On 4 and 5 June, we participated at the International Youth Festival “Act and Impact”, organized by the Youth Center Plovdiv.
We have organized our stand there to promote the activities that Smokinya carries out in Plovdiv, like the Smokinya Club, as well as the Erasmus Plus projects for which we are partners or hosting organizations.
As we used to do, we drew the attention of the people there using non-formal activities: we planned some mini-games to invite youngsters to our stand and let them know about Smokinya and all the possibilities that they could attend.
Our wheel with questions, tasks and activities was particularly successful and many people tried to solve the “three triangle puzzle”!
We have also asked them to reflect about their dreams and goals, highlighting that everything is possible with commitment, will and perseverance.
On Saturday afternoon, we organized a workshop for the participants. We asked them to reflect on the topic “What motivates and inspires young people?” through shared drawings.
We have chosen this creative method to bring out feelings, ideas and thoughts, hidden from everyday conventional life that leaves little time for reflection and creativity.
The young people have worked together to make their own painting that expresses their ideas: they had to agree on their draw and realize it all together as a team. After their explanations, we asked them to reflect on two words: teamwork and communication, which were a crucial part of the work they had just done.
At the end, of course we did not reply to our question: we shared with them that there is no correct answer for it, because everyone should build their own idea about it and find something meaningful for themselves through a reflection process.
For Smokinya the Youth Festival was also very important to meet other organizations, from Plovdiv, from Bulgaria and from abroad: we exchanged with them contacts, ideas and we started to plan future partnerships and mutual help for our activities.
We also had the opportunity to attend workshops organized by other NGOs and learn something new from them.
For the Smokinya Team was a great opportunity and a good way to meet new people, speak with youngsters and create a network with other NGOs.
