Volunteering for Peace cc members in Palestine participated at the International youth exchange Europe meets Euromed which took place in Bari, Italy, in the duration from 28 Feb to 8 March. The project gathered representatives of youth centers and organizations working with youth from Italy, France, Croatia, Malta, Turkey, Palestine, Jordan, and Egypt. Youth Exchange “EUROPE MEETS EUROMED” is the result of a shared visions and aimed towards bringing a group of youths together in order to take a look at the various reasons that can lead to conflicts ensuing as well as to discuss and brainstorm different solutions to lessen the amount of conflicts that break out. In doing this, us youth had a chance to voice our own opinions and take a more active role in society. We discussed how conflicts on a social, national, regional and international level affect us and how we can come together to counteract the negative effects of such conflicts. Five young people and a leader coming from 8 different partner countries (4 MEDA, 3 EU members and one pre-accession state), namely France, Croatia, Italy, Turkey, Malta, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine and up to 40 young participants and 8 leaders spent seven days in south of Italy living together and participating in several workshops that were conducted making use of the non-formal method of education. The group, composed of youngsters coming from very different backgrounds, was discussing the various similarities and differences that exist between our respective countries, the different issues that we face in our everyday lives, how they are currently dealt with and how they can be dealt with. There were discussions about the similarities and differences that exist in relation to our daily lives in our nation states, and examples of good practices were shared.
