For twelve days, the small Hungarian town of Nagykovácsi was the centre of an international youth encounter. It is a place that offers the best of both worlds: It is beautifully situated in the countryside, while being only a stone’s throw from the bustling metropolis of Budapest.
The gathering brought together young people from the local groups organised by Jugendakademie Walberberg (Bornheim, Germany), Szubjektív (Budapest, Hungary), and Maximilian-Kolbe-Haus DMK (Gdańsk, Poland). Due to their project partnership in the network of Generation Europe – The Academy, had already met in Germany and Poland, so now it was time for the return visit to Hungary. Here is a report from this exciting youth encounter, written by Tamara Arany-Tóth, Salah Rakti, Hanna Nowak and Silvio Żerebiec:
After a loooong journey for the German and Polish group, they arrived at the beautiful venue on the countryside of Hungary to have unforgettable 12 days together.
On the first day, we started by refreshing our memories with a few games to get to know each other and agreed on a group contract for the week – in other words, the rules we wanted to stick to when living together during the youth encounter. We also expressed our expectations, fears and needs to each other. Immediately afterwards, we created some beautiful works of art and got a little messy in the process.
In the afternoon, we got to know the venue better with a cool rally game and then reflected on what we had done and achieved since last year’s youth encounter in Gdansk, Poland.
The next day we started with a ‘Whats Up’ round followed by a active listening routine. Afterwards, we did a movement activity where we explored the nearby forest and spent some time in nature.
Back at our accommodation, all three local groups presented their projects they had been working on over the past year. We ended the day with a reflection session.
For the third day, the Polish group had prepared a workshop about mediation in practice. We learned the definition of mediation and got familiar with it by doing exercises and having examples. It is a structured procedure in which the parties voluntarily and independently try to reach an acceptable solution to their conflict with the help of a mediator. At the end of the day, everyone had their reflection in the groups, where we could express feelings about the programme and how we liked it.
The following day was dedicated to ARTivism: The participants had the chance to make posters and collages about topics that are important to them as activists.
After that, we spent an entire day in Budapest. In the morning we went on a street art tour guided by Box With Wings, a sticker and street artist based in Budapest. We had lángos for lunch, and then we free to explore the city.
Having visited the Hungarian capital, we continued our work in Nagykovácsi the following day. The workshops on communication and problem-solving were fantastic experiences! We gathered to enhance our skills and collaborate more effectively. Through engaging activities and insightful discussions in both workshops, we learned how to communicate more efficiently and tackle challenges together. This is a significant step towards achieving our goals and fostering a strong, united team. So we finished the day by being excited for our journey ahead and the amazing things we will accomplish.
But because all good things come to an end, we started to prepare for the grande finale of our youth encounter. For that, we filmed videos about the amazing three year journey of our partnership, and painted our own tote bags. After that, we had actually planned a hike, but the weather turned bad, so we had to cancel it. But the Polish group saved the day by making pierogi. There were plenty, and they were absolutely delicious!
It is moments like these that make our youth encounters unforgettable. We can’t wait to see what’s next!
Many thanks for providing some of the photos to Jorge Cordoba!