Armenia Follow Up

On 11th September, on 7th September, on 4th September participants from Armenia, Tatevik Sahakyan, Nane Margaryan, Lilit Gasparyan, Simon Arsenyan, implemented a follow up activity which was a seminar for 20 person in 3 meetings in Yerevan, Oshakan and Ashtarak.

In September, the group of Armenia implemented dissemination project which aimed to share our gained knowledge and experience with the youth from challenging areas. After spending nine productive days in Athens, Greece, we came back to Armenia with refreshed emotions, lifelong experience, and practical knowledge. That is why we decided to make the youth from our communities aware of such opportunities that Erasmus + suggests and get insight into active citizenship. We targeted youngsters for our dissemination and could gathered for our 3 seminars around 19 high school students. During our meeting, we shared with our group how we found the application of the project, which criteria were used to be selected participants, what opportunities Erasmus+ provided to each participant, what was the theme and the aim of the "IMMHEALD'' project, what were the outcomes and so on. With a very well pictured and designed presentation, we spoke about the project, what activities we did, and what was the purpose and importance of the theme of the project. We showed many pictures and videos to make a better perception of our experience. One of the most demanded and frequently asked questions was about Erasmus and how youth can use the opportunities which it gives. With the help of different sources, we make them more aware of the programs, youthpass, etc. Below, you can find some pictures which would give a better insight into our session.

Nane - One of the keys to our success was the well-organized entertaining and, at the same time, educational team-building activities, which included breaking the boundaries of the participants, ice breakings, activities for thinking out of the box, and so on.

Another key to our success was the spread of cultural awareness. In one project, people from different countries with different cultures, values, beliefs, and languages got together for the same purpose to empower people to be active citizens of the world. That is why to promote the communication process and group work of international people; we had two activities that made us more aware of each other and more respectable towards each other. Those activities were country profiles, where we introduced how different countries perceive active citizenship, and the second activity was the cultural nights, where we got acquainted with the culture, language, values, and uniqueness of each country.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the self and group reflections that we had at the end of each day. It helped us sum up the day, give feedback, discuss the strong and weak sides of the day, and suggest ideas to improve the program.

Simon - The program had a hard of a rough start for me as we had a long way to go before the flight. The beginning of the program was great and it was great until the end, we learned many things from other cultures. We got to know the culture of Greece more closely. We learned many things about mental life. Although my English was not so good, I enjoyed participating in this program.

Lilit - It was my first time participating in the Erasmus program. I have good impressions, except for a few things. Let me start with the good. The hotel was quite comfortable. The staff was friendly. A little about trainers. I'm kind of an introvert, but the trainers were really good at organizing activities that made me open up. I liked psychological activities more, which were challenging but interesting and revealing. Often, we went to the past and started analyzing ourselves. Thanks to them, I discovered some traits in myself. But at the same time, there were some activities that were so personal that I didn't want to talk about them. They hurt me somewhere and I would prefer not to remember or discuss them. But thank you for the opportunity. I hope I can still participate in the Erasmus program again.

Tatevik- This training course was not the first international program in my life but still I can definitely state that it was another opportunity for me to enlarge my network get to know with some cultures and use this information in my profession and work. The project was interestingly organized, the main topic was very heavy but thanks to professional approach we could speak and discuss the topic in an interesting and easy way meanwhile exchanging our own experience. After the project there were much information and useful tools that I could share during my follow-up activity after the project.