Seminar in Estonia 24.03.13-30.03.13

Introduction: The seminar Change the Change focused on peaceful protesting and brought together nearly 30 young Europeans to learn and discuss tools and ways to get involved in social and political affairs on local, national and international levels. Disclaimer: The participants wrote down during the week their thoughts on the types of change which they would like to see in the world around them. These thoughts were then transcribed into this booklet and as such reflect their dreams, challenges and ambitions. As such the views reflected here are those of the participants and are not necessarily those of Active - sobriety, friendship and peace. Minor changes were made to the original texts where the grammar, spelling or choice of words hindered the intended meaning, or when the length of the text required shortening in order to fit into this booklet.

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Content:

Individual change

Environmental Sobriety Social Inclusion Less passive, more Active Nationalism Corruption Prejudice Drug and alcohol abuse Alcohol and drug free environment Society norms Alcohol Science Freedom of speech Education Discrimination Violence Projects that are now in action Juvente Estonia IOGT Iceland Know it better

Projects that are in the design phase Intensifying cooperation between UNF Sweden and Juvente Norway TRIPLE A Sober Activities Social Inclusion

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Im a student of a high school in Slovakia. During the last few years I became interested in politics, society and its relations. I really want to raise my voice and make a change in our society.

The thing concerning me nowadays is young people and their lack of interest in education. According to me it has resulted from there not being enough organisa-tions providing free-time activities for young people which promote their self-development and creativity in a positive and active way. We need more places to express ourselves and spend free time watching mov-ies, playing games, socialising, working on projects, having alcohol-free parties, workshops, and so on.

Learn how to appreciate yourself as a human being and treat others in the way you would like to be treat-ed.

Name: Kamila PotorovAge: 17Country: Slovakia

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My name is Irena. Im 16 years old and I come from Macedonia, a country where drinking alcohol is a daily habit. The worst thing is that people are not aware of the consequences of alcohol.

I think that most of the people would stop drinking alcohol or at least cut down if they knew about its harms to their health. So a good idea would be to show photos showing the results and consequences of drinking alcohol (similar to some cigarette pack-ages).

This could happen to you or not... It is your choice.

Name: Irena PredarskaAge: 16Country: Macedonia

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I come from an island with about 50,000 inhabitants. There is not much happening by itself in a small com-munity. It is the people themselves who make a dif-ference. For the last months Ive started working as an EVS volunteer for UNF Finland. The town where I work is a small place as well and works pretty much the same way as where I come from.

I want to create an independent group of sober young people in Vasa with the knowledge required to keep the organisations running without the help of volun-teers.

It is just a matter of time before UNF Finland is the place to be for all young people in Vasa. It will require hard work but we will get there and we will have a lot of fun along the way.

Name: Viggo StahleAge: 22Country: Sweden / Finland

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I live in a small town called Olenita which lies about 60km from Bucharest. This town has fewer possibilities to stu-dents education and activities because we have only two high schools.

My idea of change is that young people must not go to pubs and clubs instead of making some other alcohol-free events. We must do something about this situation and we must convince them that drinking of alcohol and smoking are not the solution for their own problems and that you can have a lot of fun in other ways.

I would like to improve a programme in schools to edu-cate young people. First I want to start with some pre-sentations in my high school and after that I hope I would succeed in making a programme in schools. First I have to start with small things to arrive at a high level.

The smallest things make the biggest ones.

Name: Andreea-Georgiana MarinAge: 17Country: Romania

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I come from a country that has been free for 20 years. We live together but we dont care about each other. And in these days Latvians just want to finish their schools without actually learning anything. Their main goal is just to get the diploma, work and consume useless things in their lives (like alcohol and other drugs).

My idea of change is to change the idea of education for people. In these days more and more people be-lieve that education is not necessary; that it is import-ant just to finish learning and start to work and live their life without care for others. Without education people live in an imaginary box which makes them unaware of things that you need to care about.

Throughout a project and non-formal education lec-tures, the project should consist of an idea to make educational material about the fun and the possibil-ities you receive through it. And the lectures could consist of different organisation members speeches that promote and encourage people to take on this kind of lifestyle.

Burn to learn.

Name: Kristaps AntoniisAge: 22Country: Latvia

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I am the president of Youth can do it, an NGO from Romania, and vice president of Alcohol Policy Youth Network, an international NGO, and involved in other youth activities (DJ, trainer, youth work).

I would like to inform as many youth organisations as possible about the alcohol-related harm so that they can have the needed informational resources to go reach their aims while avoiding future health prob-lems of their members.

To do this we should start locally, then go nationally and in the end be active in this field on the interna-tional level through international youth organisations.

Youth can do it!

Name: Vlad-Alexandru GrosarAge: 22Country: Romania

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I care about the environment and my idea is to make our environment bet-ter.

We must organise information cam-paigns about the importance of a clean environment. We must work with society for giving them informa-tion about the importance of clean en-vironments.

The environment is our future.

Name: Anna OliinykAge: 25Country: Ukraine

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I was born in a small city Melitopol, Ukraine, and I would like to attract young people to being sober.

We need to give more information about our organ-isations and organise different interesting campaigns, seminars, games and so on.

We must contact youth in universities and children in schools and give them information about sober life-style and about our activities.

Name: Volodymyr KreydenkoAge: 25Country: Ukraine

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I was born in a post-industrial town in southern Po-land. Im living in a loving family which of course has its problems but we keep all together. I have a great example of what benefits a proper childhood and growing up with a loving family has. I see problems, however, that are caused by a lack of this in my im-poverished town.

I think it is the most important to work with children: they depend on adults and cannot solve their prob-lems themselves. I want to show them that there is another way of living: that they dont have to follow their addicted parents or environments that they dont have to be a part of this sickness.

My idea is to show children that there is a better world to live in for them. Taking them out of their society and organising free-time activities for them so they dont have to spend their time drinking alcohol.

Children are the future of the world.

Name: ukasz DyllaAge: 19Country: Poland

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I live in a small town in Serbia named Pazar. I have been in the NGO sector for four years and I am a member of three organisations in our town, Together against drugs, Urban in and Youth Office.

My organisation TAD works with young people who use alcohol and other drugs. We organise a lot of seminars and street actions. But my idea of change is to mobilise youth to give them the opportunity to express their creativity. Because of this problem a lot of young people are leaving our city.

I think that we can make a project to get, for ex-ample, some place where young people can organise parties, watch movies, play some games. Or we can organise more seminars, more street actions, and do some creative projects!

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing of our thinking.

Name: Nejra GicicAge: 19Country: Serbia

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Name: Petar Aleksoski Age: 17Country: Macedonia

I live in Skopje the capital of Macedonia. I am 17 years old and I go to high school. I am a member of an anti-drugs and alcohol organisation called React.

My idea of change is to change the way people think in my country about each other. I dont like the separa-tion and the discrimination of peoples culture. I think everyone should respect each others culture and their countries, and also change the way people think about alcohol. That it is not the way to be cool and to have fun.

The best way to bring change is through the young peo-ple and the best way to reach them is through games, toys, advertisements with their role models.We need to contact more organisations and advertise-ment companies to help us bring the change to the peo-ple. The reason is quite simple: I want to help the people who need help. Everyone deserves to have a normal and happy life.

If you are determined to do something, do it. Dont let anything or anyone to stop you.

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Name: Nermina ZukicAge: 19Country: Bosnia Herzegovina

I am a member of the Centre for Youth Education (CEM) and I am a student too. I study economics. I try to be an active member of my local community as much as possible. I am passionate about human rights and non-formal education. I would like to work in that field in the future.

Change should be something useful and it should be done with passion. I would like to organise sober par-ties in my country because as I know there are none. My main goal is: Sobriety is cool.

I would contact my friends and contacts from other NGOs in my country, as well as private companies and politicians. It is always good to be in touch with a lot of people coming from different backgrounds.

Do not doubt that a small group of thoughtful, com-mitted citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead.

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Name: Elina PesonenAge: 17Country: Sweden

I was born in Stockholm and when I was one year old when me and my family moved to a town in northern Sweden. Ive had almost every animal you can imag-ine. After a few years we moved to a bigger town. I have two older brothers, one sister, mom, dad and a small zoo.

I am really tired of being questioned why I dont drink alcohol. I think you should question those who do drink alcohol and ask them why instead. What inter-ests me is the placebo effect. Fake Free in Sweden works a lot with that.

I believe that making people aware of the effects of alcohol will maybe not make them stop drinking, but it will make them take a smarter decision. And they will know what they put in their body.

In order to move forward you first need to get your ass off the couch and decide you are not going to stay where you are Elina.

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Name: Eliana TahiriAge: 19Country: Albania

Im 19 years old and I live in Tirana, the capital of Al-bania. Im in university, first year of finance and eco-nomics. I joined my organisation in Albania two years ago, Free Youth Albania. My first seminar was the one in the Balkans, then in Poland, then in Iceland and now in Estonia. Our focus in Albania is the young peo-ple, the youth because that is the group that usually needs change and can bring it.

The issues I have in mind are mostly the social ones and the target group would be the youth. This is most-ly the group I intend to bring change to because they love change, are willing to change and adapt to it fast. There are many people Id contact, starting from my friends and family and then seek for help from other people, organisations or groups.

Sometimes people step up, they see above them-selves. Life is funny. But if you look close enough, you find life in the words of children, in the bass of a song and in the eyes of someone you love.

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Name: Vilmantas GvildysAge: 21Country: Lithuania

Im a student of biology. Of course, Im a sober one. I really want to change the thinking of young people about alcohol, drugs and other psychotropic substanc-es. My father died from using alcohol so I guess this thing against it is personal; it comes not only from high ideals.

I want to make a book with experiments that every-one could use to demonstrate to others how psycho-tropic substances act in the human body. It should be easy to understand for people who dont have a biology education background.

Then I want to form a group of students who would look for those experiments, then adapt it so that it will be understandable to everyone; not just boring theories and facts.

There are no elevators to change; youll have to take the stairs.

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Name: Senad KrilasevicAge: 18Country: Bosnia Herzegovina

I am born in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia Her-zegovina. In my country drinking alcohol and using to-bacco and narcotics is one of the main ways for youth to relax and have fun and that is a bad influence that stays for the rest of their lives.

I am a volunteer of an organisation that promotes healthy lifestyles LINK which I am a member of for 3-4 years with a goal to change these bad influences.

My idea of change is to change the way the youth are influenced by the media and politics. They dont have their own opinion built; they believe what they see in the media advertisements. So I was thinking of mak-ing ad-busting advertisements which include people from other countries so that they can share some in-formation about their country.

Live long and prosper.

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Name: Gujn r GulaugssonAge: 17Country: Iceland

I come from the second biggest place in Iceland. I went to school learning electronic engineering and quit after two years. Now I work at a computer store fixing tablet computers and accessories for comput-ers.

I want clubs in Iceland that drinking alcohol is not allowed. But still has a bar serving non-alcoholic cock-tails and stuff. I dont think it is fun to watch people getting ill because of they want to have more fun. Thats just not the way it should be.

By buying / renting a club that is getting closed for one reason or another. Find bartenders from that club to make the drinks. Teenagers and the other people that want to have fun without alcohol. Id say that the only age limit would be if you can be outside, you can be there.

It is not worth killing yourself to have fun.

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Name: Bryndis Sunna GumundsdttirAge: 17Country: Iceland

Ive never really like how alcohol changes people. Like how when people drink alcohol they do all this stuff they wouldnt do if they were sober. So when I was around 8 year old I decided that I wasnt going to drink alcohol in the future. And I did just that. I go to parties and dances and I have just as much or even more fun than the people who are drinking.

I want to change the norms, make it normal to not drink. Also I want to have young people more aware about the dangers of alcohol, how in it there are a lot of poisonous chemicals that can lead to illnesses and even death. Also I would want young people to know about how alcohol doesnt affect us how we expect i.e. it doesnt make us happy or sad so you really can have a lot more fun sober.I would want the schools in Iceland to have more educa-tion about all the dangerous effects of alcohol and how al-cohol really works. Also I would want to get more people with me and throw some sober parties with cocktails that dont have alcohol in them to show the young people that to go to a party doesnt have to include alcohol.

The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do Steve Jobs.

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Name: Maciej AdamczykAge: 20Country: Poland

I was born in the central European country that regained democracy in 1989. As a member of IOGT Poland we are trying to aid children from families with addictions. They are a minority with bad living conditions. Society doesnt care much about them. It has to be stopped.

Youth are the future of the society and country. They deserve happiness and possibilities to extend their ho-rizons. Instead of that, some of them are wasting their lives by using alcohol and other drugs. Even if we cant prohibit alcohol, we should inform them about the con-sequences. The other crucial point is the education which often seems to be useless for the young ones.

We should create more messages about the alcohol and drug addictions. Kids must understand that even such an easy step in their future lives depends on simple decisions taken while being young, (e.g. Id prefer to drink alcohol at a party rather than develop my knowl-edge). It is also important to create a friendly environ-ment for those one who live in a domestic hell.

Your future lies in your hand; dont waste it for an eve-ning of joy.

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Name: Mejra HajrovicAge: 20Country: Serbia

I live in Serbia in a small town which name is Novi Pazar. I am a member of one organisation, Together Against Drugs. The 49% of people in my town are young. There are many problems in my town. We should start to fix them.

We must motivate people to learn more about healthy life. We have to teach them what alcohol can actually do to them and try to promote healthy lifestyles by making seminar or street promotions.

By making projects, seminars, promotions in schools, in universities... Create theatre about alcohol, drugs. Invite people who are experts to do presentations about alcohol, drugs. Mark parties without alcohol. We should contact other organisations, media, people who are responsible for young people from my town. .. By media is good chance to include more people. We should also contact schools and universities because maybe some of the young people want to help us.

Give people the chance to speak and stand against alcohol and drugs.

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Name: Hseyin TosunAge: 26Country: Turkey

I am from Turkey and have been to two seminars be-fore in Berlin and Kiev. I am the kind of guy always observing around and finding out some problems, dis-advantages, negative energy, unhappy feelings and then I try to repair it with my happiness and positive energy.

Classification (social divisions) is a big issue for people all over the world since past times. Also we have clas-sification in Turkey and that makes us weaker and di-vides the country in this period. The first step is edu-cation. All of the citizens should get enough and some education on the east, west, south and north of Tur-key. Secondly, organising many seminars in schools, government buildings, universities, etc., to start to change opinions because we need knowledge.

Wake up! We are the same; no more classification.

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Name: Sevgi Efsun Erbas Age: 21Country: Turkey

I am Sevgi Efsun Erbas from Turkey, 21 years old. I study management, 2nd grade. I am from the organisation named Sober Crescent in Turkey and I love traveling the world and meeting with different people and their culture.

I would love to change two things, starting from my coun-try, Turkey. Religion is one of the most important things that define who you are and your identity. I would love to change this situation and create more freedom for peo-ple. Also I would love to stop terrorism in Turkey between Kurds (PKK) and Turks and create more peace.

Education is the step where everything is built on. Prob-lems that I mentioned come from a lack of education. Kurds live in the south-east part of Turkey and they dont have opportunities that other parts have. So I would cre-ate more job opportunities and build more schools.

I need other organisations that support education, free-dom and self-esteem. I can ask them to support us with their seminars and workshops in schools and outside of schools.

If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

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Name: Emil LwengrenAge: 16Country: Sweden

I am a Swedish sobriety scout from the middle of my country. Im very interested in politics and especially in drug and sobriety politics.

I would like to have more places where you can have fun sober. I would like to have for example a club where you can party or hang out without alcohol. I need a sober platform to bring my change through, but I also need to change peoples minds and thoughts about drinking of alcohol. I think I need help from the government to provide places to be at for low or no rent at all. During the activities I might need help from my local sobriety organisation to organise these kinds of things.

Dont ever let anyone say that you cant do it, be-cause you can!

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Name: Helgi Laxdal HelgasonAge: 24Country: Iceland

I come from a small town in Iceland, Sandgerti. I had problems growing up with bullying and my parents spilt up. I was addicted for eight years of my life. My sober lifestyle has given me everything and more than the world of alcohol and drugs promised.

I would like to have a platform for sober activities and influence one person each day. Change will al-ways happen (at least most of the time) at an individ-ual level so empower the person, empower the world. Less alcohol = better world. This needs small steps ahead every day: Influencing youth to take small ac-tions, hosting seminars to bring together youth with similar ideas of a good environment.

I think it is always good to partner with other organ-isations to get motivated. Share ideas and work to-gether on a positive change. But I also believe that change starts on an individual level.

Get off your ass and do it!

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Name: Kristina AvdoninaAge: 24Country: Estonia

I was raised in a bicultural family. So from the beginning I knew two languages and was part of two different commu-nities. And I feel like I had quite a good childhood.

There are two things that Id like to change. Firstly, in our society it is considered normal to drink alcohol. In every party there is alcohol and if dont drink alcohol you are looked at as weird. I want to change the idea of normal-ity so that not drinking alcohol would be considered as a normal matter of choice. The other issue is some of our people have been raised in a bicultural family where one of the parents is Russian speaking and the other Estonian speaking. So their child belongs to two different communi-ties. It is often hard for them to find their place in society which puts them at risk of different unhealthy activities.

I think that in first case it is important to contact and influ-ence the whole society, but mostly youngsters who are the future of our society. I think that organisations with the value of sobriety have to have more power through their activities also more support from the media which helps in establishing this value for others. The issue of identity re-quires that the attention would be gathered on youngsters, their parents and society as a whole in order to make the change in their life and bring about change and build confi-dence in their everyday life.

The world is what you make of it!

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Name: Ionut-Cristian MihailaAge: 18Country: Romania

I live in Oltenita. It is a small town but with big dreams. Im a volunteer in Dunare EDU; I was involved in very much in programmes and activities. I finish high school in this year.

My idea is to change the system in Romania to involve young people more. A big problem in our community is alcohol. They think something good happens when you drink alcohol, that youre cooler, more interesting. I want to change young people and we should meet the politicians and we should encourage being more respon-sible.

I want to change people but first I need the town to help me; together to change the people, to teach young peo-ple about alcohol. We should try to teach and we should use the presentations, we use non-formal education.

I contact personal, I go in high school and I try with mass media too. I do that because I want to be sure that the change is going in the right direction.

When you think something is possible, dont stop be-lieving in yourself.

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Name: Michal KrizanAge: 24Country: Slovakia

I come from Slovakia where we have a 10% Roma minority which is poorly integrated into Slovak society and often lives in horrible conditions. Slovakia is cur-rently struggling with the Roma issues which are af-fect all inhabitants. The government does not seem to care about that so we need to do something.

I suggest some ideas that could help. Such as apply-ing the same laws for everyone equally. Or strictness of the police against criminal activity should be higher. Then I would pay social allowances only if its recipient has a job. We should also be stricter to children who cannot behave correctly. This problem is worsened by the government because it does little about that. So we have to discuss possibilities of solutions with the prime minister or governments deputy for Roma communities. This needs to happen through putting more pressure on the government to do something.

If you want to reduce crime in Slovakia and make this country better for living, you should do something.

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Name: Felix JeppssonAge: 17Country: Sweden

I come from Sweden. I have been in the temperance scouts association since I was 8 years old. I have al-ways loved being a scout and being sober.

My idea of change is a slow process where everyone is equally satisfied in the end. I think it is very important that you see the problem from all possible angles. I want to change the view on scouts in Sweden to be better.

By democracy, the change should be requested by the people or by a single person. If the single person finds supporters there will be changes. I will make a new strong campaign that will promote all the benefits of being a scout. We need to reach teenagers. They are the ones we need more of in the organisation.

Scouting, making you prepared for life.

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Name: Knut OgnoyAge: 15Country: Norway

Im a handsome, cute and confident boy from Norway. I have different leadership roles in different projects. Im the leader of Juvente Haugaland and the president of the student council.

I think that the look on sobriety has to change. People are freaks if they have made the choice to not drink. I would like for this to change. This can change in many ways. We can show the society that we can do the same things as them and still be sober. In concerts you can have a good time. If you are a good dancer you wont need alcohol.

Its important for me to bring the sobriety organisa-tion (Juvente Norway) with me. If we are more, we are stronger.

Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna turn around and desert you Rick Ast-ley.

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Name: Vera SpasovaAge: 22Country: Bulgaria

Im from Sofia, Bulgaria and thats my first time coming here and having the possibility to see how the things work in our organisation; meeting new people with different and unique ideas. I used to be an active member in AIESEC (a non-profit student organisation) and the Talent Manage-ment Department.

My idea of change if related with violence and freedom of speech. These are big issues where I live and I want to change this reality to make people act and think in a dif-ferent way. Human rights have to be observed and we just violate them. Change will be possible only if the message reaches the majority of people. Change is about people, the way they behave or the way they think. According to my opinion the success of my idea consists on spreading it to all of them. That is the only way of it being successful.

I want to influence and help people. It is important for me to know that Ive changed somebodys mind and give him / her new ideas. I would appreciate the assistance in helping me to reach my goal and if there are some good ideas about reaching my aim I would listen to.

Change is about being active, persistent and knowing what to do.

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Name: Stefan Slooten Age: 24Country: South Africa, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands

I was raised in a multicultural family and have lived in five dif-ferent countries and thus I feel at home in world. I believe that young people in all countries of the world have many needs in common: They need to feel recognised and that they can con-tribute to society with their talents.

The barrier that concerns me is that young people often do not see that they have so much to offer the world: That they have a unique potential and energy to bring change to their families, the community and the wider world. In my work with young people I have seen how over the course of a conversation they have also come to realise this. This simple realisation has ex-plosive power: empowered and motivated, they feel that they can do something meaningful for society.

I will get involved in workshops and seminars, both as a partic-ipant and leader, and invest my energy into showing them how much they have to offer the world.

Give a man a fish; you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and he will be fed for life.

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Projects that are now in action

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Notice us, recognize us!

Juvente Estonia is running a youth exchange project for the Youth in Action Programme. The youth exchange will take place in Estonia from 20th - 26th of October 2013 and will be on the topic of social inclusion of certain groups of young people that often might face exclusion.

Our target groups are: Youth from rural areas Youth minorities (i.e. from the gay com munity or from other cultures / religions) Refugees Young people with physical disabilities

We will cooperate with four partner organisa-tions. There will be five participants from each country and at least 3 of them should be from the seminar target groups.We propose following countries and organisations for our project proposal:

Sweden: UNF Slovakia: NOM Bosnia Herzegovina: LINK Macedonia: REACT

Overseers: Janika Tamm and Henri Reha from Juvente Estonia

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Templar Youth Cultural Twinning Education Program

(TYCTEP)

The program is called Templar Youth Cultural Twinning Education Program (TYCTEP). To start with this will be one seminar but in that seminar we want to inspire people from all around Europe to make their own projects and connect it with TYCTEP. All TYCTEP events are alcohol, drug and tobacco free.

The first seminar will be about Domestic Vio-lence. We will work closely with UNI Woman and Amnesty international for first grade knowledge about the topic. This will also cooperate with: The European youth organisation ACTIVE sobriety, friendship and peace on semi nars on the connection between alcohol and gender-related violence as well as organisa tional support in organising the seminar. The international organisation IOGT In ternational for additional input and guidance in the work.

The seminar will be set in Iceland in an outdoors facility. It is set to be launched in 2014.

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Know it better

The problem facing young people today is a harmful way of thinking about psychotropic substances. We would like to change this thinking toward a healthy one. We will do this by:

1. Organising sober parties as alternatives for youth to spend their free time in a healthy environment.2. Organising activities in schools to demon strate to students the harmful effects of psy chotropic substances using real-time chemi cal experiments.

We will begin with the (chemistry) demonstrations in high schools (point 2) and invite the youth to the sober party. The project will run from September 2013 February 2014 and includes the following partners:

Youth Can Do It (Romania) Vlad-Alexandru Better (Ukraine) Volodymyr React (Macedonia) Irena Modusas (Lithuania) Vilmantas

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Projects that are in the design phase

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Juvente - UNF Fest!

Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to strengthen the relationship between UNF and Ju-vente Norway.

The two Nordic temperance movements have been working quite disjointedly, despite having many common areas of interest. So in order to intensify the cooperation and solidarity between UNF and Juvente we propose to create a summer camp in 2015 where youth from both organisa-tions can meet each other, learn about active cit-izenship and work together on common projects.

The camp would take place in a border city be-tween Norway and Sweden and would last for a week. The prep-team would include members of both countries and would create fun activities (i.e. paintball, football, mountain climbing, etc.) and non-formal learning activities on topics like active citizenship and contemporary issues in al-cohol policy.

By Emil Lwengren and Knut Ogny

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TRIPLE A

Young people are often susceptible to the negative influences of substance-abuse (i.e. alcohol and oth-er drugs) and sometimes do not see the value of liv-ing a healthy life. This project will look at 1) reach-ing a mass audience by ad-busting popular myths that glamorise the use of alcohol and other drugs, and 2) reaching a smaller audience through semi-nars which unpack in detail the value of a healthy lifestyle and active citizenship.

The project will be done through the cooperation between the following organisations: Dunare EDU (Romania) Cristi and Andreea JAF (Latvia) - Kristaps Together Against Drugs (Serbia) Nejra and Mejra LINK (Bosnia Herzegovina) - Senad REACT (Macedonia) Petar

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Sober Activities

Young peoples alcohol consumption poses many risks to themselves and society, yet it is still something considered normal. We would like to challenge this norm and making living an al-cohol-free lifestyle normal again. To do this we propose the following activities:

An (alcohol-free) cocktail party A sober day where our efforts will be focus on reaching the community on alcohol related issues Creating a sober club

The idea behind these activities is to create open spaces for young people to meet, free from the peer pressure to consume alcohol to fit in with society. It will be based on the values of sobriety, friendship and tolerance.

The project will be done through the cooperation between the following organisations:

IOGT (Iceland) Sunna CEM (Bosnia Herzegovina) Nermina UNF (Sweden) Elina and Viggo Juvente (Estonia) Kristina

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Social Inclusion

Social exclusion is a major issue for many European coun-tries. In Turkey this is evident between Kurds and Turks and / or on the grounds of religious affiliation; in Slovakia many issues exist between the Slovak and Roma communi-ties. These topics are the most commonly referenced; how-ever, young people as a whole also often face exclusion, for example, in the form of being inadequately protected by labour laws, facing discrimination in the job market and not being seen as an important stakeholder in policy.

1. We would like to firstly carry out a survey on the (social exclusion) issues facing young people in our countries, their self-confidence, hobbies and friend- ships. 2. The questionnaire will also allow the participants to come into contact with the organisation, especially the ones who feel excluded or would like to meet other students.3. We will organise activities (sports, cultural) which can connect the participants. This will be particularly relevant when it comes to bridging cultural or reli- gious divides.

The project will be done through the cooperation between the following organisations:

Sober Crescent (Turkey) Sevgi and Husseyn NOM (Slovakia) Michal and Kamila Free Youth Albania Eliana NSF (Sweden) Felix United People for Development and Collaboration (Bulgaria) Vera IOGT (Poland) Maciej and Lukasz IOGT (Iceland) - Gudjon

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