AEGEE-Patra proposed a magnificent TSU showing the best of Peloponnese on the initiative of Flo Fotini Karagrigori, Stavroula Kostakopolou, Secretary of this Greek Antenna, Vasiliki Petrakou, President, and the extraordinary help of an amazing team. Journalist Matteo Lai reports on this international event that was in collaboration with the Democracy in Practice project.

The Summer University of AEGEE-Patra began on the eleventh of July 2016. In Athens, I had already met some participants, Ana and Alvaro, and one organiser, Spyros, who hosted me during the previous weekend, and gave us a small city tour of the Greek capital. With other guys, who were joining the event, we reached Patra very late by bus; about nine p.m. The Greek organisers, however, could not let us miss out on some ice breaking games, so that we at least got to know the name of the other participants.

They came from every corner of Europe: Dario Renna (Italy), Natalya Turun (Ukraine),  Ihor Raynovskyy (Ukraine), David Ferre (Spain), Olga Revilla (Spain), Ana González García (Spain), Robert Bullesfeld (Germany), Joyce Schulte (the Netherlands), Álvaro Alonso Larré (Spain), Anna Zaiats (Ukraine), Strahinja Kocijasevic (Serbia), Enrica Griggio (Italy), Diego Laino Rebollido (Spain), Alessandro Boffa Fasset (Italy), Irene Ballester (Spain), Matteo Delfino (Italy), Adela Hurtikova (Czech Republic), Anna Temerko (Ukraine), Matteo Sberna (Italy), Merli Martin (Estonia), Sophia Talvoysh (Russia), Maria Calin (Austria), Alicia Jiménez Nosti (Spain), Julia Sohu (Spain), Mikel Larra Arca (Spain), Ella Katkova (Russia), Fernando Berniola Cassorán (Spain), Lili Dozsa (Hungary), Arbenita Hasani (Austria), Kagan Kemal Tuna (Turkey) and a girl simply known to us as Burcu (Turkey).

The organisers were: Noemi Lowy (Democracy in Practice Trainer, AEGEE-Debrecen), Vasiliki Petrakou (Main Organiser and President), Petros Spyratos, Spyros Ntouroukis, Fotini Flo Karagrigori (Main Organiser and Secretary), Stavroula Kostakopoulou (Main Organizer and Incoming Responsible), Raphael Angelis, Stavros Vlatakis, Giota Grintzou, Petros Vezos, Katerina Anastasopolou (AEGEE-Athina), Akis Tampachaniotis (AEGEE-Peiraias), Costas Frem, Costantinos Fasourakis, Yiota Mitropoulou, Anastasia Karantza.

After a quick dinner outside the hotel, we all went together to a lounge in a pub, ten minutes away from the hotel that was our accommodation for the first four days. I was really tired after the long trip from Athens to Patra, but I could not wait for the interesting programme that the organisers had crafted for us. Patra is famous for the Rio-Antirrio Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in Europe. In Patra, I also visited the Apollon Theatre, which was designed by the famous German architect Ernst Ziller and completed in 1872. The Apollon is located east of Georgiou I Square, one of Patra’s most popular squares. The theatre is a micrograph of “La Scala” in Milan, and is the oldest existing enclosed theatre of the same era. The Apollon Theatre has been the main stage of the Patras Municipal and Regional Theatre since 1988, and can hold up to three hundred people.

The TSU was in collaboration with the ‘Democracy in Practice’ project. For the newbies in AEGEE, the aim of the project is to raise awareness among young people about the importance of human rights as the basis of a healthy democracy, in order to promote social and political participation of young people at local, national, and European level. This can be achieved in two ways: by means of training, and by means of advocacy. Therefore, the members of Democracy in Practice set some learning objectives and some advocacy objectives. The former required the participants to explain what the interconnections between human rights and democracy are, to develop a campaign for Human Rights, to direct their own learning through the process, and to develop a concrete action plan in order to start a follow-up process. Advocacy objectives are various as well: the participants can identify the local stakeholders for human rights education; the participants are able to advocate for human rights education in their local communities, specially targeting universities and other educational centres.

There have been many sessions that allowed us to know each other better and to discuss about Europe. For example, at the Gythio campsite, Noemi asked us to write down some words that we associate with Europe: peace, freedom, security, human rights, prosperity, language, mobility. She also proposed us to watch a movie titled: “The Untouchables”, which topics were discussed during our stay in Patra.

On the third day, we spent the evening in Plaz, a beach close to Patra’s city centre, where we enjoyed the European Night, a traditional activity in every Summer University. The organisers decided to surprise us by showing their European friends the basics of some popular Greek dances. Then, Stavroula would not be amiss to show us the famous ‘Ouzo’, an alcoholic drink very similar to Sambuca with the flavor of anisette.

On the morning of the day after, we followed a Democracy in Practice session about the structure and organisation of AEGEE. Noemi also talked about several AEGEE projects you can join, such as The AEGEEan. Later, the protagonists of this amazing Greek adventure visited the Achaia Clauss winery where they relaxed, chatted and made some group photos. In the Youth Mobility Workshop, David explained to us the incredible advantages of living on a new planet with his “Apollo Mobility Program”.

The participants were involved in D.i.P. activities almost every day, but we also went to Ancient Olympia, known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times. In the 10th century B.C., Olympia became a centre for the worship of Zeus. The Altis – the sanctuary to the gods – used to contain one of the greatest collections of masterpieces from the ancient Greek world. In addition to temples, we saw the remains of all the sports structures, which had been erected for the Olympic Games that were held in Olympia every four years. The first ever Olympic Games were held in honour of Zeus. After some hours at Kaiafas beach, we visited Kalamata. The city tour was guided by Dimitri Eliopoulos, former director of Alpha Bank, who spoke more Italian than Greek or English. On Sunday, we went to Polylimnio for river trekking. The course ended at a lake and some Spanish guys inaugurated a dive competition from very high rocks. In Methoni, we managed to make some group photos over the rocks near a castle without falling into the water.

The day at Kalamata’s city hall was the best for me. After we were welcomed by the mayor, we made an analysis and comparison of the situation of human and fundamental rights in several European countries. We were divided into small groups on the basis of our country. I still cannot believe it, but I talked in front of forty people in a foreign language about the Italian Constitution, while expressing my opinion about some current problems of Italy without getting nervous. I would have liked to answer some questions, but it was also important to talk about countries where the problem of human rights is probably much more felt, countries such as Ukraine, Russia and Turkey.

In Kardamyli, thirty-five kilometers southeast of Kalamata, in the region of Messenia on the Mani Peninsula, we admired the Mourtzinos Tower and the Church of Ayios Spyridon. After enjoying the sun at Stoupa beach, we reached the third Greek town of this vacation, Gythio, where we celebrated at the Hippie Hippie Shake Party.

One of the places that fascinated me the most was Monemvasia Island. Monemvasia is a town and a municipality in Laconia. The town is located on a small island off the Eastern coast of the Peloponnese. The town’s name derives from two Greek words, “mone” and “emvasia”, collectively meaning “single entrance”. Many of the streets are narrow and can only accommodate pedestrians and donkeys. A small hamlet of about ten houses lies on the northwest. The most interesting aspects of the island were for sure: Christos Elkomenos Square, the church of Agia Sophia, and the fortress. There was a very strong wind around the island, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying a wonderful excursion. Another interesting archeological site was Mystras, a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, always in the Peloponnese, situated on the Taygetos mountain, near the ancient Sparta.

In the next chapter of our journey, we arrived in Mycenae (or Mikines). In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilisation. I got petrified when I saw the Lion Gate, because I had only seen it in my history of art text book. On the last two days of the TSU, the accommodation was in a campsite in Napflio. During those couple of days, we went on a cruise discovering the Hydra and Spetses islands. In Hydra there were no cars, but a lot of mules instead. On both islands the water was crystal-clear. At the end of the SU, the organisers brought us to the ancient theatre at Epidauros: among all the ancient theatres, this one was the most beautiful and best preserved. And although it was very hot, I could not resist the temptation to climb up the steps to the top of the theatre.

The organisers of AEGEE-Patra did a really good job; some of them have been very affable with the most shy participants, and they have created and nurtured a group that wanted to have a lot of fun. Sometimes they had to modify the timetable for the evening programme by the request of most of the participants; such as when we asked to include one more party on Gythio beach. In the discos, someone among the organisers could not bare to see you sit on a chair, so they immediately grabbed you by your arms and made you fly on the dance floor. They showed to be very experienced after their Agora in 2014. Not everything  was perfect and there were some aspects that need to be improved for next year, but the organisers were also warm-hearted. When I got sick, guys like Raphael, Vasiliki and Stavros took care of me without hesitation.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

Whether you are a delegate, a visitor or an envoy, you are definitely going to love the workshops planned for the upcoming Spring Agora Bergamo! They are new, they are fresh and interactive, aimed for new members coming as visitors, some of them being for the first time at an Agora, eager to learn valuable things, AEGEE related or not,  from trainers and members with experience. Three of them will briefly be presented in this article and are the following: “Be water, my friend!”, “I was killed by PowerPoint” and last, but not least, “Peace it Up!”. Read more to find out about each one of them and don’t forget to join one during Agora Bergamo! See you there!

Workshop I-A: Be water, my friend!

Held by the Speaker and Vice-Speaker of the Public Relations Committee (PRC), Gerardo Garcia Diaz (AEGEE-Oviedo) and former Comité Directeur (CD) member, Mayri Tiido (AEGEE-Tallin), the workshop will take place on Thursday, 19th May at 12:45 and will end at 14:15. This workshop encourages you to refresh yourself and teaches you how to adapt to different situations, to be like water, as the name suggests, through improvisation theater and role-playing. Although this workshop will be a lot of fun,  a decent level of English is required, so if you are having trouble with that, start revising!

Workshop I-B: I was killed by PowerPoint

As the name suggests, we are all sick and tired of PowerPoint presentations and dull speeches. The means used to spread education & knowledge have changed a lot, the best example for that being TEDx, with events taking place all over, featuring worldwide known trainers, experts and great leaders that inspire us with their speech and stage act. Why shouldn’t you try to be like them? Through tips and tricks presented during this workshop, you will learn how to keep the participant’s attention, leave them speechless and falling in love with your presentation. The workshop will be held by Academy trainer, Ana Potocnik (AEGEE-Ljubljana) and will take place on Thursday, 19th May between 12:45 and 14:15.

Workshop I-C: Peace it Up!

So far, the year of 2016 wasn’t too great when it comes to democracy and peace-making, considering all the terrorist attacks that happened in Paris, Brussels, Istanbul and Ankara. However, it definitely brought us together and motivated us to take our own actions to contribute to a better and more peaceful Europe. The collaboration between the “Democracy in Practice” and the “Your Vision for EUrope”
project has resulted in an interactive and meaningful workshop called “Peace it Up!”, which will offer you this great opportunity to come, share and support your thoughts and feelings about the current situation. It will be held by Noemi Lowy (AEGEE-Debrecen) on behalf of the “Democracy in Practice” project and Adonis Meggos (AEGEE-Peiraias) from the “Your Vision for EUrope” project and it will take place on Thursday, 19th May from 12:45 until 14:15.

For more information you can download the Agora Agenda and the Workshops and Progress Meetings booklet.

Written by Gabriela Geană, AEGEE-București

The Democracy in Practice (DiP) Team composed of Andrea, Danae, Elena, Eleonora, Evrim, Johanna, Lia, May, Noemi, Sora, and Zeynep, is part of an AEGEE-Europe Project that has one of AEGEE’s experienced Project Managers, and candidate for the Comité Directeur at the Spring Agora Bergamo, Lia Tuska from AEGEE-Kastoria. In this article, the founder of the aforementioned Greek antenna tells us something about her campaign against terrorism ‘Make Room for Peace’.

‘Democracy in Practice’ is an AEGEE-Europe Project that aims to raise awareness among young people about the importance of human rights as the basis of a healthy democracy. They do this by promoting social and political participation of young people in their local, national, and European environment.

The project includes three types of activities: workshops, thematic events and full DiP events. The members hold workshops at different kinds of events like Network Meetings (NWMs), pre-events, Agorae and European Planning Meetings (EPMs). They also promote the idea of celebrating international days such as the Human Rights Day and Democracy Day. That is why they created the Guidelines for Human Rights and Democracy Activities. “Many locals want to organise European events. They can take care of the logistics and we can take care of the content”, says Lia. For example, currently, DiP is collaborating with AEGEE-Eskişehir and AEGEE-Patra on Summer Universities. In addition to those abovementioned activities, DiP members have their own events which aim at informing the participants about human rights, explaining to them the link between democracy and human rights and making them more aware of the importance of democracy. Last but not least, they encourage them to be active citizens.

“The Project is going to close at the Spring Agora Bergamo and reopen for a new cycle with new people, so if you are passionate about active citizenship, democracy or human rights, don’t hesitate to contact us” , adds Lia. The founder of AEGEE-Kastoria focuses on why the campaign ‘Make Room for Peace’ has been launched. In fact, after the terrorist attacks that took place in the last six months, the members of DiP were deeply saddened just as many other members of our Network. Therefore, they thought that they should do something in order to take action against terrorism by launching a campaign, and thus they created the campaign called ‘Make Room for Peace’. With this campaign, they are calling on young people, AEGEEans, who strive for mutual understanding and terror-free societies. “Our weapons are the words, actions, mind and love. We do not need arms, our arms are for hugging the world!”, says Lia. Every AEGEE member can become an ambassador. The tasks of an ambassador are: to promote the activities of the campaign, to answer the questions from locals and other members regarding the campaign, to follow the activities of the campaign and to communicate with the Project team in case of questions. Also, all members are more than welcome to share their ideas to improve the campaign by adding more activities. The peace ambassadors are also expected to help them collect the materials, like photos and summaries of what locals did regarding the campaign, at the end of the campaign.

Then, a video will be created two weeks before the Agora in order to be first presented on Saturday, 21st of May, on the International Anti-terrorism Day. But until now, there are not many locals that have taken part in the campaign: only some members of our Project, AEGEE-Brescia, AEGEE-Eskişehir, the participants of ‘European Problems, Humanitarian Solutions’, and the participants of the Local Training Course (LTC) organised by AEGEE-Budapest and AEGEE-Debrecen have participated in the campaign so far.

As part of the campaign, DiP members prepared a set of workshops that have been and will be held at four events. They have already had the chance to provide workshops at the ‘European Problems, Humanitarian Solutions’ event organised by AEGEE-Athina and at the LTC organised by AEGEE-Budapest and AEGEE-Debrecen. In Athens, the participants were introduced to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a game of charades, then they learned how people’s lives are influenced by the refugee crisis. In addition, a discussion on how those aspects are all linked to the rise of terrorism in the last few months took place. At the LTC, the participants received an introductory session on how European bodies work and then they had a role-play activity which aimed at raising awareness about the inequality of opportunities, developing their imagination and critical thinking and fostering empathy with less fortunate people. This activity closed with a discussion on how the participants felt about the roles they got. DiP members are going to have a workshop at the ‘Borderless Europe: Blessing or Burden?’ event organised by AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca and Your Vision for EUrope. The last of the workshops will be held at the Spring Agora Bergamo 2016 and it will be carried out in collaboration between DiP and Your Vision for EUrope Project. There is going to be an article about the results of the whole campaign where we will explain everything.

At EPM Leiden, DiP held the workshop ‘The stories they confess’, where participants were introduced to stories of people influenced by the refugee crisis. Every AEGEE member can check some videos of their workshop on their Facebook page. DiP was also present at the EPM Fair where it promoted the Summer Universities, context in which DiP members collaborated along with AEGEE-Eskişehir and AEGEE-Patra. Lia’s group also introduced its ‘Fact Cards’ to the people who attended the Fair. These cards had information about the Refugee Crisis and Human Rights on them.

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari

Right after EPM Leiden, members of Democracy in Practice gathered in Brussels to finalise content restructuring, designed to bring the project closer to locals and to expand communication channels. The team now hails from eight different countries.

DIP at the Citizens for Europe project fair

Team members were attracted to the project for several reasons: after observing the low turnout at European Parliament elections and low youth civic participation in general; the lack of respect for fundamental human rights, including gender equality, in their own countries; and to understand comparatively what makes up a true democracy – to name a few. Several members have a legal and political background. Other specialisations include economics, computer science, languages, engineering and naval architecture. With such a diverse range in knowledge, skills and approaches, but a shared passion for upholding human rights and democracy, the nature of the project can uniquely be described as part social and political science, part humanitarianism, part art, but democratic decision making all the way.

A pillar of the project is informal education. Given their previous success at EPMs, Agorae and Network Meetings, more emphasis is being placed on developing interactive workshops. Through these, the project explores the nature of human rights and democracy by simulating events that most of us, in some cases fortunately, will likely never experience in real life. What was democracy like in ancient Greece? What is it like to work as an immigration official? As a newspaper editor, how easy is it to represent the news honestly and objectively? After a re-enactment by participants, the DIP workshop facilitator conducts a debriefing, in which the underlying meaning and implications of the exercise come to light. It may remind you of a psychological experiment, however, the workshops are exploratory and the facilitator is on an equal footing with the participants and does not impose a predetermined outcome. As a result, the experience is also enlightening for the facilitator, who always learns something new.

Living Library: AEGEE- Ankara for Human Rights Day 2015

How about locals, who want to bring such workshops to their local group, or to add a human rights and democratic dimension to a specific topic, perhaps of interest to their region, but lack experience, time or resources to do so? The team agreed a simple collaboration strategy, to enable locals, with minimum hassle, to fit DIP activities into European events, Summer Universities, or simply as a standalone event of up to a few days. There is also potential for DIP’s growing database of external collaborators across Europe, to provide talks, workshops and expertise during these events. A selection of standard DIP activities are on offer, combining some or all of workshops, debates, roundtable discussions, flash-mobs and talks, but more flexible collaborations are encouraged. Following a skype meeting with a local, DIP would be able to tailor activities to specific topics, timeframes, levels of difficulty, interactivity and fun, and to promote the event. The local then only needsto provide a location for activities, accommodation and food for participants.

On the final day of the meeting, DIP was fortunate in being able to take part in the Citizens for Europe project fair in Brussels, and as a result forged new connections with other projects that promote democratic participation, in the fair’s principle of putting cooperation above competition. The process was also very much an educational tool in project evaluation and gave DIP an outsider’s perspective of the project. It opened with an elevator pitch of each project. Representatives then showed on a scale of 0 to 100 how far developed their project was in concept, execution, funding and collaborations, and stated their project’s strengths and weaknesses, and how it could benefit from and assist other projects. After more detailed discussions on these points, the fair’s participants assimilated and analysed this information, as they compared projects and cast votes in four categories – innovation, feasibility, desirability and impact. Only at this point, contact details and business cards were exchanged.

Team member Elena presents at a Human Rights workshop for AEGEE-Athina.

Democracy in Practice now strives to become a go to within the AEGEE network for the latest important human rights and democracy news and debates, and will be posting weekly articles on facebook, as well as Twitter and Instagram posts. Social networkers considering becoming more involved in DIP’s activities, or in search of inspiration for their local, can also tune in for photos and stories of past as well as future events and competitions. The democratic, interdisciplinary and exploratory nature of the project means members are very much open to suggestions and nothing is too out of the box – in fact, DIP recently ran a photo competition, and has a large human rights playlist and database of human rights themed movies. So do contact DIP with your ideas, or to send a cool picture of your own human rights themed activity. The project is also looking for new members, particularly men, so if you like what you have seen so far, DIP would love to hear from you.

AEGEE-Skopje, the only antenna in Macedonia and with 70 members, has become well known for its Travel Summer Universities (TSU). We spoke with Maria Davceva, External Relations Responsible, who told us about the results of the last Winter Event, which the Macedonian antenna organised for the International Volunteer Day. She also explains their involvement in “Democracy in Practice”  and focuses on previous experiences in TSUs.

The antenna took part in the “International Volunteer Day”, celebrated every year on the 5th of December. It aims to motivate young people to become active volunteers in order to contribute to their society. Also, it encourages people to understand the importance and the benefits of volunteering. This December AEGEE-Skopje was part of the NGO fair in its city, where more than 50 NGOs presented their activities and future plans in order to motivate people to join them as active volunteers. They presented their past projects and future activities in front of thousands of visitors and managed to share  AEGEE’s vision and mission among them.

AEGEE-Skopje also participated in a project called “Democracy in Practice”. This is an AEGEE-Europe Project that aims to raise awareness among young people about the importance of human rights as the basis of a healthy democracy in order to promote social and political participation of young people in their local, national and European environment. This year there was an initiative to celebrate the Human Rights Day by doing interactive workshops across AEGEE antennae.
The Human Rights Day in AEGEE-Skopje was well accepted and integrated in the weekly meeting on the 11th of December. 15 members of AEGEE-Skopje, divided in two groups, participated in the activity drawing a “human rights tree”. After finishing their drawings, they had a short discussion about which human rights are violated in Macedonia. The members were really interested in the discussion about the factors (the roots) that make human rights flourish, such as: no corruption, health care system, social care system, education, moral, ethics, police, law, democracy, etc.

The last events that were related to motivating and training members were: a Local Training Course (LTC) about Democracy in Practice on 14.12.2015, and a motivational weekend on the 23.10.2015 (Mountain House Papradiste).
The LTC was a three hours course, during which new members gained knowledge from the beginnings of AEGEE, history and its structure, but also the activities in AEGEE-Skopje. They also went from newbies to motivated active members all through a series of workshops and thematic exercises .
The motivational weekend on the other hand, apart from information about the possibilities in AEGEE, its history and member bonding experiences, gave the members two whole days to be part of trainings in the areas of fundraising (how to achieve long-term fundraising success), human resources (emotional intelligence), and informational technology (protect your online data).
Although in both LTC and motivational weekend the basic workshops and activities were tied around the five different working teams headed by the board responsible (HR, PR, ER, IT, FR and Fundraising), their structure and goals are somewhat different (training them with knowledge vs. motivating them to use and point that knowledge towards a goal).

From the 7th to the 12th of January AEGEE-Skopje had its winter event “WinUp-It’s Snow Time”, which took place in Skopje and Mavrovo. The participants enjoyed a workshop about traditional Macedonian dances, lead by a professional folk dance group which taught them how to dance like a true Macedonian. The second workshop was about Macedonian Christmas traditions. It was interesting for the participants to hear and see pictures of the various traditions around Macedonia, considering that it is an Orthodox country. The participants were amazed by the Matka canyon and its untouched nature, the city tour in Skopje followed by the pub crawl in the Old Bazar and the fresh mountain air in Mavrovo. The Macedonian antenna was happy to have a really united and amazing group of participants in which they all felt connected.
“The gossip box was always full, it fulfilled its purpose of breaking the ice and improved the love factor of this event. The energy of the participants was endless, never ending singing, laughing and drinking of course. The party bus in Mavrovo has a lot of stories to tell” says Maria. The best way to spend time after New Year’s Eve is traveling, mainly in the capital of Macedonia where the winter event took place in the middle of the Christmas spirit in Skopje and the breathtaking Mavrovo. “We didn’t have snow, because our participants were so full of love that they melted it all” adds Maria.

About the TSUs, Maria says “A Travel Summer University is a great responsibility and even bigger pleasure to organise”. In fact, the antenna had two great summer universities with two amazing antennae in the summer of 2015, which it had a lot of workshops about their cultures, national dances and history, trying to make the participants feel their way of living. At the TSU with Belgrade “YUGOvision- Balkan is calling”, the participants had the chance to visit two countries which not so long ago shared the same name, language, monetary system and president. The monuments they visited and workshops they attended got them closer to the theme of their TSU, to their culture, history, life and to Yugoslavia. At the TSU with Istanbul “Greater than Alexander, more Magnificent than Suleyman”, the participants got closer to the history of Turkey and Macedonia through multicultural activities, which in the past has intersected more than once, leaving traces that are present even now.

About the last elections of the board, only one of the old members remained and that is the president Ivan. Members attend different universities, meaning that the prosperity of the 2016’s productivity is immensely high. Nenad has his Master’s degree in Business Law, Marija and Stefani are students of psychology, Elena is an IT student, Saska is attending business academy and Goran is an economist. “Together we are one team and for almost two years now, we have been spreading the AEGEE spirit” adds Maria.

During the 2015, AEGEE-Skopje slightly altered its logo. The old one consisted of the word “AEGEE” and the name of the capital city Skopje, as well as a map of Europe next to the word. The new logo is enriched with a picture of the biggest and most beautiful bridge, and also one of the greatest monuments in Skopje – The Stone Bridge. The Stone Bridge or “Kameni Most’”, as they call it, is a bridge across the Vardar River in Skopje. The bridge is considered a symbol of Skopje and is the main element is the coat of arms of the city, which is incorporated in the city’s flag. The Stone Bridge connects Macedonia Square, in the center of Skopje, to the Old Bazaar.

At the end Maria reminds that all AEGEE members are invited to apply and participate on the next TSU whose name is “Balkanize your summer from Danube to Vardar”, which is going to be organised in five cities (Serbia- Novi sad/Belgrade, Macedonia-Skopje/Struga/Ohrid).

Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.

In 2015, Human Rights Day has been celebrated with various activities and discussions all around the AEGEE network. This year, ten antennae, namely AEGEE-Aachen, AEGEE-Ankara, AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca, AEGEE-Madrid, AEGEE-Odessa, AEGEE-Patra, AEGEE-Ploieşti, AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg, AEGEE-Skopje and AEGEE-Tenerife, organised forums, lectures and other kind of events in an attempt to promote and raise awareness about human rights. Celebrated on and around December 10th, the Humans Rights Day activities addressed around 300 people, both AEGEEans and non-AEGEEans, giving them a platform for learning and discussing the human rights-related issues that were relevant to their daily lives.

The types of activities organised by the locals varied widely from mini-human library to film-forum; from role-plays to informative lectures. Organised in collaboration with Democracy in Practice, these events opened new windows for the participants to look at human rights issues, as the evaluations gathered from the participants indicate. Not only did the participants learn about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which marks the basis for the Human Rights Day, but in some events, they also examined the question of refugees which has been on the front burner in Europe for a long time now.

There were many workshops implemented in common by some antennae. For example, AEGEE-Madrid, AEGEE-Patra, AEGEE-Ploieşti and AEGEE-Tenerife included the workshop called “Three Things”, which asks the participants to decide on what three things they would take with them if they were forced to flee their homes. This activity was effective in giving a mock first-hand impression to the young Europeans of what kind of an experience it is to be a refugee.

Another workshop that was popular among the locals was the “Human Rights Tree”. The participants in AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca, AEGEE-Patra, AEGEE-Ploieşti and AEGEE-Skopje had the opportunity to build their own trees that were embellished with the names of the Human Rights they value the most. They also added to their trees how and by what means these rights could be provided in their societies. Along with revealing what the most crucial Human Rights are in their contexts, this workshop familiarized the participants with the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by providing a platform for comparing their tree with the articles in the Declaration.

Different from these workshops, AEGEE-Ankara organised a mini-human library that included an Armenian and a LGBT individual as its books. Being subject to excessive prejudices in the society, this event aimed at bringing together the subject and the object of the prejudices in order to contribute to the formation of a society where borders are crossed and Human Rights are protected. In this event, ten people had the chance to communicate and ask their questions to the Armenian and LGBT individuals in person and in private, which eventually broadened the readers’ horizons by revisiting their prejudices.

In another event organised by AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg, the participants were formally informed about the history of Human Rights, bioethics, euthanasia, abortion and many others, via presentation. Encompassing various sides of Human Rights, AEGEEans in Sankt-Peterburg found a chance to learn and ask about Human Rights as well as doing a Human Rights Photos activity for the celebration of this important date.

AEGEE-Aachen was another antenna that chose to celebrate this day with photos, but in a different format. The participants of AEGEE-Aachen’s event wrote the Universal Human Rights on big sheets and everyone took a photo with their sheet. By publishing these photos on social media, AEGEE-Aachen managed to raise awareness about the Universal Human Rights granted to each and every individual and to draw attention to the topic of Human Rights.

Film-Forums were also preferred activities to draw attention to the various aspects of Human Rights. AEGEE-Madrid and AEGEE-Odessa organised events where they watched a movie related to Human Rights, and after the movie they created an environment in which the participants could analyze the movie in relation with the Human Rights and with the cases that encapsulate their everyday lives.

Lastly, one of the most impressive workshops was the “Language Barrier” one, organised by AEGEE-Ploieşti and AEGEE-Tenerife. It was also aimed at showing the difficulties the refugees face in their everyday hassles. In particular, the problems resulting from not speaking the language of the countries the refugees are migrating are acted out as realistically as possible. Many participants expressed their puzzlement and empathy for the refugees who experience these problems on a daily basis, and they said they were moved to act on this matter.

In a nutshell, around the 10th of December AEGEE was busy learning and raising awareness about Human Rights in collaboration with its locals and Democracy in Practice. The organisers did an excellent job in emphasizing the different aspects of Humans Rights with various activities by including altogether around 300 people. However, as many of us would expect, Human Rights are a sensitive and ever-hot topic that should be kept in the agenda at all times and that should be worked on. Therefore, we invite all the AEGEEans to do more activities to promote the proper implementation of Human Rights and to create a Europe where Human Rights are kept above everything else.

If you wish to organise Human Rights Activities, please check the Human Rights Activities Guidelines and fill in this form.
If you wish to organise Active Citizenship Activities, please check the Democracy Activities Guidelines and fill in this form.

Written by Zeynep Eda Alpsoy, AEGEE-Ankara on behalf of Democracy in Practice

Autumn Agora Kyïv is closer than we think, and during these days organisers, members of AEGEE Bodies and the Chair Team are taking care of all the last details, from facilities to content, in order to make the event a very good one. Workshops are an important part of the Agora, and they are being prepared by several commissions and projects.

During the second day of the Agora, there will be three workshop sessions. The third session will take place between 18:00 and 20:00. “Erasmus+ – Give your application a PLUS!”, “Let’s get ACTive” and “AEGEE in the external world” are the topics covered.

Let’s get ACTive is going to be organised by the Action Agenda Coordinator Committee (ACT), and it is going to encourage “members to get more active and create activities that comply to aims and objectives stated in the Action Agenda”, as Miljana Vulevic, the Vice-Speaker of the Committee, said. The workshop will be organised in a way that will also involved the participants, so they can learn more using “both their imagination and logic to solve the tasks we’ve prepared for them. It will be educational and very, very fun”. A second aim is to help members understand that the Action Agenda is not as difficult as it might seem, and that it is a document that “is beneficial in more ways than one.” Members need to know that the Action Agenda and the ACT can help them get new ideas and develop great and creative projects for all the members.

Erasmus+ – Give your application a PLUS! is a workshop that is going to be held by Anna Gumbau, member of Comité Directeur. With this workshop, the participants will learn how the locals can benefit from the program and how much it actually helps in the organisation of an event.

The third workshop that is going to take place, AEGEE in the external world, held by Pablo Hernández Rodríguez and Aleksandra Kluczka, both members of the Comité Directeur, is going to encourage all AEGEE members to participate in the external activities of the organisation. They would also like to see what kind of impact would members like AEGEE to have in society and empower them to take action.

During the fourth day of the Agora, the fourth session of workshop will take place, between 12:00 and 13:30. One of them is called Play your role in democracy, held by Noemi Lowy, Elena Panagopoulou and Lia Tuska from Democracy in Practice. With the topic of the workshop, they want “to raise awareness of what are the democratic values in a state and in society”. Members have to realise that their saying can have a major impact in society. The workshop itself goes hand in hand with the theme at the Agora, “Rebuiding Democracy”, and even if “it is a very broad concept and according to many, it’s vaguely idealistic”, human rights can be very powerful and you can learn a lot by talking about them.

Through this workshop, participants will be able to understand “how different players (government, media, NGO’s and citizens) influence and shape human rights” and they will be encourage “to think and express their opinion on the current social/ political/ economic issues and challenges”. In a very interactive way, participants will have to create “a statement as the role they would have to react to the human rights project”, everything continuing with discussions according to the statements. All the participants of this workshop will leave the room with more knowledge about human rights and everything that is interconnected with it.

All the workshops that will be held during this Agora will have an impact on members somehow, and it will definitely make them take some action at a smaller or a bigger scale.

Written by Raluca Radu, AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca 

It was the Summer of 2013 when the idea of Democracy in Practice (DiP) was born among the members of the Human Rights Working Group. One year later, June 2014, the core team gathered in Brussels and finalised the outline of the Democracy in Practice Project. In the following months, the team got bigger and they decided to have a second meeting at the end of September. At Agora Cagliari, ten out of the fourteen members of the team were there to represent the project. November 1st was a special day for the Democracy in Practice Project: not only did they get to sign the contract to become an official AEGEE-Europe Project, but they also got ratified by the Agora!

Training courses on topics like conflict resolution, refugees and migration, minorities, influence of the media and gender equality are going to be hosted by different AEGEE locals in the following months. Next to that, in the beginning of January, Atanas Nachkov (AEGEE-Sofia and Mediation Commission) contacted the DiP Team, asking for more information about how to start an AEGEE-Europe Project and shared with them an idea he had for a new project.

This new project have similarities with Democracy in Practice that might confuse people. In order not to have one of the projects overlap the other, Atanas and the DiP Team decided to work together. That new project is a separate one and for now it works within Democracy in Practice since they have common aims.

First of all, how was the idea born?

A little bit after Agora Zaragoza, there was a random Skype call between Atanas Nachkov and Paul Smits. At some point the discussion headed to the recently re-defined vision and mission of AEGEE.

Since we shall strive for a democratic Europe, what is democracy then?

It really sounds crazy to ask this question, but a simple sentence answer is not what they were looking for. Thus, the first aim of this new-born project was to outline the critical characteristics of the democratic society – from supremacy of law, freedom of speech and government accountability till transparency and right to protest. If we manage to create a more sophisticated description, we’ll have a better vision of what we are truly fighting for.

All that was left, was the name for the project, which Paul simply dropped, but it really fit, because we intended to have something catchy and playful. “Democrazy”. If it’s not fun, it won’t work. Unfortunately, both Atanas and Paul were very busy last year and they couldn’t elaborate much on it before kicking off. However, it will begin as an initiative inside Democracy in Practice due to its fundamental familiarity with this project. Gradually it will develop its own identity and hopefully, its own approval by the Agora as a European Project. This way, it will not confuse the rest of the AEGEE members and it’s a great example how people from different projects and initiatives can collaborate together. “I’m really thankful to the whole team behind DiP, who so gladly adopted this idea and allowed it to grow within their domicile. This will have a beneficial impact to Democrazy” states Atanas Nachkov.

If you are interested in the Democrazy Project, please contact him at atanas.nachkov@aegee.org

Written by Lia Tuska, AEGEE-Sofia/AEGEE-Thessaloniki

Do you think democracy in Europe is important? Do you want to know everything there is to know about democratic decision-making, while having a fun time with other AEGEEans? Good news, because from the 25^th of February until the 1^st of March, AEGEE-Groningen is giving you the chance to learn all about democracy and at the same time discover the city with the largest student population in the Netherlands during their European event called ‘Democracy: How Should our Society be?’ .The AEGEEan spoke to one of the organizers, Eelke Bakker, to find out more about this upcoming event.

After having organized an European event last year (Energy of Tomorrow), the local wanted to repeat the experience. “We want to give other AEGEEans the opportunity to visit our city as cheap as possible and at the same time learn more about democracy”, Eelke explains. “It is our aim to give a complete overview of the idea of democracy. Therefore, we have planned a lot of different lectures, discussions, and workshops on different aspects.” The event will include topics like democracy in the Netherlands, (dis)advantages of the multi-party system, promotion of democracy and human rights, democracy at the European level, and democracy and social media. “We are still very busy working on the program so there might be slight changes in the upcoming weeks but we can guarantee that all lectures will be very interesting and given by motivated speakers!”

Asked why they think it is important to talk and learn about the topic of democracy, Eelke explains: “Democracy might sometimes be taken for granted, especially in western European countries, or people tend to focus only on the quality of elections in determining the quality of democracy. We however think that democracy is not as self-explanatory as sometimes assumed. There are many different aspects to it, some of which are barely discussed. During our event, we will therefore try to highlight these aspects as well, so that participants can develop a more well-informed view on democracy, regardless of whether that’s a positive or negative one.”

The organizers! From left to right: Maarten, Marijn, Martine, Eelke and Anton

A project of AEGEE strongly linked to this topic is of course Democracy in Practice, which was ratified during the Autumn Agora in Cagliari and is now cooperating with AEGEE-Groningen on their event. “We are very happy that they wanted to come to our event!”, Eelke says. “Normally, they give one week training courses on how to promote democracy as an individual. For our event, they will give a shorter, two-hour workshop on the same topic. We think that the practical aspect during our event is very important. We don’t want to organize plain every-day lectures, but interactive, interesting activities during which active participation is required. The workshop given by Democracy in Practice has all of these characteristics!” Next to that, the local is also cooperating with the JOVD (Youth Organisation for Freedom and Democracy) to organize a lecture where – hopefully – two members of the European Parliament will have a debate.

When setting up the program, the organizers have worked hard to find a balance between interesting lectures and a fun social program.  “The participants will visit the province house of Groningen to learn more about the regional level in the Netherlands and have a lecture on the multi-party system in the Netherlands and the (dis)advantages of a multi-party system. Next to that, the Democracy in Practice project will give us a workshop on how it is possible to improve democracy as an individual. Furthermore, we will have a city tour and we will climb the Martinitower. The participants will also learn more about democracy at the European level and the democratic deficit of which the EU is so often accused. Besides all these interesting lectures, we are also organizing awesome theme parties in some of the nicest bars in Groningen! There will be a Culture European Night, for example, but we will also organize an orange party, to give participants the opportunity to feel like a real Dutch person!”

Reasons enough to join AEGEE-Groningen for their event. Still not convinced yet? As Eelke summarizes: “Not only will it be an interesting week about a topic that is very important for Europe at the moment, it will also be a lot of fun and a great way to get to know Dutch culture.” The topic of democracy doesn’t stop at this event though, because AEGEE-Groningen has made it the topic of their year. “In March we are organizing a trip to an AEGEE-local that is facing problems with democracy”, Eelke tells us. During this trip, the members of AEGEE-Groningen and the other local will discuss how democracy differs in the two countries. “Furthermore, in May we are going to organize many activities revolving around the theme democracy, like lectures, workshop and role-playing games. Finally, we will also visit the European Parliament in Brussels and hopefully have the opportunity to discuss democracy in Europe there.”

Interested? You can apply until January 31st on Intranet.

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen