Project leader: Asociatia Nevo Parudimos

Nr. of the project: 2018-3-RO01-KA105-061138

Period: 1 ianuarie – 31 august 2019

Budget: 27730.00 EUR

Partners:

  • MITTETULUNDUSUH ING NOORED UHISKONNA HEAKS – Estonia
  • AYUNTAMIENTO DE MARACENA – Spania
  • STICHTING GO – Olanda
  • PRAXIS – Grecia

For eight months, between 1st January and 31st August 2019, the Nevo Parudimos Association will implement together with 4 international partners the European volunteering project ”Vote for your future”.

The youth exchange VOTE FOR YOUR FUTURE will take place in Romania, Marabu Camp, Milcoveni Village between 03 – 10. 05.2019 and will involve 50 participants (40 participants and 10 group leaders) from Romania, Estonia, Spain, Netherlands and Greece. During 8 days, the working methods will be based on non formal education, such as: Oxford debates, simulation games, role play activities, creative presentation, World Cafe, team building, evaluation, intercultural nights, cultural activities, group work and reflections.

This project offers a strategy to integrate more young people and for this to happen we have divided it into the following components:

  1. Two focus groups with young people at home, before organizing the youth exchange – where participants learn what are the issues in their communities and related to their countries, to be presented afterwards inside the project programme;
  2. One youth exchange with 50 participants from Romania, Estonia, Netherlands, Greece and Spain;
  3. One campaign to promote the participation into election of the young people at local level, organized after the mobility of the project itself.

 

The aim of this project is to increase the youth participation in the decision making process at local, national and European level.

Our project objectives are:

  • to foster a dialogue between 40 young people from 5 EU countries and politicians during the activity, for a better understanding of the voting and participation process;
  • to capacitate 40 participants from 5 EU countries in organizing local campaigns and petitions to promote active participation and access to vote for young people in their countries;
  • to increase the knowledge of 40 young people about European Parliament and 2019 European elections;
  • to offer a learning dimension about the European institutions and how they are interconnected, for 40 young participants during the project;

Nevo Parudimos association decided to carry on with this project, together with the partners, for 3 reasons:

  • The big interest in participation when coordinating the strategic partnership YourEP, for the events in Brussels and Strasbourg, that offered the opportunity for young people to meet and discuss with MEPs and even vice-president of the European Parliament. Unfortunately we could not involve more than 3 participants/partner and we had a huge demand to participate in this project and learn what is the role of the Parliament and mostly, how politics can be different from what we know is happening in Romania and all Europe nowadays.
  • According to Central Electoral Office in Romania, for the elections in 2016, less than 30% of the young people aged 18 – 25 participated in the elections, while the old people decided their future. The statistics are a big concern and through this project we try to bring awareness among young people to participate more actively and decide by themselves their own future… Moreover, when protests were organised in all Romania, due to the current government and it’s way of leading the country, a very small amount of young people from Resita Municipality and from Caras-Severin county as well participated, according to the local and regional newspapers. Anyhow, the intention to get involved in the politics exists among young people, but the information that exist on this topic is getting more confused and most of the time the fight between the young and the old generation does not even start.
  • In 2019 there will be organized European Parliament elections where all member states will decide their MEPs and, according to our partners, the level of information about what happens afterwards in the European Parliament and how the interests of the countries are represented is not clear or even not existent. Young people from small towns or villages do not have political education to understand the fancy words which are included in campaigns. The mistrust was build in the last 29 years and we believe there is a need to educate the young people in understanding better the political system and how it can be improved. Participants have the need to learn why their vote is important at local, national and European level.

 

Through this project participants will be capable to engage other young people in political life, to transfer the knowledge gained and create awareness about importance of voting at local, national and European level; participants will have a better understanding about the European Parliament and its role in Europe as well as the connection between European Council, European Commission and European Parliament.

After participating in this project, participants from Romania, Estonia, Netherlands, Greece and Spain will become ambassadors of change in their local communities and will be more engaged in political life. For sure the 40 participants and 10 group leaders will VOTE in the European Parliament Elections after participating in this project.

Project participants will come from 5 different EU countries, including Romania as follows:

From Romania we have participants coming from local highschools in Resita and from Eftimie Murgu University. The participants have the need to learn more about the importance of voting at local, regional, national and European level, due to the corrupted systems which still exist and is even leading the country. The participants are facing social, economical and cultural obstacles, most of them being ethnic Moldavians from the Republic which are students in Resita and also Roma teenagers from Mociur community (Roma community severely discriminated due to its social and economical situation). Those young people have an attitude of total rejection towards the politic and everything it’s connected with this.

From Spain the participants are coming from Maracena, a small town in Andalucia, one of the poorest regions in Spain. They have the need to participate in local life, to better understand the opportunities they have in Europe and  to better understand the importance of their involvement in the local policy making process.

From Estonia the participants are young students who need to see how it’s the reality in other countries, to understand how the participation and involvement it’s happening in other places. Also, they need to have the opportunity to share from their own experience on political education and participation. They had a great experience with the simulation of the parliament in their high school and they want to learn more and also to share with other young people their experiences.

From Netherlands the participants are coming from centers of risk prevention, participants with behavior issues and under reeducation programs. These participants have the need to better understand their role as active citizens in the society and their importance.

From Greece all participants are coming from university, mostly facing economical problems, giving the current situation in Greece. These participants have the need to participate and learn more how to protect their European rights, especially after in Greece the riot police started attacking the inhabitants because of governmental misleading. The situation is very serious and participants do not feel safe in their own country.

The project value is 27730.00 EUR.

This project is funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus + Program, Key Action 1, Youth Mobility.

Our partners in this project are:

  • MITTETULUNDUSUH ING NOORED UHISKONNA HEAKS – Estonia
  • AYUNTAMIENTO DE MARACENA – Spain
  • STICHTING GO – Netherlands
  • PRAXIS – Greece
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