Between 21-30 October, the Erasmus+ Youth Exchange Project named “In The Shadows” took place at KulturHaus – Garlstedt, Osterholz Scharmbeck, Germany, with the participation of a total of 42 young people from Spain, Greece, Estonia, Croatia, Romania and Germany.
In this project, which was carried out using non-formal education techniques, participants had the chance to learn about social inclusion through different methods. The biggest motivation for me to participate in this project was to learn how to convey the concept of social inclusion through artistic means. In this sense, I had the chance to learn how to convey social inclusion and art issues to society in harmony with new tools.
As I mentioned above, experiencing many activities in this project, which includes non-formal education techniques, made it a very informative and experiential process. A wide variety of activities took place during the project, including team building, teamwork, and presentations. I also had the chance to learn about social inclusion, which is the subject of the project, and artistic ways such as short videos, mime art, and theatre.
It was a very exciting process for me to quickly establish a team and work with people from different countries. With this project, I feel more competent and experienced in working in a team. This situation also gave us the chance to get to know different languages, cultures, and countries, which was also a learning process. When we look at the content of the project, it was a new experience for me from A to Z, even though I had no experience with mime before. Being able to convey our feelings and thoughts without speaking or writing was a truly effective way of communication. In this sense, I learned how effective mime art is as a means of transmission/display. It was a good experience for me to learn very effective non-formal education methods such as using a story box, writing a script with a brainstorm, and changing the course of the story during active theater work. Finally, I can say that the short video shoots were the most fun part. Using technology, creating the chain between looking-seeing-creating was a good learning process, as was film editing and other methods. When we consider all the techniques, combining all these artistic works with social inclusion creates an effective non-formal education tool.
Erasmus+ is a big world full of opportunities. With the knowledge and experiences, I gained in this project, project ideas that could have different impacts at local, national, and international levels came to mind. I would like to complete the necessary project preparations and organize projects at different levels on this subject. Sharing my knowledge and experience with other people,
producing a project and event, contributing positively to people’s awareness level, and inspiring them will create a satisfying feeling for me.
I would like to thank the project organizer, partner organizations, and all the participants who came from long journeys from different countries. It was a 10-day process that was fun, informative, and included many good memories. I hope that one day I will have the chance to meet everyone who contributed and shared in the project.
Tugay Büyüktepe
The project “In The Shadows” was co-funded by the European Union and AdB.
