Intercâmbio TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era

Aqui podem ler mais testemunhos dos participantes do intercâmbio TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era, que decorreu de 9 a 17 de Outubro de 2017 em Lisboa. 

Dominika Ostańkowicz, Poland

Felling and memories about the exchange:  The story of my exchange started by feeling afraid about people, travelling alone and my not so good level in English. I fastly recognize it wasn't necessary. People in exchange are really amusing we have a friendly atmosphere. We make a little community based on empathy and explore our culture. It was also a great opportunity to practise English. Many of people send me an invitation to their countries, so my calendar is full of places which I have never been before. I will remember this time for so long and recommend to other people. 

Klimentina Gjorgjioska, Macedonia 

Being both a group leader and a participant at this youth exchange, was very challenging for me since this was my first youth exchange. I have already been part of Erasmus mobility projects, but just training courses. Taking part in this project, undoubtedly opened new perspectives to me and reassured me once again how powerful young people are with their skills and creative thinking.I was very enthusiastic about my participation here because as a political scientist I am deeply interested in analyzing the emerging tendencies like post-truth societies and post-democratic practices. This exchange contributed to deepen further my critical and contemplative prism of the reality we are living in.Also, it showed me that engaged and motivated young people can make significant work if they work in teams and respect the opinion of the others.I am glad, I had the opportunity to meet youngsters from Poland, Estonia, Italy, Portugal, Scotland and share with them my opinions as well as experience Lisbon together.It is always amazing to be part of workshops and project that bring diversity and different mindset together because you can always find inspiration there. Thank you, SPIN, for enabling us this great experience. 

Francesco Diperno, Italy 

Getting knowledge about something let you control it; take it for granted and it will control you. That's why it's very important to be aware of what is happening around us, to be curious and especially to start asking ourselves questions that were never lingering in our heads. Critical thinking means get out of society's gates and go directly inside of us. Who are we? What is true? What is false? Why? We were born in an unfair world, where it's easier to believe in lies. During the youth exchange "TH!NK, youth and the post-truth era", 9th-17th October, we focused on this, trying to open our eyes to the world. Recognizing lies covering uncomfortable truths, dealing with journalism and media (even in a practical way, also going to visit "Diario de Noticias"), and, especially, learning by doing. Workshop, activities, visits filled our days make them full of meaning. Every moment was coloured by knowledge, smiles and life. A mix of cultures, languages, habits and different points of view, we were all together to be better, to make the world better, somehow, in our way. I'm very glad to have been part of this project and I really thank Spin organization to all the work behind this. So if you are reading stop sitting on your sofa and start travelling, meeting people from everywhere and being part of Erasmus+ projects. It will change your life! 

Antonio Atanasovski, Macedonia 

Hello everyone, this my first youth exchange. I took one Erasmus+ training, but the concept here is totally different. We had lots of fun and time to enjoy hanging out with people, exploring Lisbon but most importantly learn to think critically. Before I arrived I thought I knew everything about fake news and the post-truth concept, but as I saw I was really wrong. Lisbon is a city with a huge spectrum of diversity, there is the old town which looks exactly like the map from Assasins creed, also the modern buildings, where we visited the office of popular newspaper company and had the chance to write a paper and speak with the journalists. Then there are the museums, we visited the Museum of Liberty, where I learned about Salzar, the censorship and the propaganda that was going. The best part is that I learned that the revolution started when a certain song started playing on the radio. If you take walk on the Bario Alto area, you could notice as you are walking you can hear 5 or more different languages just on one street. 

This a picture of me and my new friends. 

I could write so much about this experience, but I will keep it short. I want to say that there is something magical about meeting totally different people or exactly same as you, which I did. You can see that things have many different perspectives, which sometimes we have the same news in a different form. So if you, my reader, are going into western Europe, visit Portugal. You will learn so much and meet so many beautiful people into the city that never sleeps.

Intercâmbio TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era

O intercâmbio "TH!NK: youth & the post-truth era" decorreu de 9 a 17 de Outubro de 2017 no Bairro Padre Cruz em Lisboa. Aqui ficam uns pequenos testemunhos de alguns dos participantes

Agata Siwak, Poland

I had decided to participate in my first youth exchange only 4 days before it started. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for it, but as soon as I got there and met these incredible people, I knew it was a place for me. I loved Lisbon, especially at nights with live music. The atmosphere, the company, the weather… Everything was perfect. Thanks to the people, workshops turned out to be exciting and interesting. The hosts did their best to give us another great experience. Having participated in this youth exchange, I can surely say that it will not be the last one.

Aneta Ligenza, Poland 

It was my first youth exchange. I was really excited but full of fears about my skills and knowledge. New experiences, new people, different cultures. The subject of exchange was for me interesting. I'm a street photographer and knowing about post-truth is for me necessary. Every workshop was a great way to learn new skills, listen to other participants. This exchange wasn't only workshops but meeting new people, sharing our passion, trying new meals from 5 other countries, sightseeing and exploring Lisbon all together. I think I will be looking for another exchange because is a great way to explore Europe.

Shirley Van-Dúnem, Portugal

Being in a youth exchange for one week can make us experience different emotions: we can be homesick or find another home next to new people, we can feel tired and really exhausted and even without energy try to enjoy the experience to its fullest because we know that in a blink of eyes it will all be gone soon. Living in the host country of this youth exchange remember us of the pressure to treat others like we would like them to treat us, it's all about learning, respecting boundaries and turn what makes us different from each other the reason why we need each other.

Ana Sofia Abreu, Portugal 

As a Portuguese girl I had only participated in Youth Exchanges outside my country, but Spin gave me the opportunity to spend ten days with amazing youngsters in Lisbon. The experience was quite different. Being from the hosting country makes us have a different participation in the programme as we are able to communicate with the natives and know the surroundings. Regarding the thematics, the workshops were very interesting and my knowledge about freedom of expression and freedom of press in Europe changed my perspective, as some countries still struggle with this issues. The multicultural differences between the participants is also one of the things I liked the most. With so many historical and personal backgrounds it was impossible not to learn so much about the other countries and other nationalities- we even tried typical meals from each country. Also, the friendship built in these 10 days just proves that no matter how different we are, the foundations of respect and togetherness are real and we all feel very European! And in the end of all this, what we learnt the most is that... what's really important is to TH!NK !!

Kristo Tamm, Estonia

I spent a week in Lisbon, Portugal as part of an Erasmus+ Youth Exchange. The exchange gathered participants from Estonia, Portugal, Poland, Macedonia, Italy and Scotland. The project was extremely constructive, interesting and beneficial. The topic of the exchange was an important one: post-truth politics, combined with the concern for the youth and their ability to navigate in this new world in which we now live. During this 7-day exchange, we had a wide variety of constructive exercises that helped develop our critical thinking and analytical skills. We had workshops with smaller groups, thus giving everyone a chance to speak their mind, but we also had exercises involving everyone at the same time. Additionally, we watched a thought-provoking documentary, visited Lisbon, and enjoyed each other's cultures, by having country dinners each night. As this was my first youth exchange, I did not know what to expect. However, all my expectations were exceeded, as the project was organised superbly, the participants were nice and the location was beautiful. I made a lot of new friends, learned about some lovely cultures and gained a huge amount of new knowledge about the topic of the project. 

Lola Milkovska, Macedonia

This is my first youth exchange and therefore I am very happy to be part of it.I think that is very inspirational to bring people from different countries together and make them work on different thematics. This youth exchange made me think more critically towards media and politics. I gained new skills, knowledge and a great experience. This was also my first time in Portugal.I get to know more about the political, cultural and societal aspects of this wonderful country. It was great and challenging to be part of the intercultural evenings.I am happy I had the opportunity to bring the Macedonian cuisine and tradition to the participants from different countries.I also enjoyed the other international evenings and cuisines and therefore I feel closer to the other counties. It was a pleasure to be around this kind of people because I made new friends and I experienced new things. I definitely recommend Erasmus + mobility projects to young people around the world.

Pedro Carvalho, Portugal 

This was my first time doing a youth exchange and I really enjoyed it! During this last week, we did a lot of different activities to get to know each other and also discuss the topic of post-truth. What I liked the most about this experience was the interaction with people from other countries and to learn more about them and the history/culture of their countries. I learned a lot I didn't know about these countries and now I want to visit them to learn even more and experience the wonderful things each country has. I'm taking a gap year and now I'm thinking about doing a trip around central and eastern Europe to visit some of the countries that were represented in this youth exchange. I really enjoyed the theme of the youth exchange as well, I love thinking about topics such as freedom of speech, what is truth, politics and media manipulation... I think these projects are a great opportunity to meet other people and learn about interesting topics and what it means to be European. It's also a good way to travel so I want to do youth exchanges in the future outside Portugal so I experience what it's like to do have an experience like this in a different country. To sum it all up, I think the projects and activities were very well organized and the people amazing!