FINAL REPORT

Key Action 1: Mobility of Individuals

Youth Exchange

Final Report

Equal in Life, Different in Gender

Ref. No.: 2019-1-TR01-KA105-065652

Ankara, Turkey

21-28 November 2019

“Funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. However, European Commission and Turkish National Agency cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of information contained therein”

ABOUT US

Uluslararası Gençlik Aktiviteleri Merkezi Derneği - International Youth Activities Center Association (IYACA) is a youth NGO which was founded in 2012 and actively working in youth field in Ankara. It was founded to arrange activities that support youth’s personal development and to contribute to the development of a youth, that can generate a solution for the problems around them, are self-confident, promoter and sensitive.

Our objectives:

• To contribute social, cultural, artistic,athletic,scientific and professional development of youth

• To increase the participation of youth to social and economic life actively

• To support them to make their own decisions

• To improve the sustainable youth policies

• To improve the participation of youth in long life learning and labor market

• To reinforce the empathy among youth, develop cooperation and tolerace

The organization serves to youth as an active member of Turkish Youth Federation. Moreover, our organization is authorized to inform the youth about European mobility and opportunities as an Eurodesk Contact Point with the accreditation be EU Ministry of Turkey. Our organization is also accredited to be an EVS hosting, sending and coordinating organization be EU Ministry of Turkey.

Working Topics;

• Social, Cultural, Artistic, Environmental and Sport activities

• Youth Participation

• Youth Policies

• Entrepreneurship and employment

• Cultural Diversity

• Intercultural learning

• Human Rights,

• Volunteering

• Informing Youth

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Project name: Equal in Life, Different in Gender

Activity date: 21-28 November 2019

Place: Ankara, Turkey

Partner Countries: Turkey, Romania, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal

Partner Organizations: Bulgarian Youth Forum (Bulgaria), Social-educational initiatives centre PLUS (Lithuania, Asociatia Voluntarilor pentru Viata (Romania), Asociacion Cervino (Spain), International Labour Association (Netherlands), Sensational Opportunity-Associacao (Portugal), Uluslararası Gençlik Aktiviteleri Merkezi Derneği (Turkey)
There were 38 participants and 7 leaders from 7 different countries in our project. The ages of the participants were between the range of 15-25 (excluding group leaders). In total there were 45 people.

Our main goal in selecting our project partners was to ensure the diversity of cultures and to have countries with different positions in the theme of gender equality. Gender equality is a global and actual problem. Gender discrimination is any discrimination, exclusion or restriction on the basis of socially structured gender roles and stereotypes that prevent individuals from taking full advantage of human rights. It occurs at different levels and ways in different geographies. We wanted our participants to gain awareness by conducting activities on gender discrimination and to compare their cultures with other cultures.

Project’s Objectives:

• To gain awareness for gender equality problems and understand the role of individuals, societies and governments for the resolutions.

• To understand the reasons of discrimination and develop methods to fight against it.

• To promote active citizenship and participation of youth for social issues.

• To get to know new cultures, life-styles, languages and values to gain open mindedness.

• To identify circumstances leading to gender discrimination,

• To discover the various understanding of gender roles as a social phenomenon,

• To increase their knowledge and awareness level in topics like: Human Rights, (values, principles, equality, study cases), social exclusion, intercultural dialogue, tolerance.

• To promote Erasmus+ as an education tool to fight discrimination,

• To establish strong network of youth willing to work on gender equality matters.

PROJECT DAILY ACTIVITIES

Day 1. 21^st November 2019

First day of the project consisted of participants’ arrival to Ankara from their home countries represented by Bulgaria, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. They were welcomed by IYACA’s team and they have been asked to introduce themselves. Also, brief information about food and accommodation was provided to them by organizers with the aim to help them to rest for the days coming.

Day 2. 22^nd November 2019

At the beginning, the project was presented to all participants and the Erasmus+ program was introduced to them by IYACA’s team. Young people were curious about the program and manifested their excitement of taking part of such a youth exchange. Few of them noticed their previous experience in the field but the majority had no previous experience in the field.

They were asked to share their Expectations and Fears by writing down on a sticky-note paper of different colours the expectations, respectively the fears. One by one they stick the note to a separate flip-chart paper and together with the moderator the written aspects were discussed with the aim of having a clear idea about their interests, expectations and features they want to improve in themselves. Moreover in this session, the rules to obey during the project were created all together with the participants.

First activity day continued with a brief session of individual presentation of each participant mentioning their countries, filed of study, interests, etc. To facilitate introduction part more the moderators used non-formal education tools as games named Atom, Network and Tower Height. Through these methods they have been encouraged to change their place around the meeting room, to communicate with others than those with whom they came together to attend the project. They had the chance to create smaller groups and work together to be able to adapt faster and mix with the group.

After, they had a session for Intercultural Learning, firstly working individually, then by two persons and in the end within group of 5-6 persons. The Abigail’s story was delivered to them but with some changes regarding character’s name according to popular names in each country they were coming from. The debates within groups moved to open panel debate, agreeing that their cultures are different and women and men are differently seen in the societies they came from, such an activity as Abigail story being known for its benefices in bringing controversies into debate also for helping understand the fact that cultures and access to information can influence the way we analyse facts and judge, having prejudices, stereotypes and discrimination without even being aware about it.

The last task before reflection time was to present the ‘’Man and Woman Features’’ for each country. Participants from the same countries prepared presentations using flip-chart papers to describe the roles of man and woman according to their cultures. Discussions were made after each presentation. A lot of similarities were observed between the countries.

Reflection time within national group conducted by leaders brought IYACA team together with group leaders for a daily evaluation session aimed to listen the feedback from participants and improve following days activities according to recommendations received.

The questions asked were as follows:

1. What did I do today?

2. What did I learn?

3. I was good at…?

4. I had difficulty in…?

5. I must improve myself in:

6. I was surprised at…?

After dinner was organized the Intercultural Night were each group presented the country they represent, inviting all of the participants to taste the traditional food they brought from their home countries, listen to traditional music, dance and singing made them get closer one to another and to feel the need for socializing they noticed during the reflection time.

Day 3. 23^rd November 2019

The first activity of the day was a game aiming the participants to learn the names of each other better. After a feedback received during the reflection time a day ago about participants can’t memorize the names, this activity was added to the programme. Participants form a circle and each one of them Tell their names and make a gesture, the next participant should repeat all the names before him and show the gestures of each then he adds his name and gesture.

The day continued with the activity called ’’Me, myself and we’’. To be able to connect each other and to be able to identify ourselves and our place in society this activity was conducted. The task of taking or finding three photos was giving a day before. The photos were a self-portrait about who the person is, a photo about the place in society and a photo about their culture. Each person presented their photo exhibition to the group.

After some break time and energizers the participants continued with a Group Work. In this activity, participants from the same country came together to prepare a flip-chart presentation about five important dates in the history of their country about gender equality (Gender Equality Timeline). The presentations were surprising for the participants and the development of each country followed a different path than the others. It was a very interesting activity for the participants and they realized that they have very little information about the history of other countries in Europe and some even pointed that they don’t have enough information about their history of gender equality. This activity motivated them to learn more about their history and also the history of other European countries.

In the next activity the participants were giving the task to prepare a Drama play on mute. They formed mixed groups to prepare a drama play without any talk about stereotypes and discrimination. This activity helped them work in a team, express themselves without using words (In this case they realized they don’t always need a language to understand each other and they can come over the language barrier). After the plays were presented they discovered that common stereotypes and common types of discriminations are occurring in all over the Europe and it was easy to identify the situation for them in every case.

Day 4. 24^th November 2019

The day debuted with the session named Country by country gender equality statistics (Labour Market-Netherlands) which transmitted information regarding labour market and employability with references to gender. Together in an open space debate each participant was able to express opinions regarding the topic and they tried to understand what the explanations behind statistics are. It was useful for more awareness regarding the labour market, as aspect relevant for each of them soon or later.

The Role of Women in working life (Drama play-Netherlands) was an activity aimed to encourage participants to figure out and understand different types of work interviews, various requirements according to gender and situations that can ben faced by women on labour market. For this session it was required from male participants to pretend being female and act accordingly while female participants acted as male. They have been able to analyse their perceptions, knowledge and understanding of equality from gender perspective within the labour market.

The participants were giving the complete list of Human Rights Universal Declaration to review and choose an article to present in a Forum Theatre a situation where the article is being violated. They worked in mixed groups. Forum theatre begins with a short performance, either rehearsed or improvised, which contains demonstrations of social or political problems. At the conclusion, the play will begin again with the audience being able to replace or add to the characters on stage to present their interventions; alternate solutions to the problems faced. The play or scene, usually indicating some kind of oppression. During the replay, any member of the audience is allowed to shout ‘Stop!’, step forward and take the place of one of the oppressed characters, showing how they could change the situation to enable a different outcome. The other actors remain in character, improvising their responses. The strategy enables participants to try out courses of action which could be applicable to their everyday lives.

Day 5. 25^th November 2019

During the 6^thday of the project (5^th activity day) the participants were encouraged to attend the City Tour aimed to improve their knowledge of the place In which they took part in the project, offering them the opportunity to learn about Turkey’s foundation and Ankara as its capital city.

The tour included places as Ataturk’s Mausoleum, Kocatepe Mosque, Ankara’s Castle and Hamamönü. The guide gave information regarding the historical, geographical, cultural, linguistic and religious particularities of the visited places. Participants were surprised by the diversity the can meet in Ankara. Their expectations were surpassed. Exploring the city is another way of encouraging the learning process, participants being together and having the chance to make intercultural exchanges.

Day 6. 26^th November 2019

The day started with the activity called ’’World Café’’. In this activity participants had the chance to discuss gender inequality with different aspects. This activity is very useful when there are too many different topics to talk about in a limited time in any course. Six different topics in six different tables were established. The topics were chosen to be; gender-based violence, gender inequality in education, gender inequality in work life, gender inequality in family, gender inequality in media and gender inequality policy. Participants formed mixed groups and they moved between the tables with their group. They stop 10 minutes in each table to discuss about the topic. Every table had one constant moderator. Participants were very satisfied of this activity because they claimed that they could express themselves better in smaller groups and listen other’s ideas.

In the afternoon six different locations were chosen in Ankara for six different groups with a Turkish participant in each group. The groups were sent outside to make five different Interviews with local people and at the end present their interview results with pictures with rest of the group. The first aim of this activity was to disseminate Erasmus+ projects to youth and to have a general idea about what people are thinking about gender inequality in Turkey. The groups were happy to be able to have an opportunity to contact with local people. Each group had different experience according to the location they were sent to. It was easier for them to find youngsters that know about Erasmus+ and can communicate in English in book shops and in University areas. They declared that it was harder to communicate in shopping and working areas, also people had less information about Erasmus+ and they didn’t want to be a part of the interview easily.

After each interview, brochures with detailed information about Erasmus+ projects were given to the youngsters who participated the interviews. Related to the topic of the project, from the answers there can be identified two different ways of presenting the gender equality situation in Turkey/ in general. The first approach is the factual one, respondents describing cases as a rule, for example men face no problem in returning home at late hours compared to women. The second approach refers to the normative perspective related to gender equality. Respondents believe that shouldn’t be inequalities of any kind between genders which means that in reality they have been exposed to such discriminations or stereotypes.

Day 7. 27^th November 2019
The last activity day started with an activity that Lithuanian team suggested in reflection time. The participants divide into three groups and each group should Describe three different characters. The characters were; an immigrant, a politician and an activist. They draw on a flip-chart paper their chosen character and they talked about their character in different aspects such as ‘’what do they think?’’, ‘’what do they hear?’’, ‘’what do they believe in?’’, ‘’what do they say?’’ etc. They had the chance to work in small groups and interact, also debating topics that influence gender equality sphere of life.

Next session consisted of the Blog Writing Panel. The participants from each country worked together to decide upon the concept and content of their blog. The theme of the blog is represented by the project, the have been encouraged to express their ideas, opinions and feelings regarding the activities and methods used. This is another way of receiving written feedback from participants and to take notes for next projects. The overall attitude of participants is a positive one towards activities and learning process. Also, intercultural nights facilitated the non-formal education tools used during the project.

After, there was organized a Visit to the Ministry of Youth in Turkey. Participants were host by youth workers and were invited to transmit messages on Ministry’s Youth radio channel. Sharing their experiences is a way to also share motivation on being involved as a young person and getting connected with your generation at national and international level to better harmonize actions and create networks for common aims.

Day 8 28^th November

The Reflection time the Youthpass certificates were handed one by one by participants to their secret friend, a method to make them meet also the secret friend they had from the first day of the project. Departure had place according to plane ticket schedule.

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Key Action 1: Mobility of Individuals

Youth Exchange

GENERAL EVALUATION

Equal in Life, Different in Gender

Ankara, Turkey

21-28 November 2019

Project Evaluation;

The evaluation is part of the monitoring process of project management. Focusing on the learning process, there are two main aspects to refer to within the evaluation. One of them concerns the methods used and their contribution to fulfill project’s objectives within Erasmus+ frame. The other one notes the overall activities management according to individual and group evaluation made during project.

Firstly, using methods as those described (non-formal activities, games, teamwork in same-country/ mixed teams, theatre, debates, intercultural nights, world cafe, etc.) helped participants to interact in various way and to guide them to find answers to their questions, also to ask questions they were curious about. Even if at the beginning of the project participants used to stay next to their nationals by day passing, they changed this behaviour as a way of showing that the exchange between youth takes places. Debates and working in small groups offered to them the proper environment to identify circumstances leading to gender discrimination, to discover the various understanding of gender roles as a social phenomenon, to increase their knowledge and awareness level in topics like: human rights, (values, principles, equality, study cases), social exclusion, intercultural dialogue, tolerance. Also, taking into consideration the fears they expressed in the first day regarding the fact that it will be hard to get connected, to communicate with others properly, to make friendships etc., it appears that all fears were surpassed in the end. Participants were asked to express themselves while writing, speaking and acting without using words. It was very useful and provocative too and showed them that identifying common problems at society level doesn’t even require to speak same language or to speak at all. Using forum theatre to talk about human rights violation they had an intensive session of debates of how to combat these types of violations. Am important message they discovered is that of promoting active citizenship and participation of youth for social issues as a tool they must help the disadvantaged ones or just to better know and defend their rights.

Secondly, participants have the chance to express every day how they felt during activities and if something didn’t work according to their expectations or as planned. Reflection time was very important to us to make sure that everything happens in good conditions and participants get involved to receive as much as possible during the learning process. Also, the individual evaluation form delivered at the end of the project shows the overall satisfaction with activities related to project and its topic. Some of them mentioned that they learned about their own and other countries as well. Some of them gain awareness for gender equality problems and understand the role of individuals, societies and governments for the resolutions, world café being a very useful tool in this regard. There was also space created to understand the reasons of discrimination and develop methods to fight against it, as participants shared their view concerning theatre, gender equality timeline and men & women stereotypes in their countries. The differences and similarities that they were able to notice during the presentations and debates increase their capacity to build a network of young people sharing the same view and having solutions for problems related to gender equality/ inequality. When participants having various ages and different backgrounds it could represent a big challenge to fit the methods and content adequate to each one’s needs but the learning process involves an exchange between those who may study into the field of gender equality and those who are interested in receiving more information regarding the topic.

That means that formal education brings its contribution to the non-formal one, investigating together in different ways that the standardized ones areas of life that can lead to discrimination among human beings if there is no communication and harmonization concerning the rules everyone should be aware of for a better world to all. The project achieved its objective and managed to promote Erasmus+ as an education tool to fight discrimination. International friendships built during the project are another achievement to notice which shows the “unity in diversity” European Union militates for.
Let's check participants view about the project on last day evaluation forms;
What are your views on the general content of the youth exchange program?

· I think that the subject of the project is a nice idea but the content wasn’t very good, the level was very basic.

· Project idea was too vast to cover, couldn’t reach all the aspects.[LGBTQ etc.]

· The content was satisfactory, but it needs some arrangements on time management.

· The issue was very interesting but I think because of the age differences[gap], it was little bit superficial.

· Lots of cultural biases on gender inequality are projected to be the reality of all countries. Participants had extreme opinions about the topic.

· I think that the content should have focused more on discussions/debriefing and less on ‘’getting to know each other’’ activites.

· It was a great opportunity to open one’s mind and meet new people from different countries.

· I think that the subject is a current issue. Therefore, possible solutions for this problem should be implemented on daily life and this problem should also be discussed especially among youngsters to make them aware of the different views etc. This project helped us to do that.

· This type of programs should continue because it give us the opportunity to be open-minded.

· The focus of this youth exchange program was really good and helpful for the teenagers in terms of getting better on communication skills, understanding different cultures.

How do you evaluate the participation of the participants in this youth project?

· Every participant tried to communicate with one another even if they weren’t good at English.

· I think that there was a big age gap and language barrier among the participants. Most people were not good at English so they were not active. Because of that, we couldn’t have efficient and deep discussion.

· Mostly, it was perfect. Most of the participants tried to be involved in activities while some of them were silent, probably due to language barrier.

· Everyone was so different. Even though, we found a way to understand and accept one another. Also, everyone came here to learn so I admire that they were so open-minded.

· I think that the participation was not equal among all countries. There were a lot of people who never arrived on time. This bothered me and also the some other participants. But in general, it was good.

· In general, all participants were okay, but some of them did not respect the rules that were written on the first day of the project (getting late, eating at the meeting room, respecting others, listening etc.)

· The participation of the participants in this youth exchange in general was good, but some people should have been more respectful and participated more.

· Some people never spoke during the activities People were not interested or they didn’t know anything about the topic.

· Participants were friendly and open-minded, but it would have been better, if the groups had been mixed more because many people stuck with their countrymen.

· So so, I didn’t see the real participation in the debates.

· In general, people were active and open-minded. I think that ‘the age gap’ among the participants might have been an obstacle, but it didn’t compromise people from participating.

· A lot of participant didn’t talk and share their opinions but it was okay. However, some of them talked too much. Sometimes they changed the main subject.

What did you learn? What skills and competences of yours did you improve during youth exchange program?

· I improved how to express my opinion. And I’ve learnt how to look at different subjects with different aspects. I’ve also learnt:

· -different ways of presentation,

· cultural differences

· -how to debate or discuss

· -activities that can be used in non-formal education

· -out-of-the-box- thinking

· I improved my English skills. I’ve learnt new information about different countries’ woman rights.

· I’ve learnt a lot of things about gender equality in different countries. I also had a chance to learn about these countries’ politics and cultures. In this period, I improved my language and communication skills.

· I’ve learnt;

· -that difference is beautiful.

· -to accept things about myself and to understand others.

· -that respect is the key for better perspective.

· Also, now I’m really proud of myself because during this project, I could help a lot of people with communication skills and also I had an opportunity to rediscover myself.

· I’ve learnt

· -how to be patient, share happiness, love and positive energetic vibes.

· -how to be open-minded

· -how to be solution oriented for the worst case scenarios.

· I’ve learnt about the differences and similarities between my country and the other countries. I also improved my ability to tolerate people and listen others.

· I’ve learnt that we can compromise even if we have different points of views. I improved my ability to express my opinions and experiences.

· I’ve learnt about gender equality in different countries. Also, I now easily talk with other people.

· I’ve learnt how to be a group leader.

Would you like to go on making follow up projects with this group or others? If yes, what about, please explain?

· Yes. Some of the happiest, the most connecting and the selfless moments in my life is during volunteering. Participants involved from an altruistic standpoints, making it genuine and self-satisfying. The diversity in nationality, culture and perspective are intellectually stimulating, making me grow and improve in a way traditional education cannot give.

· Yes, because it was a fantastic experience, we have met other people and cultures, made new friends and we have able to have healthy conversations without judgment.

· I’d like to go on making follow up projects especially with this group because they were very kind and already know each other.

· I would like to go on making follow up projects since I believe that the topic is really interesting /there could be interesting discussions. However, I would prefer another group (at least starting from 18 years old) who speaks English quite well.

· Yes, with other groups. The subjects could be sustainability, education, social work, climate changes.

· Yes, I should continue these projects. In my opinion, with other groups next time, because meeting other people is only good for us. Other topics to discuss could be education, environment, social area as the elderly and disabled.

· Yes, I think a program like this has the potential to have an impact on participants in a positive way. Furthermore just getting to know each other (which is good).

· Yes would love to, but maybe on a bit more concentrated or narrow topic.

· I would love to do this in another country or city. Topics:

· Politics

· Education

· Homophobia

· Yes, with the people I have met as much as possible. I think I was interested in their stories and opinions. I think everyone has potential to make his or her own project. I would love to organize an exchange about (body) positivity and maybe also in combination with the influence of social media among youngsters.

· Yes, youth inclusion to social life (politics, active life) events thatare important for a country.

Do you think this youthexchange reach its objectives? Was it successful? What changes should be made for the future?

· It was a successful project. I got enlighten about gender equality.

· Good, mainly the areas that led to debate.

· Yes. I think we were talking about everything with passion and very deeply, so I really like it.

· This training really reached my objectives, because after this program I think I am a better person because we learned to be respectful to each other. The changes should be made for not working too much time in the same area, try to work at the hotel in the morning, to visit the city or other activities in the afternoon.

· I think the main objective was to give a basic idea/ understanding regarding the problem with gender equality/ inequality.

· Yes. I learned a lot about gender equality. The way we tried to understand and talk it was so successful!

· Of course it does. You get to know various people’s opinions and it really changed my mind about some countries situations.

· This project was extremely useful to me, I learned a lot of new things I met new friends and improved my English.

· I think it was successful because we are young people and we are the future. We can spread the word and tell to other what we learned; tell about problems and solutions too. I think this kind of projects should be massive, because it really helps to see problems.

· Yes, I think it surpassed its goals. It was successful.

· Yes. Yes. Morning room activities and afternoon street activities.

· This training reached all the objectives that they proposed.

How were the activities, methods of youth exchange program Project?

· I like it. We had chances to get to know everyone. We did teamwork and we had different ways of discussions, so everyone got the same chance to give their opinion. I’m satisfied about this week.

· Funny. Creative. Helpful. Full of communication. Interesting.

· The activities were very good, different from each other, but very tiring because we spent many hours working.

· Everything was good. The workshops and presentations were on the theme. And everyone’s opinion was important for trainers and organizers.

· The method was nice and on everyone understands.

· Good enough to make people open up about the topic and push themselves to leave their comfort zone.

· Good and useful, sometimes too short (not enough to discuss about particular topics). Drama (based on human rights articles) was great. Discussions (6 topics, different tables) gave a better understanding, could have been more of these kind of workshops.

· It was very good, like I already said I like everything about the project, even food.

· Methods were really good I liked drama activities and games. I communicated with all the people and even I have been here 7 days. I fell in love with this people.

· Activities were great to understand each other easily. More interactive way to learn. Thank you!

· I liked that activities which were more free-type, non-formal. Activities like workshop, discussions or lessons taken from foreigners expanded my way of thinking.

· Methods were really very interesting and fun, the people we were with this week were extremely experienced.

· The activities were very awesome, we had so much fun, we talked a lot and we did some interesting activities.

· The activities were interesting, interactive, inside and outside. Every activity was ok.

· I really liked all the energizers. The methods which were used had impact and made me think about the subject. I think the activities were a good way to make me aware about the subject. I can say when we began we were strangers for each other, at the end of the project we are friends.

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Equal in Life, Different in Gender

FINAL REPORT

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