On May 21, the Fundació Catalunya Voluntària was part of an extraordinary event: the celebration of World Mediterranean Day and the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, which took place in Alexandria (Egypt).
As it was a celebratory and festive event, the speeches were at the beginning and very brief: the Minister of Youth and Sports welcomed the attendees in a recorded online message, and the director of the event’s organizing NGO: Mediterranean Youth Foundation for Development-MYF informed on the activities they carry out throughout the country; followed by a young woman doing an internship at MYF, who encouraged attendees to combine their studies with solidarity practices in youth organizations and groups, presentation which was followed by Lluc Martí, project manager at the FCV, who briefly presented the FCV and two of its key concepts: active volunteering and intercultural learning, to motivate attendees to discover the entire Mediterranean traveling to other countries, not to find work, study or tourism, but to volunteer, thanks to the existence of community action programs such as the European Solidarity Corps and Erasmus+ in which young Egyptians can participate.
The event, which lasted about 4 hours, was at the Young Theater, located within the Youth City, which is part of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, with the participation of more than two hundred participants, including authorities, representatives of youth NGOs and the group of young musicians and singers ‘Harmonia’ who made the public enjoy the variety of rhythms and
sounds of the Mediterranean, showing the power that music has to understand beyond language, who were accompanied by various young Egyptian artists, comedians, poets and singers, who lifted the audience from their seats and reminded us that, unlike music, to enjoy poetry or performance it is necessary to know the language.
The event continued with a general culture contest about the Mediterranean, giving small gifts to the young audience, and ended with a party with part of the audience dancing on stage.
Lluc was in Egypt from May 20 to 27 as a participant in a mobility program to create new partnerships hosted by MYF in Cairo and carried out with the support of the Anna Lindh Foundation for Intercultural Dialogue.