Activity
From June 9 to June 15, the International Youth Training Program was held in Kocaeli, Turkey. The activity under the project “Enable the Cooperation, Disable the Barriers” is implemented by ACDC under the Erasmus+ Program funded by the European Union. This is a project that aims to strengthen the capacity of youth organizations including youth with disabilities in youth activities at the local, national and international levels, as well as, increase their active and sustainable participation of youth and promote sustainable cooperation among NGOs.
The training program had the participation of 20 youth workers representing 4 organizations participating in the project, including: Action to the Community Development Institute (ACDC - Vietnam), Perkumpulan Difabel SEHATI Sukoharjo (SEHATI - Indonesia), Zavod za izobrazevanje in inkluzijo ODTIZ (ODTIZ - Slovenia), Development Center Association of Individuals with Disability and Their Families (EBAGEM - Turkey). As the host organization for the program, EBAGEM hopes that after the training, the participants will become the source trainers and conduct local training courses for 30 young people with and without disabilities on active participation.
The representatives joined together to discuss, contribute and share about the reality of persons with disabilities in the locality. Therefore, the participants learned from experience and how to solve problems in new ways through theories, real stories built by trainers from EBAGEM. The training content included concepts around social asisstance and youth worker activities; Kolb's theory of learning styles; non-formal educational methods and debates about opinions on persons with disabilities. In addition, youth groups have also been able to unleash their creativity and present their messages through engaging games, ensuring access for all.
Throughout the program, participants were given the opportunity to talk, exchange cultures, and perform music in order to improve cohesion and cooperation between international organizations and share common interests.
On June 14, with support and feedback from EBAGEM trainers, the youth of each country came together to design a plan for a training program on active participation content with local resource trainers.
At the end of the training program, Mr. Vu Trung Hien - one of 5 representatives of Vietnam shared: “As a person with a disability who is also coordinating and participating in social projects on persons with disabilities, I have learned a lot of useful knowledge and experiences from the training program. I look forward to applying what I have learned in practice, as well as spreading this knowledge in my network, to young persons with disabilities or without disabilities who are cherishing ideas about activities to promote social assistance of persons with disabilities.”
Mr. Marcel Wagner - representative of ODTIZ (Slovenia) shared: “Words can't describe how much these few day's did for me. I did start to understand the deeper meaning of life and I finally understood what my true purpose or better calling in life is. ”
It is expected that the training sessions will be deployed by the youth source group to 30 youth with disabilities and their carers in each country by the end of 2022.
