Escape to diversity – Training course

Escape to diversity - Training course

Unlike other projects organized by our organizations, this project was supported by the International Visegrad Fund, which promotes the development of cooperation among the Visegrad Four countries - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. That is why the participants were from these countries, and the training took place in Ukraine, in the city of Poltava.

As the name of our training course suggests, we focused on the topic of diversity and the use of educational escape rooms for youth work.

Our journey began two days before the start of the project, and since we flew to Kyiv airport, we couldn't miss the opportunity to explore this beautiful city, so we took a short trip to discover its historical beauties.

The first day of our training consisted of getting to know the participants through various games, and the next two days followed a similar theme, but in addition to ice-breaking games, there were also games where we realized the differences in cultures and values. We discussed national and religious minorities in our countries. We learned more about concepts such as tolerance, inclusion, diversity, and discrimination, and we also presented our knowledge and opinions on the situation of minority rights in the world. Some problems we encounter regarding minorities in our countries are common to most countries, but there are also some that we predominantly face only ourselves.

The intercultural evening was very interesting, during which we had the opportunity to present interesting facts about Slovakia and also learn something interesting about other countries. Even though we border the countries from which the participants came and thought we had some knowledge about them, we learned a lot of new things! The best part, however, was tasting foreign delicacies.

The following days, we dealt with the topic of Escape Rooms. We discussed the types of escape rooms and the basic aspects that every escape room should contain, and we tried creating tasks for the game participants. We visited several escape rooms in the city center and discussed what we liked most and what we didn't, so we would know what to avoid when creating an escape room. Alongside these pleasant duties, we also explored the beauties of the town.

We divided into three teams, in which we were to create a room. The main purpose of the rooms was to highlight ethnic, religious, or gender minorities. We created these rooms on the premises of the university in Poltava. Before we started working on the room, we meticulously prepared the game plan and the necessary material for our game. We received a budget and from it, we bought all the locks and useful items that we planned to use in our game. After 3 days of intensive work on our rooms, we finally reached the point where it was possible to test each other's rooms. It was very interesting for us to watch someone solve a task that we had devised, and at the same time, it was great to test the rooms of the other teams. After constructive criticism, each team had another half day to improve their rooms, and the next day our escape rooms were open to the public. Finally, we disassembled our rooms and created a manual for using our tasks.

The diversity of food available during the project cannot be overlooked. We tasted several traditional dishes and drinks in Ukraine, such as Borsch, Salo, Varenyky, Deruny (potato pancakes), Nalysnyky, and Poltava Galushky.

This project was exceptional and left us with unforgettable memories.