#DIYCampaign around Europe

Do It Yourself Project is created by Active – Sobriety, Friendship and Peace. It is a three phase project that deals with the problem of social exclusion around Europe and works with young people from socially excluded groups. This blog is dedicated to the activities organised by youngsters who burn for making Europe more socially inclusive. For everyone. Stay tuned and get inspired! 

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14th of June 2014, Kharkiv, Ukraine: International Day of Medical Worker

Good news from Ukraine! On international Day of Medical Worker Ganna Oliinyk from Active organisation "Better Ukraine" together with youngsters with disabilities performed on stage!

Ganna did her best to arrange a performance, inspire youngsters to take part in it and give both soft and artistic skills to young participants. As a result of these activities a dance show and a short play were created and performed for the staff of Kharkiv Orthopedist Institute. Performance ended up with a small party.

This activity was implemented in collaboration with Ukrainian Federation of Organisations Disabled Youth.

#ActiveSpirit included!

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Bosnia & Herzegovina ready for action

Great news from Bosnia. Although with all that has been happening in the past few months they are very active and showing spirit by being eager to create an activity for inclusion at the beginning of July.

Senad Krilasevic (LINK):

We are LINK, a non-governmental organization located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a member of ACTIVE, a European organization which gathers numerous NGO-s from all over Europe we have taken part in the DIY seminar in Bytom, Poland on the topic of social exclusion and have been tasked with conducting a workshop on the subject. We plan to organize a two day long workshop as a part of the seminar where we will convey our experiences and our knowledge from the seminar to members of socially excluded groups in our city. This will include among other things helping them get soft skills that are needed to apply for the job market, helping them write CVs and trying to teach them that in spite of being a part of a marginalized group of society they too can enjoy the full benefits of the community they live in and should not feel left out of any activities. During the workshop we will try to pass on as much knowledge we, the volunteers, have gained during our years of volunteer work and of course during the first part of the DIY seminar on social exclusion. We hope this workshop will be an introduction for a bigger workshop we have plans to create later which will include transforming a small piece of a ruined part of the city into a playground where all children regardless of background can play together and enjoy their childhood. Although this is currently just an idea, which we hope will eventually come true. As for the workshop we will try to invite individuals within our own organization who have experience with the subject of writing CVs as well as teaching soft skills regarding employment to others. We will also try to include other individuals that are not directly connected to our own organization but can provide a huge help with the activities of the workshop. Our goal with this two day long workshop is to show young people from socially excluded groups of our society that they can also live normal and happy lives withing their own communities regardless of their differences. #ActiveSpirit is strong with this one!

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Day of fun and adventures in a local activity with kids on 10th May in Romania. News from Andreea Marin & Cristi Mihaila (Dunăre.EDU) Our local activity was represented by a lot of workshops with children from disadvantaged backgrounds. We formed groups with people from different backgrounds so that everybody would feel safe and social included. We made a workshop with non-formal games and activities for children, also including workshops with drawing and painting. The children were very happy and they felt free and safe because everybody was friendly. After that we made something similar to a treasure hunt, we tried to give them small tasks. They fulfilled them and we did achieve what we wanted. In the evening we made a masquerade ball where our volunteers dressed themselves in various costumes to attract kids attention in order to make them smile and not to think so much about the problems that are maybe back home. The volunteers were dressed like: cats, clowns, pirates, science teachers and Popeye the Sailor. We had fun and we played with different non formal games with them, they danced and also sang karaoke. All the activities were made in the ACTIVE spirit and from the sparkles in their eyes and the smiles on their faces we concluded that our mission was accomplished. #ActiveSpirit shared with kids!

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TOGETHER - Fun in the sun (Youth Solidarity Albania)

Seeing is believing!

Enjoy this brand new video made by Juxhin Rama, who caught the best moments of Creative Sports Day which took place in Tirana on 25th of May!

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Welcome to the Game: 25th of April 2014, Tirana, Albania

On the 25th of April in Albania there was an inspiring conference happening. Along with Albanian Volunteer Network and Brave New Generation, Desara with her organization Free Youth of Albania organized a conference called "Welcome to the Game". The conference was organized on April 25th, which also is the same day of the Inspire Freedom Campaign.

  Their target group was the young people who want to be part of an organization or an institution, but have lack of information on where and how to become a member, and what is the topic that the organization is addressing with their activities. They invited 100 young people from Tirana, high school and college students, individuals, lecturers, and also 11 Albanian Youth NGOs. Each of the organization had to represent themselves in a creative way.

  The organizations presented their main activities, goals and objectives to the audience, and in the end each participant made a choice on which organization adapted more to what they wanted to do. So somehow they helped young people find themselves.

  Working on inclusion through #ActiveSpirit

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Creative and colorful workshop was organized by our DIY participant Desara from Albania.

She works at the Active member organization Free Youth of Albania and she was responsible for organizing the team for this artistic workshop.

With various color buckets and some careful paintbrush movements they brought small colorful changes through art for children of the "Zyber Hallulli" orphanage.

During a two day workshop on April 4th and 5th, along with the Albanian organisation "Think Positive", sponsored by "Deutschland Colors", they painted the walls of the orphanage. A very expression full and serious two days. In the painted bubbles they wrote such words as: POSITIVE, DARE, DREAM, BE YOURSELF, to motivate the kids and give them hope.

#ActiveSpirit included in the work.

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Creative Sports Day: 25th of May 2014, Tirana, Albania

Do you know how to organise an activity which would make kids happy while providing youngsters with soft skills for social work?

Do you have creative ideas on how to make an activity exciting and inclusive both for orphan kids and for youngsters coming from disadvantaged backgrounds?

Guys from Tirana, Juxhin and Sheila, definitely do!

Creative Sports Day was a big success and a fun inclusive activity for everyone! The joy of spending time doing sports in safe inclusive environments still turned out to become a new practical experience for young volunteers coming from socially excluded groups.

Inclusion and trust though sports activities meet Tirana: #ActiveSpirit is included, too!

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Creative Sports Day: 25th of May 2014, Tirana, Albania

This activity for the orphan children, created by Juxhin Rama and Sheila Xhavo, was related to sports and took place in a sport park in Tirana.

The idea of the activity was providing the orphan children with the opportunity to enjoy sport games which they can not afford in everyday life, while involving young volunteers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Creative Sports Day involved young volunteers from socially excluded groups, such as young Roma people and young people with special needs. Before the Creative Sports Day all these young volunteers participated in a workshop organised by Juxhin and Sheila, where they learned how to work with kids and how to provide safe and inclusive environments for the activities involving kids and youngsters. These young volunteers not only helped to organise the activity but also gained some practical soft skills which could help them in their social work in the future.

Creative Sports Day started with icebreakers and games, continued with football, beach volleyball and tennis and ended with a common mini-party full of fresh fruits, alcohol-free drinks and fruit-based coctails, and tons of fun!

The activity was implemented by Youth Solidarity Albania in collaboration with Roma Bax.

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Best of 'Do It Yourself' - Bytom, Poland! (Active Seminar)

Enjoy a great video made by Juxhin Rama from Albania!

Here you can see the best moments from the first phase of Do It Yourself Project, which took place in Bytom, Poland in March 2014.

During this phase, 20 young people from 11 European countries participated in a seminar dedicated to the problems of social exclusion.

#ActiveSpirit is included!

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He drew a circle that shut me out Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in.

Edwin Markham