From November 7th to 14th, the Fundació Catalunya Voluntaria coordinated a very special activity: the youth exchange ‘Learning from Nature – The Sahara Experience’, featuring a group of 37 people from 6 Mediterranean countries: Algeria, Spain, Italy, Lebanon, Portugal, and Tunisia, 31 of whom young people under 30 years old.
The objectives of the activity were to raise awareness of environmental challenges, paying special attention to water use in a context of scarcity and desertification, as well as to analyze the various environmental challenges shared by the 6 countries, with the Mediterranean being the natural and geographical space where the climate emergency and the extremely inefficient use of natural resources endanger the lives of future generations.
The group discovered the impact that non-formal learning activities have on the discovery of new interests and the improvement of skills, and also on the creation of new friendships.
Over the course of a week, we conducted presentations, games, workshops, and visits, dedicating one day to exploring the challenges in the six participating countries and regions, guided by the six groups; four nights were devoted to presenting the diverse cultures, with program highlights such as the desert visit and the presentation of the five campaigns, created during the event itself and focused on these shared challenges: water scarcity, lack of biodiversity, desertification, dependence on fossil fuels, and pollution.
The Sahara experience included visiting a couple of oases and the city of Nefta, developing greater awareness and responsibility for environmental care, and practicing a range of skills that are increasingly essential, for both the FCV and the other five partner organizations, such as teamwork, communication, intercultural, and linguistic skills. English, even though it is not the native language of any of the participants, has been the only language of the activity, requiring an effort, considering that half of the group can communicate in Arabic, French and a mixture of Catalan, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish.
The activity not only improved our understanding of the water emergency situation in the various countries, but also fostered a profound sense of community that is difficult to describe. The strong bonds of friendship forged between the groups give us hope in a context marked by a culture of war and the brutality of the crimes committed on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.
The overwhelmingly positive feedback on the activity encourages us to continue promoting exchange activities based on respect, understanding, and collaboration between youth organizations in the northern and southern Mediterranean region.
We are grateful for and acknowledge the support of the European Commission’s Erasmus+ program and the dedication of the host organization, Association Solidarité Échange et Développment-ASED (Tunisia), and our partner organizations: APS Strauss (Italy), Association Culturelle ‘Arco en Ciel’ (Algeria), and Jograis Audazes (Portugal).
For more information about the activity results, please send me an email to projectes@catalunyavoluntaria.cat
