You(th) decide – final conference
You(th) decide - closing conference
The calendar showed August 12, 2019, and it was relatively pleasant and sunny outside. About 3 cars and one minivan were parked in front of the wooden apartment in the village of Bistuszowa near the town of Ryglice. In a nearby building, 25 young people from 4 different countries - V4 countries - had just met. They didn't know each other very well yet, how could they, they had only just met.
After the introductory speech by the 2 most important people - Ivan and Sewerín - we moved outside where the initial activities (so-called energizers) began. Moving like a samurai... shouting like - well, I can't even describe it, they were quite confusing with sudden changes in direction and order. But what, we managed it without any minor psychological harm. Subsequently, we had a few get-to-know-you activities inside the rather cozy building, where the sun shone through massive sliding windows. Even before the start of various games and tasks, we exchanged gifts between the individual organizations. We also received some sweet surprise from the Hungarian delegation. Time flew by, and suddenly we were informed that they had grilled delicacies for us. Since our stomachs were all rumbling quite a bit, this information pleased us. After we had eaten our fill, the meeting was again in the previously mentioned building, where we were all given tasks of everything we had to accomplish during tomorrow's conference. For a while, we became reporters, cameramen, bloggers, or vloggers. I'm not afraid to say even influencers! 🙂
The conference, which was actually the culmination of our previous activities at the local level, about which you can read here:
was full of emotions, new insights, and fun for enthusiastic students and other public figures who participated.
Finally, D-day arrived. One bus took us all from the guesthouse to a nearby town, where over 120 young people, public figures, and participants from V4 member countries met in a huge auditorium. Everyone watched with bated breath to see what would happen. After the introductory speech by our aforementioned duo, we - the individual delegations - began to introduce ourselves, briefly describe our country, and especially the activities we had achieved during the 3 local meetings.
First up was the Czech Republic, followed by Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland concluded. Each country prepared an interesting speech about its problems and solutions + some bonus -> dance... singing... there were no limits. After the individual speeches, we had a short break during which we had more space to talk with young Poles. We were quite surprised by their motivation and especially their willingness to chat with us in English. They seemed to enjoy it and be interested.
The break ended, and four representatives from each country took to the center of the stage. They jointly discussed how things work and don't work in their countries and tried to learn from the mistakes of other countries so that they could grow more progressively in their own country in what it was all about -> youth participation in their countries.
A few hours passed and the conference was drawing to a close, when a delicious lunch of traditional Polish specialties awaited us. It's funny that I'm mentioning food again, but during it, we also had dialogues about topics that interested us and concerned not only the conference.
After moving back to the guesthouse, full of emotions, we talked about the conference and the activities we had done. We showed our videos, articles, as well as posts and individual photos that we managed to take before, after, and during the conference. We were all very pleased that we had overcome ourselves and were able to speak in front of over a hundred people, and especially that we weren't just talking into the void. This was followed by an exchange of experiences from the short but highly informative 24 hours we spent together. Of course, everyone was sad that it was ending. As a group, we got along well and many friendships were formed that last to this day. But the message of this whole meeting needed to be carried further.
Even though we weren't in Ryglice for a long time, we managed to do a lot. We educated others, ourselves, the world... We overcame many of our fears and improved in what we are good at... not good at... in everything combined. Even though we weren't there for a long time, it was great. 🙂
The You(th) decide! training thus supported the creation of a community that, we believe, will continue to work regularly on the set goals contributing to improving the quality of life for young people in the V4 countries.
You can read the opinions of the participants here:
1 - Participant Noemi's opinion - SK
2 - Participant Natália's opinion - SK
3 - Participant Patrycja's opinion - PL
4 - Participant Attila's opinion - HUN
You(th) decide is financially supported by the Visegrad Fund, with patronage over the activities provided by the Chairman of the Košice Self-governing Region, the mayor of Ryglice (Poland), and the mayor of Břeclav (Czech Republic).
Activities are developed in parallel in the 4 Visegrad countries in cooperation with partners: