On the first day, I was excited. However, when we were already at the villa, I felt scared because I thought I would be shy and uncomfortable. But as we started, I discovered many things about volunteering.
The socializing part was amazing—I loved how people took care of each other. Everyone was kind and respectful.
On other days, I learned that I gained much more than just knowledge from the activities; I also learned how to feel empathy. Learning in another language was challenging but also very useful.
I’m eager to use my knowledge about human rights in my everyday life as soon as possible. I also plan to talk about it in my school and share my experiences with my friends.
😊😊😊
After long journey we arrived to Širvintos and even though we were quite tired we made communication from the first day and we started getting to know each other with many fun activities. The team is very diverse and it was nice to interact with people with different backgrounds. Also cultural nights are great events for that. I personally haven’t been involved that directly in planning workshops or activities, so it was interesting to see myself participate in them and to have creativity. So I would say that I learned many things not only new energizers as well and met many interesting people, who shared their experience through the sessions and made the process more fulfilled. Except participants we had communication with youth workers who shared their important inputs and helped us to see the volunteering or youth work from different point of view. I feel like I lived more than 3 years here because of all the knowledge I received and I hope I will be able to inform others as well.
♥♥♥♥
I didn’t expect to get chosen to participate in the project, so I was really excited when I got the phone call from my organisation. Throughout preparation, they answered all of my questions (which I had a lot of), but I still had a lot of doubts, and I was scared of the experience. After a long and difficult journey, we didn’t do anything after arrival, so I was nervous about the upcoming day. It was positively surprising the next day how nice and easy the activities were, but mostly we did introductory things to get to know each other better. From Saturday to Monday, we had about 6 hours’ worth of activities each day, and I really enjoyed how interactive everything was. I felt myself open up and try to participate more in each activity we did, but to be honest, I was not the most active or talkative one, but I could feel myself stepping out of my comfort zone and thinking in a different way than I usually do.
On Tuesday, we had a lecture, which was a much more traditional form of learning, and on Wednesday, we had to give two lessons to fifth graders, which was definitely the most difficult thing we did the entire time, and it made me step up and assert myself, which I would have never done otherwise.
Overall, learning this non-traditional way made me think of human rights in a much more complex way, and I really enjoyed the debates, as it allowed for expression of opinion, learned a lot about how others think and about the most important aspects of human rights that I can implement into my everyday life and my further studies. Now that I am leaving, I’m really glad that I had the courage and the opportunity to come and to experience this whole week, and I’m really thankful for everyone who made it possible to happen.
💙💙💙
My experience about this training course was generally good. I learned from 22nd November till 27th some knowledge about Human Rights.
We made some groups from participants and did some activities for learning human rights. It was good to meet local people, to speak and to learn from them about its connection with human rights.
🙋🙋🙋
On 22 November 2024, I started my journey from Budapest to Szinvitós with the high hope of learning about the Compass method in Human Rights. While I had preliminary knowledge about human rights, this journey was no less than an exciting and learning new things.
Every day, we started the session with games. At first look, it seemed more fun, but the games were actually associated with learning. This gamification teaching method inspired my attention for the whole day. Further, I got to know more about the cultures and governance of more than ten countries.
I’ve discovered similar problems in our country and shared our personal experiences to overcome the issues. Finally, I got connected with people from different countries and cultures. Despite our inherent differences, our bond will shine brighter.
I really wish that our paths will cross in the future in an unknown land. Till then, Bella Ciao!
🍎🍎🍎🍎
My expectations from project were pretty accurate. I thought we will have different games through the days. However, I was not expecting for swim be in Hotel. 6 hours a day. Food was delicious and became comfortable condition. I learned a lot, it was funny and playful. I learned about "Compass". Improved my reading skill. Trainers were helpful. Although sometimes I had trouble understanding what was said on sessions due to language barrier.
I like this compass of Energizer and games including movement.
In school teaching 12-graders wasn’t easy, but I learned that everybody should respect each other, human rights are topics we should talk more about. When I saw graphs about Lithuania more than 50% didn’t wanted their neighbors so be honored and I find it interesting. I am happy with the results from this Erasmus +
ADAM
🌳🌳🌳
Before this project I thought that in other countries there were more better situation about human rights and Georgia was week in this field, but now I think that every country even the most developed ones, have problems about human rights.
Human rights (is a cultural) needs a very big cultural change in generation and it's a very complicated thing, but I think we can go on slowly and try our best to improve, at least, the condition of people at least around us.
We need to start changes from ourselves.
Alisa
💗💗💗
I started travel from Budapest on the 22nd of Nov. I had a connecting flight in Warsaw, Poland. My second flight was canceled. They gave me a new ticket for another 3 hours at Warsaw airport. :( That was my experience at the airport. I reached Lithuania at 5 pm. It was really cold. My friends and I took the bus from the airport to the main bus station, and we had to take another bus to the last stop. We finally arrived at the accommodation at 10 pm.
The next day, we got the training. It was the time that everyone got to know each other. We played games after games. The 2nd day was really into the materials. We learned about the Compass. It had lots of information about different rights. It had different activities that are ready to use. I liked how we ended with evaluation each day. I learned so much from the trainers and from other participants. I was so impress by my classmates. They had so much knowledge about the topic.
My biggest moment was the day that we can put everything we learned into practice. We went to the school to share about human rights. I thought it would be difficult to share to the youth. But, it went so well. I gave all the credit to my friends, my team.
Lastly, this is one of the best experiences I had since I studied in Europe. I’d like to thanks to the trainers and all my friends.
😃😃😃
Hello, I'm Caterina and my story of the Compass project began on 21st November when I got on the train Lviv-Kyiv.
In Lviv, I met another participant and we started working on a presentation about our NGO and a concept of presentation of our country at the Cultural Night.
When we finally got to Širvintos, I was a little worried that because of my lack of English skills, I would be alone and not understand anything.
However, from the first day, I realized that I would be supported here and started to speak without fear of mistakes.
Morning exercises gave me strength and positive emotions for the whole day, and the support of other participants helped me overcome difficulties and fears.
Every day I learned to interact with a group of complete strangers from different countries in a foreign language. I learned to be a leader and be part of a team, to take initiative and delegate tasks.
The trainings showed us that talking about human rights violations is difficult but necessary.
And we learned how to talk about important things in accessible language.
Various activities developed creativity, the ability to find a common language, and a way out of difficult situations.
My favorite part was the debates because it was the first time I overcame my fear and debated in English.
The quintessence of our training was to conduct two lessons at the school for schoolchildren on human rights.
It was interesting to prepare these lessons together with the team, whose members are from different parts of the world.
We were looking for an approach to each other, and then we were looking for an approach to the children. I found everything I was looking for on Erasmus+.
Thank you,
Caterina
👀👀👀👀
My name is Daniela, and I want to tell you about my journey to Vilnius. I started my adventure by taking the train from Constanta to Bucharest. The train journey was pleasant, and I had the opportunity to admire the beautiful landscapes of Romania. Once I arrived in Bucharest, I changed trains and headed to the airport. Thus, I boarded a plane that took me from Bucharest to Riga. After a short wait, I boarded another plane that finally took me to Vilnius.
The weather in Vilnius was cold. When I arrived in Vilnius, I felt a little bit lost because I didn't know how to get to my destination. There were so many streets, but I had no idea which direction to take. So, I decided to message the guide. After a few moments, I received her response with the exact address. I felt much more at ease and knew what to do. In Vilnius, I had the opportunity to meet people from various countries, each with their own stories and cultures. It was fascinating to interact with them, but I also encountered some difficulties.
Often, I felt uncomfortable integrating into discussions because I didn't know how to express myself or what to talk about. This situation made me realize how important it is to overcome our shyness and open up to others.
❤❤❤❤
It all started when I took a tram to get to the train station. The train brought me to the biggest airport in Bucharest, Otopeni. After a long plane ride, I explored the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius. I got to know the participants. I made new friends, like Klement. I learned about the Compass handbook, about how important human rights are today. The energizer methods helped us to be in a good mood.
I learned more about European grants. I hope we can access them easily to make our community better.
Diana
💚💚💚💚
I remember when I found out that I can join the human rights project. I was so happy that I looked for tickets immediately. Getting to Lithuania was a long way, I had to stay such a long time in Warsaw, and getting up at 3 am for my Vilnius flight.
But quickly I came to Vilnius and met other volunteers in the bus station. During that week, we had some amazing activities. We saw how different our thoughts were and how agreed on many points. For example, human rights in schools and towns.
Just last and we were able to make a project about human rights in which we had to present to schools on a town that human right and the only things we know was their special challenges just so worth it.
👲👲👲👲
My experience has been very rewarding. Despite not being very sure about to participate in this experience due to my level of English, I believe I have been brave in facing this language challenge, and I have no regrets at all. I think this type of project will help me improve my English skills. Day by day, I've been able to adapt more, especially during the workshop to children at school. Although I'm used to giving workshops to children, I'm not used to doing so in English, so it has been a real challenge for me.
I'm very happy with this experience because it has helped me grow personally, and I've learned to use Compass Manual, which is very useful resource, especially for my future job.
I've loved meeting people from cultures that are completely different from mine, and I believe that's what I take away from this experience, aside from the knowledge.
I hope that next time, I'll be able to handle the English language better.
👍👍👍
Before the project, I didn’t know what I was going to live during this whole week in Lithuania. It’s true that I need to arrive home and think a few times about these days abroad, but I can already share some knowledge and feelings that I’ve been exploring.
First of all, I should say that I’m from Spain. I write this because I have discovered new people from several countries so far away from home. We have more differences than things in common in our context, but it’s an added value. Even more when we discuss about human rights and the social context of each country. It’s not a secret that we live in different cultures, but it’s good to hear about this topic in the context of each country. Maybe what is daily life situations for me, it’s not for everybody, so it’s important to realize that we need to understand Human Rights from a global perspective.
After meeting everybody and sharing experiences, it was time to look for and find out some resources and strategies to put in practice all this knowledge. So we discovered Compass Manual. This manual gave us some methods and activities to work on Human Rights through education. We have had the chance to implement these activities both among ourselves and with students in high school.
It was nice and interesting to work with students to have another perspective of education and to realize how difficult it is sometimes to work on such important topics with future generations.
I think at the end of this project that we have gained strategies to work on these topics in our communities, and we have become “Human Rights Makers.”
😼😼😼
From the first moment we arrived at the house I was very excited, but also scared. My level of English is not very high and I was afraid that I would not be able to participate in the activities or have friends to enjoy the experience with, besides it was the first time that I participated in a course of this type, in another country and with people completely different from me.
I liked the first classes a lot because I had never been in such a dynamic class and little by little I understood that this was what it was all about, that we should understand what they were explaining and that we should have fun.
As time went by I gained confidence and participated more in the activities, besides meeting very interesting people.
Without a doubt, I have taken with me a unique experience with which I have learned a lot and with which I am sure I will be able to implement what I have learned in my future work.
💕💕💕💕
Hiii... I’m Murat from Turkey. I was very excited when I heard about the project. My journey had started in Kayseri and finally reached Sirvintos. During this process, I did search about the project and Širvintos. When the project began, I learned how little I knew about other countries and human rights. Different methods I learned about human rights showed me how to look at the issue of human rights from different perspectives.
The participants’ curiosity about learning increased my need to learn as well. While I was going home from the project, I gained a lot of knowledge and experience about Lithuania and human rights. I increased my curiosity for learning with this project. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Erasmus+
❤❤❤
I learn Human rights and compass from 22-27, and I gain experience in school for how teach Human rights to students, and make Fried this journey. I learned everything for example Compass method in Human rights thanks for every thing! Love you
💘💘💘💘
To the first day, that I came to Vilnius, I was really amazed. I didn’t know anybody and my knowledge about human rights was limited. I slowly got to know other participants and most importantly organizers. The second day we started with games and activities to know each other. In the afternoon I got to know about organizations others came with and what are some of the human violations they have in their countries. In noon we had cultural nights and I could learn something about each others background. The third day we had activities connected with human rights. For example debates and newsletters about human rights. I learned quite a lot that day and I discussing more about human rights. Next days we continued with activities and we learned what Compass is and through activity called “Compass is more than book. Next day we did work with Compass. Read it and tried to implement is in high school. It was successful for some groups for some not. But I still think it was great experience for us. On last day, after implementing is we stayed in youth center and learned what volunteers do for community here.
👫👫👫
For me the project started with preparations for it. I read a lot of information about human rights in general and especially in Ukraine. After I had studied enough information, my groupmate and I started working on our presentation while we were on the way to the project venue. The first day was more about getting to know the participants and team building.
On the second day, we had the opportunity to learn more about human rights from other participating countries and share our country's experience, which is no less important. On the third day, the thing I remember most was how we made newspapers in teams. It was cool experience. Also, I liked the debate. And the most interesting part is, of course, the last two days of our project because I learned a lot of and realized a lot of things for myself during these two days and also gained an unforgettable experience. The most important thing I realised after this project is that every voice is important and if you do something, it can change the world.
✅✅✅
On our second they the activities about human rights started, and was so fascinating. All our activities were about human rights and I got to know many things such as: respect, group work, social rights and etc. For me as a teenager was so interesting listening to political activities and debate, and we were talking about elections (I had no idea what was it before).
I am a lawyer in Istanbul. I studied law and I am doing my Master. So, I had detailed knowledge about human rights. However, it is easy to learn the names of rights and some examples of violations of human rights. However, thanks to the informal education method, we learned from each other. I know what kind of problems Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Lithuania, Georgia, Romania, Spain, and Slovakia faced and how they found solutions or they challenged. Now, thanks to the project, I know about "manual compass" and more empathy.
Serdarhan
First, thanks for everything. I am happy to learn Compass manual in Human Rights, and this journey is memorable for me (from 22-28).
I learned group works. I think group works improve my skills.
Hello! My name is Sopio and I come from Georgia. I must state that I had high expectations from this training course. I’m happy to say that they were absolutely met.
Before the trip I had three group calls, two of them with our sending organization Umbrella, and one only participants, during which we went through the Info-pack, discussed our questions and worked on our homework. The homework part was quite interesting.
As a group we prepared a presentation about human rights in Georgia and our sending organization Umbrella. Also, we prepared for the upcoming cultural night.
The days before the start of project passed quickly. We met at the Tbilisi Airport and took off first towards Warsaw where we had a connecting flight to Vilnius. The flights were quite tiring but arriving at Vilnius gave us so much energy and motivation. We even had a chance to spend 3 hours in Vilnius before we could take our bus to Sirvintos. From Sirvintos Bus Station, Zivile drove us to our new home for the following week.
After the 1st day’s activities and first cultural night I felt that bonding process with the group was going well. The days were full of activities. Normally I would get tired but not these days because the topics, activities, and the group was diverse and interesting. I felt at ease to express my opinions and get involved in the activities. I loved the respectful environment.
What I learned about myself is that travelling with a group of people is so much less stressful. I noticed that I’ve become brave to speak up when I feel the need, to take initiative and reveal my leadership skills.
I love learning more about Human Rights and observing the trainers. How they lead the activities, what do they include in the program and how they deal with complications.
I’m on my way to become a trainer, and it has been one of my objectives for this project.
Sopio
I am very glad I started my journey from Vilnius. I was so excited for the project. I expected to meet people from other cultures and backgrounds that would give me wider perspectives on life. I also wanted to learn more about human rights and Compass manual.
As a citizen of this world, it is our duty to learn our responsibilities. So, I started to search about Compass manual before I came here. That gave me more or less the structure of the project when I travelled from Vilnius to Sirventos.
I feel like we are in a safe place that is so important to start the project. After we started the project, we did many activities, played games, and did our first cultural night for a week. I loved how our trainers tried their best to bring us closer and how other participants were so lovely and respectful to each other. Everyone was so lovely and respectful to each other.
We joined a seminar on the next day. I had an opportunity to become a teacher for 2 hours. I tried my best, and it thought me a lot of things. I learned how to keep students' focus and how to deal with them. I had fun and learned a lot at the same time. I appreciate your effort in the projects.
Thank you for your effort in the projects.
Bella Vera
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