Schimb de tineri în Armenia: MYTH and/or/but REALITY

Căutăm 5 tineri pentru a participa în schimbul de tineri  MYTH and/or/but REALITY, în Armenia, în perioada 4-14 octombrie 2013. Mai jos găsiţi mai multe informaţii despre proiect. Dacă sunteţi interesaţi vă rugăm să ne scrieţi un email la adresa: voluntarasirys@gmail.com, nu înainte de a citi acest GHID. 

Target group:

There are 4 participants + 1 group leader from each organisation. In total we will be 30 people. The participants have to be between 18-25 years old. For the group leaders, there is no age limitation (18+).

The groups have to be gender balanced (2 male + 2 female).

The profile of the participant is:

 active young people and youth from deprived urban and rural areas who are interested in intercultural learning through discovering myths and legends of different countries

 speaking basic English

 interested in setting further co-operation with their friends from different countries

Resume:

“Reality is not that solid how it seems on the first sight”. In the world like this where we live in this rule can be very useful as the world of 21th century is the world of fast and sometimes dramatic changes which requires form its inhabitants serious level of flexibility and understanding of changing rules of the game. A lot of philosophers, psychologists and politicians have reflected upon the issue of relations of Myth and Reality, trying to explain the rule governing our lives, to cure the souls or to rule people to a better world. And all of them were solid in one thing: For those who can see, there is a mythical skeleton under the solid body of reality, and it is easy to find flashes and bones of another (past? present? future?) reality in under the fairy-tale palaces of myths and legends. The initiative group of this project have decided to organize a youth exchange project which will gather youth from different parts of Europe (both active young people and youth with fewer opportunities) and to arrange a space for reflection upon the issues of Myth and Reality, on the stereotypes, relation models, communication styles and other aspects of underwater part of Cultural Iceberg that can be found in myths, epics, fairy tales and legends of different nations and any other interesting topics that can come out during the exchange itself.

The concrete objectives of the youth exchange are: 

- To organize a dialogue between active young people and youth from excluded distant areas (as folk in more preserved in rural and deprived urban areas) through exchange of folklore, fairy tales, traditional songs and dance.

- To share stories and to explore their meaning and to compare the meaning for the youth from different countries - To explore attitudes, problem solving models etc. through the patterns described in different types of stories from myths (exploring underwater part of cultural iceberg) 

- To use work in different locations (forest, ancient monastery, etc.) to create a friendly atmosphere, where participants will not only work, but also organize their own informal communication, singing, dancing, organizing their presentations with different formats 

- To investigate participants' own cultural heritage, to share it with youth from other countries and to reflect upon the similarities and differences in perception of the same issues, increasing the understanding of cultural diversity in Europe and common European values 

- To create a space for participants to reflect upon the theme of intercultural Europe, different visions on Europe/Europes, communication and behavioral models through non-formal learning techniques and methods with participatory and learner-based approaches.

Hosting and applicant organisation is: “International Center for Intercultural Research, Learning and Dialogue” (ICIRLD)

The Youth Exchange will take place near a small village Aghavnadzor which is located in Kotayk region, Republic of Armenia and has about 1200 inhabitants. The distance from Yerevan, the capital of the Republic is 60km. Aghavnadzor is considered is a nice mountainous area. The comfortable conditions and the appeal of nature hand perfect opportunity to organize international activities all year through. The area is surrounded by mountains and woods. The climate is mild and salubrious; the average temperature in October is 10 - 20°C. The weather is changeable as it might be sunny, raining or snowy.

The organisers will reimburse 70% of your travel costs from your home city to Aghavnadzor, Armenia and back. Reimbursement of travel costs will only be done upon full attendance in the project programme and presentation of the original tickets with boarding passes and receipt/invoices. Reimbursement will be done in EURO, regardless of the currency indicated on your ticket and receipt/invoice which will be calculated according to the exchange rates from official European Commission website for the month of ticket purchase http://ec.europa.eu/budget/inforeuro/index.cfm?Language=en.

!! Note: The above mentioned travel costs are per person and for the costs from your home town to Yerevan. Minibuses from Yerevan Airport to Aghavnadzor and back will be arranged by the organizers which will costs 40 EUR per person.

!!! Note: Please make the copies of your tickets and invoices before you come to the project.

!!!! Note: It is allowed to stay in Armenia 1,2 days before and 1,2 days after the event ONLY if there are no flights or the flights are considerably expensive on arrival/departure dates. Here is a comment made by the Commission 3.1 project officer on this issue: ”In case of non availability of a flight ticket the expenses might be accepted conditionally. We would need a proof of non availability of flights for the two consecutive days after the end of the Activity (prints from booking sites) and a declaration signed by the participant. The non respect of the rules will lead to the refusal of reimbursement of ineligible part of travel costs”.

Therefore, we kindly ask you first to send us your flight details before buying the tickets.

!!!!! Note: The participants will be reimbursed 100% for the APV and 70% for the Youth Exchange in cash during the APV and youth exchange.

!!!!!! Note: if you buy flight tickets from a travel agency, we will need a SIGNED and STAMPED (if the agency has a stamp) invoice issued by the travel agency proving the purchase of the ticket.

!!!!!! Note: In case of purchasing the tickets on-line by credit/debit cards, the proof of the payment will be requested together with an on-line invoice by the air-company. Please, bring with you banking transfer statement or the proof/ invoice directly given by the bank confirming the purchase of the travel ticket.

We kindly ask you to follow these notes in order to ensure smooth reimbursement of your flight tickets and reporting to the EACEA during the final report stage.

Take a flight to Yerevan to Zvartnots International Airport from all the countries except Georgia; from Georgia you can either take a train or a minibus. It is also possible to arrive to Tbilisi International airport and travel to Yerevan from there.

For those coming by plane the best flight connections to Yerevan are flights via Prague (Czech Airlines) and Vienna (Austrian Airlines). It might be also convenient for you to check out the flights via Moscow (Aeroflot), Poland (LOT) and Ukraine (UIA).

All the participants will be picked up from the Airport, Train or Bus Station as well as we will arrange you with transportation to the Airport, Train or Bus Station after the project. You will receive more detailed information regarding picking you up and transporting to the project venue once we get your flight/minibus/train tickets information.

Please look at the Airport, Train/Bus Station for the volunteer with a paper with the name of our project. In emergency cases contact our project coordinator, Artur - +374 93 735691

You will be sharing a double or triple room with another person(s) of the same sex, each room has one bathroom. There are towels and bed linen in the hotel.

Note: The hosting organizations and their members can support you in arranging accommodation of those participants who arrive earlier to Armenia or decide to stay longer due to their flight non-availability or the flights are considerably cheaper.

Note: It is allowed to stay in Armenia ONLY 1,2 day before and 1,2 day after the event in case of flight non-availability or the flights are expensive on arrival/departure dates. Please, respect this rule, otherwise we won’t be able to reimburse your travel expenses!!! In case of flight non-availability for the project event dates, you have to prove it. Please, let us know in case you cannot find flights.

Please, prepare to present the myths and legends of your country. Each national team will have a session (1.5 hour) to present the myths and legends of your country. The format of presentation can be various – theater  dances, drawings, power points, etc. Be creative!

Please, be prepared to present your organisation during the youth exchange. Furthermore, bring some information materials about your organisation, photos and report from former projects and other things which will help you to present your organisation.

And do not forget to bring some national drinks and snacks for the cultural evenings ☺ there will be national evenings where you will have all the evening to present national peculiarities of your countries. Try to use interactive presentation methods (teaching to dance, quiz, etc).

Please, bring with you books about myths and legends of your countries. We want to organize a library at the youth exchange, where participants can read during free time.

We can discuss the details of the project and preparation during the APV (Advanced Planning Visit) which will be held during 19-22 August 2013. Officially the project starts on the 1st of August. Therefore you can buy your tickets ONLY after the 1st of August. Please, send us your flight details before buying the ticket!

National currency in Armenia is DRAM (AMD) and its value in euro is about 530 drams for 1 euro but it would be good for you to check the exact rate before you depart on the website of Central Bank of Armenia (just to have a better idea). Payments everywhere in Armenia (except Airport) are accepted only in national currency. If you want to know more about our country here are some web pages: 

http://www.armeniainfo.am

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/armenia