Picture of Nature
Today young people in Europe are usually bias towards living in urban areas with little contact with natural environment. In order to inspire young people to spend more time within the natural countryside of Europe, there is a need for attractive approaches to topics concerning environmental protection, ecology, sustainable development and promotion of protection of the environment.
Giving a mandate to photography, and giving young people a stake in their rural environment and a reason to spend more time outdoors we hope to motivate them to protect the environment of their own countries and across Europe against both the ravages of climate change and also the encroachment of urban areas and issues such as littering or dumping of waste in areas of natural beauty. Photography can be a powerful tool for this as it provides young people with a sense of accomplishment in taking a good photo, allows for easy sharing and therefore increase visibility of the issue and can inspire young people to protect their environment. By teaching young people the skills of landscape photography in the beautiful countryside of the host, young people are given a stake in the environment and a solid reason to want to preserve it.
Specific objectives of youth exchange were:
to stimulate young people's spirit of initiative using method of creative photography for their ability to create pictures,
to promote photography as a tool of protecting environment,
creating the space for acquisition of knowledge and skills useful for persons' professional development,
fostering mutual better understanding of ecological situation and culture in countries of participants and develop a sense of ecological awareness,
to campaign against climate change and environmental degradation using offline and online tools,
to encourage youth to further influence media, in the topic of ecology, in their own countries,
to promote cross-border cooperation in the fight against climate change.
Watch the video prepared by the participants 🙂 ➡️➡️
video.mp4Our participants' testimonies:
"We were able to participate in a really special project, which took place on the island of Sint Maarten, the "jewel of the Caribbean Sea". Here we had the opportunity to discover and take pictures of the island's beautiful beaches and natural attractions, as the project title suggests, and also to learn about the importance of environmental protection and to think together with Turkish and local participants about solutions for a more sustainable future." (Flóra, Hungary)
People here are totally different than in my country. Their appearance, habits were new for me. The island is really touristic, and it changes people's mind here. It is an island and because of that, they have many issues with environmental friendly economy. It was hard to find recycling places or separate trash containers, which makes easier to behave responsible. Sometimes it is not comfortable to concentrate on these things, but if we won't support each other to make effort globally with zero waste, it won't be significantly better." (András, Hungary)
"It is my first project in my life. At the beginning I had difficulties, I had to extend my comfort zone, because there were a lot of people from different countries and I never met them before. It is a beautiful experience, I cannot express with words! People are amazing!" Dicle (Turkey)
Date: 11-20 December 2021
We delegated 9 participants and 3 group leaders to the project.
Participating countries: Hungary, Turkey, Sint Maarten (The Netherlands)
