Period: 23.08. – 30.08.2021
Place: Castillo de la Vega (Spain)
Participating countries: Croatia, Bulgaria, Spain, Turkey, Germany
Participants: 30 participants + 2 organizers
Organizers: Bryant Corniel & Gonzalo García (hosted by the youth organization „Brisa Intercultural“)
Brisa Intercultural: Spanish youth organization based in Burgos (Ana Fernandez & Patricia Rubio)
NaturKultur e.V.: German Partner Organization
The Project
Youth4Health was a youth exchange to show young people how to live more healthy and so gain mental and physical health. For that the organizers thought of lessons to give about sports, nutrition in a playful and social way. An important part of the project was the exchange between the participants about their experiences in life and the knowledge they collected so far.
Why did we participate?
„I was excited to meet young people as me from all around Europe“
„I have digestive problems and I was hoping to get some informations for a more mild diet“
“I hoped to connect with young people from all around Europe and get to know their point of view about a healthy lifestyle”
“I was interested in nutrition and the consequences for not only our physical but our mental health aswell”
What were the activities on the place
- Social activities
- Applying what we gained from health information to some challenging activities
- Culture night activity
- Exploring the city
- Sport courses
What did we learn?
From social aspect: We learned that diversity is a word used interchangeably with physical differences but it is more than that. From the first day meeting each other, we engaged in a lot of activities and discussions that made us overcome our slight fear of socializing. All of us became friends for each other. We found the people not avoiding differences, but embracing them. Most importantly, we learned and found that we thrive best where is no one category of socializing in which to belong.
From the health aspect: Combining the diet information with some activities we had, related to that information, made it stuck to our brain and made us so motivated towards applying it once we return back to our country. We learned how many different types of food we should involve in our diet as well as the portions. For instance, carbs protein, health fats. In addition, what to avoid. We learned how to calculate the recommended calories intake to keep healthy. We learned how much the food and diet varies among our different countries. Also we learned about different muscles and how to train them effectively for a healthy body.
What was new for us?
There was lots of misunderstanding we had regarding following the healthy diet. We thought it was healthy, for us, but it was not. So, the instructors corrected these mistakes with some good tips we should follow to reach the healthy state we want to have thus it was new for us
We were amazed by how there are lots of varieties between our culture and food with the other cultures and their food. However, some dishes were influenced by other countries food so it was not originally created in these countries as we thought.
What we take away from the youth exchange?
We will take the inspiration we had during the exchange. Each part of the program educated us with lessons we should acquire after the program ends. We took the acceptance even though we are different. We took the happiness even when there are difficult times. We took the ability to engage even if we don’t know each other.
Ramona, Tina, Lara, Juro, Abdelrahman & Lydia
