Conflicts Happen...
How to deal with them
Youth Exchange in Wisła, Poland
10 - 18 September 2018
Site Title
During September 10 - 18 a group from the non-governmental organisation Youth for Peace and Equality participated in the youth exchange program "Conflicts happen how to deal with them" which was carried out in Wisla, Poland. The project included 36 participants from 6 different countries (Georgia, Italy, Ukraine, Armenia, Poland, Czech Republic).
The main goal of the project was for the participants to enhance their skills connected to solving and handling conflicts, trying to identify the core roots of conflicts and look at conflict resolution from a different perspective. During the project participants had the opportunity to know the strategies to deal with conflicts that happen in everyday life, to draw positive conclusions from criticism, to give criticism without hurting others, to resolve conflicts without psychological or physical violence. But most importantly participants knew how to cooperate in a group specifically in an international group among people with different backgrounds, to be productive and respectful towards each other.
The first day of exchange started with ice-breaking activities and name games. Later in the evening participant were introduced to a program of the whole week. The active phase of the project started on the second day. On the 11th of August, participants had a short walking trip in mountains, near the border between Poland and the Czech Republic. The following day they had some very interesting presentations about local conflicts in their countries. (Political, Social or conflicts from everyday life) The discussion was quite intensive and sharp.
During the project, there were different activities offered by group leaders and participants themselves. Participants tried to understand the main topic from many different angles. What is the conflict and what is its main characteristics? why do conflicts happen? what is the reason? where are they coming from?
Answers were always different. Participants shared their knowledge and experience about following topics: Problems with Communication, Conflict narratives, Conflicts in terms of democracy, Psychology of conflicts etc. On the final step, participants were divided into groups. They made some stop-motion videos, wrote some papers about projects etc. Besides conflicts, participants introduced some basic information about their countries culture and its peculiarities to the audience.
