Manaakitanga

is a Youth Exchange funded by the Erasmus+ programme that took place from the 4th until the 12th September in Jakartovice, a small village located in the Moravia region in Czech Republic. The event hosted 29 youngsters from Czech Republic, Macedonia, Romania, Spain and Turkey.

The name was not made up, as the project was born following Manaakitanga, a maori concept that enhances the importance of respect to hosts and kindness to the guest. So that, in just one word, it resumes the objective we want to achieve: broaden participants understanding and enhance their critical thinking about what is happening in Europe while fostering their solidarity and empathy.

We have to open our eyes to the reality that since human life started in this planet there has been human movements in search for better living conditions. And once we understand this, we need to open our arms and raise our voice to say that “NO more walls are needed in the world”, as they divide countries, families, friends.... they abolish freedom. When the demolition of the Berlin took place, 11 walls existed in the world. But time passes and there are more and more walls and fences that separate people and land. Right now, we have more than 50 dividing walls all over the world and the number is growing.

But there is another dangerous wall in our world, we cannot see it but it affects all of us: THE MEDIA WALL. That is why we want to make a difference and make everybody understand that migrant, refugee and asylum seeker are different concepts. We want to put a name to all these faces in transit and try to share their stories while creating a film documenting that the concept of refugee is not new and that the whole world is facing this problem. We break the information wall that surrounds us and our friends.

When: 4. - 12.9.2016

Venue: Jakartovice, Czech Republic

Aims of project?

• Raise awareness and improve understanding about international migrations. Comprehend from another point of view what “borders” really mean for some people.
• Improve active citizenship by promoting active participation, volunteering and raising awareness of different opportunities for youth in the Erasmus+ programme.
• Create a friendly, inspirational and creative space for sharing and learning.
• zintenzivnění kulturního cítění a možnosti aktivního zapojení se do společnosti
• Learn basic techniques of video shooting and editing by free software.
• Approach media and communication.

 

 

Since human life started in this planet there have been human movements in search for better living conditions. But it seems that we have forgotten it… With the aim to explore this topic and analyze migrations nowadays and the refugee crisis that the whole world is facing we organized Manaakitanga, an Youth Exchange that took place between the 4th and 12th September in Jakartovice, Czech Republic.

Manaakitanga hosted together 29 youngsters from Czech Republic, Spain, Macedonia, Turkey and Romania. During these days we talked about the walls that exist in the world nowadays and we filmed some documentaries to break the media wall that surrounds all of us.

The topic was addressed with different activities and non formal education methods: from team building activities to create a relaxing atmosphere for all the participants to role playing activities that let us experience the topic first hand and helped us to understand it better.

We also let the participants spaces to share experiences and stories and to develop their own ideas during the video making process. All this helped us to create a relaxed and friendly atmosphere where participants felt free to learn and work with the rest of the group.

The main outcome of the project was the filming of 5 videos about the topic as you can see in here..

We reached our main goal: to raise people’s awareness about the topic and foster participants and other people’s empathy and understanding!