“IncSPORT/inSPAIN”

At the end of May, “Bulgarian Youth Forum” sent three participants who became part of the “IncSPORT/inSPAIN” project in Robledo, Spain. The aim of the project was for the participants to enrich their knowledge about the influence of sports in various directions. During the project, Irena Georgieva, Gergana Karadzhova and Doicho Vaklinov had the opportunity to meet other young people from Italy, Spain, Romania, Croatia, Turkey and Lithuania.

During the first day of the training course, all participants participated in games and activities to get to know each other and bond. Throughout the day, everyone had the opportunity to exchange information, personal experiences and knowledge. The second day started with an imaginary trip on a cruise ship, and the task was first individually and then in groups to choose three passengers with whom the youth would travel and three with whom they would not. Refugees and migrants were also a central topic of discussion that day. In the second session, the participants had to tell what their country’s situation was in relation to the topic and then compare the similarities and differences, again divided into groups. An integral part of each day were the energizers before the sessions and sports games such as table tennis, badminton, football and volleyball during the breaks. The beginning of the week started with an international evening, where each of the participating countries had to present the country they come from. The participants had the opportunity to try different traditional foods and drinks and enjoy the typical dances and songs of the countries. The theme of the sessions during the third day was radicalization and extremism and how they can negatively affect the integration of different people in a society. The topic “Which people are most prone to such acts” was discussed, the symbols and mottos of various extremist organizations and what is the economic and social situation again in each of the countries were discussed. The fourth day was dedicated to walking around the Albacete region, the group visited the town of Alcázar, which was famous for the production of hand-woven carpets. They then enjoyed a National Park where they had the opportunity to explore the beautiful scenery and see some incredibly beautiful waterfalls. During the fifth day, through the “world coffee” session, various topics related to the project theme were discussed. On the sixth day, we started with an energizer “He-ha-hoo”, then the youth from each country presented their organization.

The participants returned to Bulgaria charged with emotions, enriched knowledge and new friends.