countries. That was an amazing experience, where we touched together the topic about inclusion into society, about the challenges of people with limited mobility. During this time we were fully engaged in training in the form of a game, which is a more natural way of learning, where people not only get theoretic knowledge, but rather practice, feel and try it on themselves. The most amazing thing was the mental part of the venue, where we had a chance to listen to ourselves and learn to trust the other people,engaging our inner self. Many thanks to our trainers and coordinators. The venue was just fantastic!"

Irena Reina about project:

"First of all my big thanks to Nicolas, Erma, Evangelina and all the facilitators and organization team that took some much effort to make this project come through. For me it was the right time and place to understand the feelings, emotions, and needs of people with disabilities, to come more close to this topic from the other side. I have people with disabilities as well as I am working with people with disabilities, but I never thought how much they have to do to be included in the environment while for me it is a normal regular choice. How it feels to be included, or to be different and when society excludes you.

It was an amazing experience with Eleni Pashia how creatively we can get to results and accumulate our ideas, an amazing game in Pissouri where we could get in touch with other teams more, and visit the city. We had an almost full day in Limassol, with a great task, to see differently, to be more focused on ideas about other people's needs, and this came up with wonderful ideas.

And of course the project was strong because of the participants that participated in it. We get in touch and still hope to see each other in others' projects, or just traveling around. So in case you have doublet do go on projects or not. Just GO!"

Sergejs Stelmans about project:

Project gave me a lot of options to see different points. Organizations, structure and communication was on high level. I had an opportunity to meet new smart people and have a time in a beautiful place. During these 7 days I had the opinion to get deeper about inclusion of people with disabilities in the environment, and get more experience from other countries, work with my own inside, and work in teams, by sharing experience. Recommend this project to be visited by others!