This summer I took part in my first Erasmus exchange project called Eco city and youth social inclusion. By general means the project aimed to foster social dialogue, work with young people, hold up conversations about the environment and work for understanding of climate change in the EU. The goal of the project is to raise awareness among young people about the responsibility of the surrounding community, the environment and the preservation of natural resources through the "Learn to do" and "Learn to be" non-formal education methods.

So 35 participants from Romania, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria,Poland, Latvia and Ukraine spend 10 incredible days in a small latvian city Rujiena close to the Estonian border. We lived together in the building of local secondary school, that's why the atmosphere there was quite friendly. The latvian team did a good job organising such an interesting exchange with big amount of different activities. 

Excursion to the sort station in Valmiera and camping session are my favorites. I'll never forget us walking 15 km long under the rain and hot sun, sitting and singing around the fire and getting through a challenge to sleep in the tent together with whole Ukrainian team! 

As for me, this project gave us a possibility to learn how beautiful and virgin can be nature if the government and civil society will take care about it. I also didn't know before that 52% of Latvia is covered by forest! I am also thankful for piece of knowledge which I gained during the project and for people I met there.

So 35 participants from Romania, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria,Poland, Latvia and Ukraine spend 10 incredible days in a small latvian city Rujiena close to the Estonian border. We lived together in the building of local secondary school, that's why the atmosphere there was quite friendly. The latvian team did a good job organising such an interesting exchange with big amount of different activities. 

Excursion to the sort station in Valmiera and camping session are my favorites. I'll never forget us walking 15 km long under the rain and hot sun, sitting and singing around the fire and getting through a challenge to sleep in the tent together with whole Ukrainian team! 

As for me, this project gave us a possibility to learn how beautiful and virgin can be nature if the government and civil society will take care about it. I also didn't know before that 52% of Latvia is covered by forest! I am also thankful for piece of knowledge which I gained during the project and for people I met there.

So 35 participants from Romania, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria,Poland, Latvia and Ukraine spend 10 incredible days in a small latvian city Rujiena close to the Estonian border. We lived together in the building of local secondary school, that's why the atmosphere there was quite friendly. The latvian team did a good job organising such an interesting exchange with big amount of different activities. 

Excursion to the sort station in Valmiera and camping session are my favorites. I'll never forget us walking 15 km long under the rain and hot sun, sitting and singing around the fire and getting through a challenge to sleep in the tent together with whole Ukrainian team! 

As for me, this project gave us a possibility to learn how beautiful and virgin can be nature if the government and civil society will take care about it. I also didn't know before that 52% of Latvia is covered by forest! I am also thankful for piece of knowledge which I gained during the project and for people I met there.

After coming back to Ukraine,  I’m planning to create an volunteering organization. For instance, this international organization will include an educational blog on social networking sites with various information, which every person has to know. In this way, volunteers from different countries could share their knowledge with each other while working together on new projects. Moreover, we can make some short recorded films, hold some exhibitions and display them in an online gallery and on educational platforms, promote ideas of sustainability, aiming to improve inclusive education and open up conversations about topics that are still underestimated. I want people to realize : ”We should all be taking far better care of our own home planet,we should know our rights, we are all a huge family ”.

I hope that it was only the beginning of my long way including projects and workshops about social inclusion with aim to raise awareness about ecology and sustainable development.

Thank you!