Fellowship 'Youth Work-Community Building in Rural Areas'

From 20-26th of March, in the scope of ''Youth Work- Community Building in Rural Areas'' Erasmus Plus Project, financed by European Commission four participants from Armenia, members of “Educational and Cultural Bridges” NGO Greta Gevorgyan, Sona Alaverdyan, Gevorg Torosyan, Hrach Minasyan took part in the Fellowship in Aarhus, Denmark.

Fellowship was a great opportunity for the fellows to gain new skills and knowledge. Seven days of Fellowship were very instructive and interesting.

First day of the Fellowship, 4 fellows from Armenia and 4 fellows from Georgia spent discussing different issues concerning their home rural areas. Armenian and Georgian fellows represented their villages with their peculiarities, problems and suggested possible solutions to those problems.

The fellows have been to Godsbanen which was one of the interesting places they visited. Apart from the new cultural centre of Godsbanen there are plans to construct several buildings and institutions along the former railway yard including a new school of architecture.

Armenian and Georgian fellow were also informed about the project called ''Grobund''. The project aims to build a new community where people will live and work. It is also planned to build a school in that territory for the children living there.

As Armenian fellows mention, they were deeply impressed by ''Malfabrikken''. The construction of the latter will be complete in 1.5 year. ''Malfabrikken'' has the mission to promote communication between people living in those areas. For this goal they plan to establish library, theatre and many other institutions for entertainment. For spending time there people will pay as much as they want. Fellows mentioned that they think, it is a good way of activating the life of the society.

During the Fellowship the group has also paid a visit to ''Land. skab'', a rural area, where youngsters living together were engaged in agriculture to get organic food and also reduce expenditure on food.

One of the favourite places visited was Skarreso where four Danish youngsters were preparing for an upcoming festival. At that time they were making dustbins from wood. The fellows were happy to join them in making dustbins.

Fellowship in Denmark was a great experience for Armenian and Georgian fellows. Besides gaining new skills they had the chance to visit museums and get acquainted with the culture of Denmark. The skills and knowledge gained during the Fellowship will no doubt help them to develop their rural areas.

As Armenian fellows mention – “The Fellowship was really productive and inspiring. We highly appreciate our organizers who did their best to make our Fellowship both interesting and effective”.

One year capacity building KA2 project ''Youth Work- Community Building in Rural Areas'' is implemented in the scope of Erasmus Plus Project, financed by European Commission. The project is jointly implemented by 3 partner organizations from 3 countries: “Educational and Cultural Bridges” (Armenia), Agency of Youth Promotion and development “Compass” and Dansk ICYE (Denmark).