“Increasing quality of activities targeting rural youth” seminar held in Struga, Macedonia

The last event of the project “Increasing the quality of activities targeting rural youth” was held in Struga, Northern Macedonia, from 09 to 16 November 2019, at the Solferino Hotel. This event is a seminar and this is the fifth and last project activity. The project is co-financed by the European Commission under the “Erasmus +” program.

The seminar included 30 youth participants from partner organizations from 6 different countries. Implemented the NGO “Union of Young Workers – Vranje” from Serbia, in cooperation with “Nekt Generation” from Northern Macedonia; “Mladiinfo Mntenegro” from Montenegro; OAPA from Kosovo; ICSD “from Greece and the” Copenhagen Draft “from Denmark. At this event, partner organizations expressed a strong interest to involve representatives of other sectors (education, regional, local and national institutions) and to consider joint policy-making to support rural development.

The seminar is based on presentations of practice, existing policies, discussions on common challenges, as well as reflection on specific cases in all 6 partner organizations. The final product of this seminar is a set of recommendations for youth organizations and other stakeholders and aims to create future-oriented steps to improve the efficiency of practice and to develop the quality of services provided to young people from rural areas.

The participants had the opportunity to visit the village of Vevčani and the surrounding area where they were tasked with recording videos with which they would convey their message to youth organizations and institutions about their work with young people from rural areas.

The mornings began with an energizer who would “shake” the team, relax and prepare for the upcoming workshops. Each working day, from 10:00 to 19:00, with short breaks for coffee and lunch, were worked in groups where the problems encountered by the population from rural areas, especially young people, were exposed. Poor transport links between rural and developed parts, poor infrastructure, poor educational system are just some of the obstacles facing our population in non-urban areas. Adding to this lack of awareness, we enter into a cause-and-effect vicious circle in which young people miss numerous opportunities. All of these current issues, as well as suggestions for their solutions, were discussed at Erasmus + workshops.

It is worth noting that the whole team was amazing and the participants had a great time together. The free time of the participants was filled with interactive talks, social games, dance competitions, karaoke and intercultural evenings where each country presented its traditional food, music, culture in the best possible light.

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