Can you imagine your life without meat? Have you tried becoming a vegetarian for a few days or even more, a week? Didn’t you feel much lighter, healthier and stronger at the same time? If you haven’t tried it yet, AEGEE-Leuven gives you the best opportunity to challenge yourself. Being at its second edition, “Days without Meat” is trying to help all the AEGEE people to eat less meat, more vegetables and healthier foods. We talked with Tom Etienne, Main Responsible for the campaign, and we found out more about this year’s edition. So, quit eating that chicken drumstick and join the campaign! It might change your lifestyle completely.

The AEGEEan: To begin with, when was this campaign first created? 
Tom: Days Without Meat is a Flemish citizens’ initiative, so from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, that exists since 2011. Last year, AEGEE-Leuven set up a campaign in the AEGEE Network for AEGEEans to participate in. This year, we hold the campaign for the second time in a row.

What is the purpose of this campaign?
We aim to raise awareness on the ecological effects of our meat eating habits. According to several studies, our livestock’s share in greenhouse gas emissions is around 15%, although some say it’s a lot more. #AEGEEsDWM is not a plea for vegetarianism, but it does aim to reduce our meat consumption and replace it with more sustainable alternatives.

When does this year’s edition take place?
This year, the campaign takes place from the 10th of February until the 26th of March, forty days in total, not counting Sundays.

Is there a follow-up from the campaign? Are the results going to be published or sent somewhere?
The campaign is organised on two different platforms. The first one is the Facebook event, and the second one is the dagenzondervlees.be website, where you can sign up and indicate on a calendar your eating habits. The website then calculates how much you’ve saved on your carbon footprint. At the end of the campaign, we will have saved a lot, which of course, we’ll let people know.

Do you plan to also organise an event during this campaign? If so, please give us a few details about it.
The campaign is our main event in itself, but because the period includes the EPM in Leiden, they will incorporate it in their catering. We will be there at the AEGEE fair as well.

How many people have joined the campaign this year in comparison to last year?
At this moment, we have around 140 participants on Facebook. On the website, 55 people have signed up. This is slightly less compared to last year, but that doesn’t mean we cannot save more!

What would be the main benefits from joining this campaign?
Aside from the AEGEE spirit of many young and engaged Europeans working together for a better and more sustainable world, there is also your own health as a giant benefit. Eating less meat can be very healthy, especially if you take care of what you replace it with. Of course, joining the campaign sends the clear message that #AEGEEcares.

Do you plan to organise other related health campaigns in the future? Tell us a few words about them.
Just like last year, the campaign is sort of a step to our SU with AEGEE-Tilburg, which has a sustainable theme.

As a conclusion, what would you suggest to people who can’t live without meat?
‘Bitch, please’. We all know meat is very tasty at times, but also that, I repeat, we’re not asking you to ban it completely. Replace it once in a while, and you’ll be off a lot cheaper, healthier and more sustainable. You too can live without it a couple of days per week, it’s not that big of a deal. Just join #AEGEEsDWM and show that #AEGEEcares!

Written by Gabriela Geană, AEGEE-București

Since 2012, when the Health4Youth project was founded, it aimed to make young people aware about the importance of a healthy lifestyle, from a physical up to a psychological level. As water is a basic element of life, the Health4Youth team, with the collaboration of the Environmental Working Group, decided to plan an entire day dedicated to it on March 22nd, in honor of World Water Day. Great initiative, for which they get also the United Nations partnership.

World Water Day takes place once a year on March 22nd, since 1993. This single day celebrates something that is constantly in our lives : WATER. The importance of this awareness event is huge because it tries to promote in 24 hours a way of thinking and of acting we should  always adopt. This is why during the year The United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism for freshwater and sanitation (UN-Water) provides ideas, resources, projects and more to inspire the celebrations of March 22nd around the world.

Water Day is observed shining the spotlight on a different issue every year. “Water and Sustainable Development” is the theme of 2015. It is about how water links to all areas we need to consider for creating the future we want (health, nature, urbanization, industry, energy, food, equality).

Since the event has also become a popular Social Network trend, Health4Youth decided to promote online awareness campaigns to celebrate Water Day. Join them in this initiative by:

– organizing a one/half day event with workshops and discussions about one/all these topics: water and health, water and hydration, water and sport activities, water as economical, political and social elements in conflicts around the world, water and pollution, experiments with water, water and clean water, water and current situations, etc.

– creating a flashmob in your city to make people aware of the importance of water;

– taking selfies, pictures, videos in your personal and original way with elements that refer to your connection with water or just express a message about this topic you would like to share

“The involvement of Health4Youth on this day is due to the relevance of the topics covered by World Water Day, to the closeness of the issues with our project and to the desire to get knowledge. As the initiative will be held all over the world, this will be an outstanding occasion to connect each other in the name of water’s importance in our health.” said Christian Spagnol, event manager of Health4Youth.

In March 22nd, AEGEE-Udine and AEGEE-Ljubljana will collaborate to organise a Water Day Event in Nova Gorica. A concrete realization of these ideas, a day of discussions and workshops about water and the issues connected with it. Everyone can participate!

If you want to take part in such an important initiative, make suggestions or simply get more information, write to health4youth@aegee.org!

Written by Karina A. Silivas, AEGEE-Udine

Healthy food means wellness and happiness. That is why our network has been concerned about this topic since 2012, when the Health4Youth (H4Y) project was founded. This initiative, aimed to make young people aware about the importance of a healthy lifestyle, gained a lot of success and it is proud to introduce its second generation.

The Health4Youth, estabilished in 2012, is a project of AEGEE-Europe oriented to inform youngsters through non-formal education techinques (such as conferences, training courses, exchanges and seminars) about the importance of a healthy lifestyle starting from a balanced diet up to a sufficient physical exercise.
The first generation that represented this project reached important goals, that is why the AEGEEan is proud to introduce the second edition of H4Y with its new team: Joanna Pankowska, AEGEE-Warszawa (Project Manager), Marina Boychuk, AEGEE-Warszawa (Secretary), Alfio Bonaccorsi, AEGEE-Catania (Content Manager), Barbara Anžič, AEGEE-Ljubljana (Event Manager), Christian Spagnol, AEGEE-Udine (Event Manager), Sylwia Lelonek, AEGEE-Wrocław (Event Manager), Mar Valero Mas, AEGEE-Alicante (Impact Measurement Responsible)
e Melani Kalev, AEGEE-Paris (Public Relations Responsible).

These eight guys come from different countries and academic backgrounds, but they all share the interest for the ‘healthy lifestyle’ topic and the idea that “healthy does not mean ‘eating only carrots’ or ‘doing sports 24/7’. If your body is fit but your mind is not, and vice versa, you cannot really call it being healthy. That is why, one of the topics we will focus on is proper relaxation, to keep away bad vibes, to have energy to do the things you love to do, to have a positive outlook on life”, they state. These words underline the real goal of this project and its members, which doesn’t focus only on physical wellness, but also on psychological one. This concept was actually expressed a long time ago in a latin aforism of the poet Decimo Giunio Giovenale: “mens sana in corpore sano” (translation: a sound mind in a sound body).

The second generation of Health4Youth is really motivated to make this edition of the project a real success by following the former team’s footsteps. That is to say learning from their strenghts and their experience, but also by introducing new fresh ideas: are you curious about the future plans of Joanna Pankowska’s crew? Well you need to be patient because the topics of the second edition of H4Y are still TOP SECRET: do not worry they will be revealed soon! What we do know is that the team is looking for a really motivated new member for an important task: the Fundraising manager position.

So if you are interested to fill this position or simply to get in touch with the H4Y team and be updated about their activities, send them an e-mail at health4youth@aegee.org or follow them on Facebook.

Written by Larisa Smajlagic, AEGEE-Verona

Klaudia Brzywcy, member of AEGEE-Gdańsk since November 2013, was elected Member of the Month of May. Crazy about healthy lifestyle, she is studying Dietetics and Nutrition at the Medical University of Gdańsk, transforming her hobby in a future job. Also passionate about sport, cooking, cinema and fashion, she organized a Health4Youth day event in Gdańsk attended by almost 150 participants.

The AEGEEan: Why and how did you joined AEGEE?
Klaudia: I just moved in Gdańsk from my hometown Tczew and I finally had some more time (without spending 3 hours a day on a train) to use my energy creatively. I always liked some additional activities and I yearned for it during my studies, especially because students organizations just don’t have appeal at Medical Uni. I never gave up so I had to find another option. I met once some AEGEEans accidentally, and they informed me about the organization. I decided to try and here I am.

The AEGEEan: What is AEGEE for you?
Klaudia: AEGEE is a possibility for prosperity [she laugh]. I can be open-minded, I’ve learned a lot and I’m still learning. AEGEE gave me a chance to challenge myself and I really appreciate it, cause right now I know that I can do much more than I expected. And the most important thing: I met there really amazing people and I enjoy spending time with them, at the party or working- it doesn’t matter.

The AEGEEan: You were nominated because of your dedication to organizing a Health4Youth day event in Gdansk. What was it about?
Klaudia: The event was kind of open education for students in three different cities (Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot). We involved professional lecturers and prepared conferences about healthy lifestyle, sport and nutrition. I was very proud that we could offer our participants not only knowledge, but also additional activities (all of them were for free) like tasty meal from slow food restaurant BIOWAY and professional Body Composition Test. Our guests were very excited. It turned out  to be a huge success and we were able to attract over 140 participants.

The AEGEEan: You were able to find a lot of patronage for this event. How did you manage?
Klaudia: How did I managed? I wasn’t alone. I built an extra motivated, hard working and incredibly positive team- those people  helped me a lot. I have to mention here the FR responsible, Agata Kolenda, and the PR-responsible, Małgosia Więcław. The girls worked incredibly hard and convinced patrons and sponsors to support us.

The AEGEEan: What are your tips for other AEGEE members to organize events? What have you learned organizing this project?
Klaudia: My tip, what I find most important for organizing AEGEEan events is: find something you love, something that really interests you and that’s the perfect topic for your event. When you believe that something matters and you are enthusiastic, you can easily “infect”  other people with your passion and work with a smile. I’ve lerned many usefull things during the preparation of the H4Y event.

From this experience I’ve learned a lot: how to manage people, how  to negotiate with them, how to organize time, how many coffees you can drink maximally. But I also lerned a lot of things about myself. Right now I can see that I can really cope well with stress and I love the thrill of emotions when you have to figure out something right now. The lesson is: when I want, I can! And one more tip: Never drink more than seven coffees!

The AEGEEan: How did you keep people motivate to work on the project? But more important, how did you keep yourself motivated?
Klaudia: I was very, very enthusiastic, that’s why I had no problem with motivation. Healthy nutrition is my hobby and my future job. I believe I can help people with my education and I find it truly important. In addition I received a lot of good energy from my team. That was the best kick into action. A good manager, in order to motivate people, should work hard. To give an example, I have good memory and I use it to remind every task to everyone everyday.

 The AEGEEan: What are your next projects?
Klaudia: That’s a hard question! I don’t know yet, but I think that soon AEGEE-Gdańsk will be one of the healthiest locals in AEGEE. Keep your eyes open, I think that Health4Youtht will visit Gdańsk again.

Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia

Three Spanish and two Polish locals compete for the award to the Best Thematic Event of The AEGEEan’s Choice Awards. All of them have cooperated with several projects and organisations in order to bring a thematical taste to their events, which have proven to be a great success. You will hear the final result in Agora Patra – meanwhile, we invite you to get to know the nominees!

To start with, AEGEE-Las Palmas was awarded as the Local of the Month the past November for the YVote2014 Convention on the EU Democratic Gap. The Canarians have shown that, despite being a small antenna, they can bring high-quality events to their city and have a big impact not only in the AEGEE network, but also on their local media. The AEGEEan has interviewed Carmen Martín, main coordinator of the event.

The AEGEEan: Could you tell us briefly what was the event about, and which were the main activities?

Carmen: The event was about the YVote2014 Project in general and specially about “Bridging the EU Democratic Gap”, which means to try to fill in the existent gap between Brussels and peripheral areas as Canary Islands, whose inhabitants don’t feel sometimes really European, because of the distance between our island and the rest of Europe.

You cooperated with the YVote project, how was the collaboration with them?

It was great, actually really fluid, with a lot of Skype meetings in which most of people in charge were present and with an open communication. AEGEE-Las Palmas team did not know all the members of YVote team, but that was not a barrier; we worked easily and efficiently all together.

Which were the biggest challenges of organizing the event, and how did you solve them?

Actually there was only one challenge, and it was related to Youth in Action grant, which arrived to AEGEE-Las Palmas bank account during the event (and we really had to make magic and ask for money to pay what we had to pay in advance). Everything else was really easy; the cooperation inside AEGEE-Las Palmas team and between us and YVote team, the great and motivated participants that we had, the organizational staff related to the hotel and sponsors… I would organize this event again thousands of times!

And which were according to you the best things of organizing this event?

The best things for me were, first of all, my team; they really made everything way easier to me, and we grew up as a team, seeing that everything was possible with open communication, a good mood and people who understand you and appreciate you. Second; our relationship with our University, City Council and other sponsors improved a lot (they could see that we are also able to organize other more ‘serious’ events, rather than just fun Summer Universities). Third: We got a lot of visibility in our city; we were on the news one of the days and in three different radio interviews. Furthermore, we got to know people from other associations and Europe Direct, with whom we made a great net of contacts for future events.

Why do you think you should win the Award to the Best Thematic Event?

Well, I am sure many other antennae organized great thematic events, but from my point of view, I will try to explain why I think AEGEE-Las Palmas should win this Award: Because even if we are a young (five years old!) and small (31 members) antenna, we manage to motivate our members to stay active both at the local and European level, to organize important and serious events as this one and because the event was just perfect from all the points of view: I’ve been told this from organizers’ side, participants’ side and YVote team’s side, so what else could I add? If we all agree on this, I think the rest of the Network should know about it!

On the other hand, AEGEE-Kraków organised last year the AEGEE Model of United Nations, which consists of a simulation of the discussions and procedures taken within the UN, as if they were delegates of their Member States. Katarzyna Michalska, main organizer of the event, explained to The AEGEEan how the MUN was.

Could you tell us briefly what was the event about, and which were the main activities?

AEGEE Model of United Nations was an international United Nations simulation conference during which participants played the role of UN Member States delegates generating a common approach on major issues of international politics. During the three days of meetings, divided into a few sessions, the participants discussed, following the official procedure, the different ways of solving one of the actual international conflicts in order to create a resolution which would be compatible with the ideas of Human Rights and Peaceful Conflict Resolution. As delegates of the UN Members States or Observer States, they did their best to defend the position of the state which were representing. The project consisted of two simulations of United Nations meetings: one on the conflict in Mali and one on the issue of the rights of North African refugees in Europe.

Which were the biggest challenges of organizing the event, and how did you solve them?

First of all, we decided to organize an international event in which we had no experience. It was difficult to create something totally new and unknown for us but, as we love trying new things, we took on this challenge with no fear. Fortunately we managed to find our experts – people experienced in the field of United Nations simulations who were available for any questions and concerns we had during preparation and also conducted our conference making it as professional as other prestigious events this type. Another challenge we had to face was the lack of funding sources. We had limited budget but we were so determined that even until less than week before the project we were struggling to get funds from many sponsors and finally got enough money! Moreover we had some difficulties in finding suitable place for the project but luckily we had a huge support from the university authorities who gave us an opportunity to organize it in one of their institutes.

And which were according to you the best things of organizing this event?

For me one of the best things of organizing this event was the great pleasure of doing it! Working with inspiring people who were truly motivated and dedicated to the project gave me a lot of energy and made me enjoy every single moment of organizing the project as well as the event itself. Beside the amazing team, I’d mention all of our small achievements which contributed to our final success, such as establishing valuable partnerships, getting funds or finally finding out about the surprising number of applications for our event!

Why do you think you should win the Award to the Best Thematic Event?

I can proudly say that thanks to hard work and determination of my team all the goals we set before organizing this event were achieved. We wanted to create a unique interactive learning experience which young people could enjoy and benefit from at the same time. What is worth mentioning, our project distinguishes itself by its up-to-date topic. It aimed at spreading and sharing knowledge about the problems of the modern world and the role of the United Nations in solving them as well as giving the participants opportunity to develop their diplomatic skills of compromise, negotiation, understanding of foreign affairs. Our goal was to encourage to study and discuss the issues of global importance. The positive feedback we got from the satisfied and happy participants eager to take part in the next edition of the project strengthened our belief that our event was a big success that we should be proud of.

AEGEE-Zaragoza is also nominated in this category. This time, by hosting the EuroSD – European Structured Dialogue conference, which gathered several International Youth Organizations in order to draft a joint statement to be sent to the European Commission. It was the first time that this consultation process was taken at a European level, as Beatriz Nasarre, former president of AEGEE-Zaragoza, explains.

Could you tell us briefly what was the event about, and which were the main activities?

The event was a European conference about the Structured Dialogue (It is a process of consultations launched by the European Commission and the European Youth Forum in order to pinpoint the needs and concerns of young people from all over the European Union), that gathered over a dozen International Youth NGOs. Besides writing the recommendations and a joint statement, we organized city tours around the city, and also a press conference where we transmitted that we would like the voice of young people to be heard.

You cooperated with other student organisations and AEGEE-Europe, how was the collaboration with them?

It is always very positive to strengthen the cooperation with other youth associations from outside AEGEE, whether they have a similar profile as us or not. It makes us see the things from another point of view, and it is always very rewarding. The people attending events like this one are always interesting and gratifying to work with!

Which were the biggest challenges of organizing the event, and how did you solve them?

The most difficult thing was to organise everything in a very complicated date, the beginning of July, with lots of previous work to do and during the exams season. The application of the Youth in Action grant was also another issue, also because we had many people around the Summer Universities. But in the end, with hard work we can achieve everything and afterwards we all left to our SU’s, and that was a very well-deserved vacation…

And which were according to you the best things of organizing this event?

Feeling part of such an interesting project, being “the first ones” of organising such an event, and especially feeling proud of the work we did. As always, with lots of works and nerves from the organisers, the feeling when the participants congratulate you because they have really enjoyed the event has left us speechleess. And, of course, proud of being able to wear such an awesome t-shirt designed by our Uncle Joni!

Why do you think you should win the Award to the Best Thematic Event?

Well, first of all because… have you ever seen such an awesome logo and t-shirt!? The event was a whole success and the thematics of the event were really interesting – with this European Structured Dialogue consultation we can really make an impact in the European Commission. Besides, the organisers devoted an important amount of their summertime, so we should definitely win – anyway, thanks to The AEGEEan for nominating us and we wish the best luck to the other nominees!

And finally, AEGEE-Alicante was also nominated for one of the most outstanding pre-events of Spring Agora Zaragoza, the MEDITERRANEANLY! event in cooperation with the Health4Youth Project. The antenna told The AEGEEan about the secrets of their success…

Could you tell us briefly what was the event about, and which were the main activities?

We wanted to show to our participants how beneficial, easy and fun can be having a healthy lifestyle and how to achieve it with some little changes in their day-to-day habits. That’s why we tried to make them used to a Mediterranean diet and to keep a daily routine of exercise.

The main sports activities we organised were a yoga and a zumba class, both early in the morning at the beach with professional trainers, as well as a walk on the sand, and some outdoor games. We also had the chance to hold a first aids workshop and to visit a ecological vegetable garden run by local farmers.

You cooperated with the Health4Youth Project, how was the collaboration with them?

They are very kind, three of their members (Maria Arends, Sygrit Andringa and Elmar Guliyev) came to the pre-event to give a hand with the programme by conducting some very successful workshops, such as the one about the effects of the consumption of alcohol on your body, and the one about the effects of not sleeping properly well.

Which were the biggest challenges of organizing the event, and how did you solve them?

We programmed to spend the last day and night on a camping site hoping that the sun will stay out the whole event (we are in Alicante, it never rains, but when it does, the whole sky falls down!); so just in case we were aware of the weather cast, which unfortunately turned out to show lots of cats and dogs planning to rain that day. We had to reschedule the programme, and that means: not camping and staying in the hostel (luckily for us not booked), cancelling a bbq and the goodbye party in the countryside, and replanned the whole last day at the very last moment just the day before. We contacted an ukulele teacher who improvised an amusing lesson for beginners, then, we went up to visit the Santa Barbara’s castle and in the evening we participate in an international beer pong contest. So it actually went pretty well taking into account that none of this was planned.

The other big challenge was to cook every meal and make it with a huge presence of vegetables. A wide range of tasteful dishes, from couscous to guacamole, including paella and vegan burgers, to name but a few. After the event took place, we collected all the recipes in a cookbook which can be download from here http://goo.gl/mw6wio Readers, feel free to use it and to send us comments afterwards!

And which were according to you the best things of organizing this pre-event?

Maria Teresa: Everything! I love the cooperation between the organisers and with the H4Y team. The organisational capacity that we had. It was my first event as organiser, and I learned a lot about AEGEE, and about my antenna. I’m very proud to have been part of that effort.

Isa: Choosing participants is usually a bit like playing the lottery, and definitely that time we hit the jackpot: we got such a great group of pleasant participants! Moreover this event was also useful for the antenna to activate some new local members and I am personally interested on the main topic of the event, so it was great that we carried it out, and even more, as a pre-event of ZarAgora!

Melissa: I didn’t know anything about AEGEE and I didn’t know anyone, so when I knew about this event, at first, I was attracted by its programme, and then, I had the opportunity to go as helper and I tried to do my best. We showed to all the participants the best things of our Mediterranean lifestyle in a great atmosphere and everything went perfect! For me, it was an incredible experience and the perfect chance to know and realize how amazing AEGEE is. After this, I felt in love with the AEGEE spirit and now I can’t imagine my life without it!

 Why do you think you should win the Award to the Best Thematic Event?

Even if it was a small one (in days and in number of participants), it was one of those events in which once it’s over you can feel that, despite of the unexpected changes, everything went well. After the last dinner, still sitting on the table, some participants started to thank us spontaneously for the atmosphere, the organisation and the activities of the event, they said that they really felt like they were at home. Once they went back home, they kept sending us lovely messages and Elmar (AEGEE-Bakı and Fundraiser of the H4Y Project) even made a cute video http://youtu.be/im9xOYW5eM8! They made us feel that this event was not only a H4Y event, but also an event about friendship, fellowship, teamwork, solidarity, and lots of AEGEE love.

 AEGEE-Poznan was also nominated, in cooperation with the Eastern Partnership Project, by their I’m for East! Festival. The AEGEEan has contacted them in order to know more about their event – so stay stuned in order to hear their responses! And remember, you still have a few time to vote: it is YOUR choice!

Written by Anna Gumbau, AEGEE-Barcelona/Leuven

]]> ../../../2013/12/16/zaragora-pre-event-mediterraneanly/ Mon, 16 Dec 2013 11:59:06 +0000 ../../../?p=20473 Read more →

Thanks to the Portuguese National Youth Council (Conselho Nacional de Juventude) 25 Europeans were able to gather in the charming city of Lisbon to learn how to cook healthily. Besides the Portuguese, Youth Councils from three other countries took part in this training course: Romania, Italy and Greece.  Zlatko Djordjevic, content manager of the Health4Youth project, was there as well and this is his report. 

Only one of the delicious results

Whenever we start thinking about healthy food, our very first thoughts go to fruits, vegetables, fish… But how often do we  think of how to prepare them? How much the preparation methods can influence the nutritional composition of the fish, vegetables, fruits? These are the questions that we tried to find answers to.

The participants were divided into six teams, and each had a task: to prepare one course for lunch, either soup, salad, meat, fish, dessert or bread. We received the recipes and our goal was to prepare it with a low budget, and in an easy and healthy way!

They all started from the beginning: learn how to choose good food! So we visited the Market of  the 31^st of January (Mercado de 31 de Janeiro). The chefs from the famous Fabian Bernardino’s team “Travel & Flavours” were there for us! They taught us how we can distinguish if the fish is fresh or not – for example by observing the colour of the fish’s eyes and gills, and also by checking if the scales are jelly or smooth.

Concentration from the participants

When we bought all we needed, our next step was to learn how to cut the food in the most practical way and in the same time with the lowest possibility to get injured. A lot of techniques were presented to us, and none of us knew of them before! The cooking was always taking a lot of time, but that is quite normal as we were making lunch for 35 people.

And after the nice meals we had, we also needed some physical activity! The combination of dancing and laughing that is Zumba, was just perfect for us. Jogging along the river Tejo, made us feel like we were real inhabitants of Lisbon, enjoying the magnificent sunset instead of tourists.

We spent the evenings with discussions on how to spread word about healthy lifestyles and healthy habits once we would come back home. And we concluded that it is not important how big our projects back home will be , but that the message we are going to share is: Knowing how to eat is knowing how to live!

Written by: Zlatko Djordjevic, Health4Youth

AEGEE-Alicante and the Health4Youth project decided to work together on organising a healthy lifestyle pre-event to Agora Zaragoza already before the summer. And when the event was finally there, a small but very active group of participants, a lot of organisers and helpers from AEGEE-Alicante, and Maria Arends (AEGEE-Groningen) and Sygrit Andringa (AEGEE-Groningen) from the Health4Youth project gathered in Alicante to take part in this amazing pre-event: Mediterraneanly.

A busy four day programme on the topic of the Mediterranean healthy way of life was waiting for the participants. There were workshops on healthy lifestyle, a lot of sports activities (almost all given by professional instructors), cooking activities, and a visit to a biodynamic fruit and vegetable garden. Of course, there was also time for socialising, parties and getting to know the lovely city of Alicante, including its nice weather and beach. Every day started with a nice breakfast and all lunches and dinners were prepared by the participants and organisers themselves.

One of the highlights was the tapas workshop, were the participants made tapas in the public kitchen of the local market. The participants had to work with a budget, buy the ingredients at the market and prepare different tapas in groups. After that, a lovely meal was eaten together in this public kitchen.

One of the participants, Carlos Castillo Perez, wrote about the pre-event. Carlos is a fresh member of AEGEE-Alicante, but he already joined several events in the network. As he did not have enough time to be an organiser for the pre-event because of exams, he decided to apply as a participant, to an event in his own city. This is his story:

MEDITERRANEANLY, UNDOUBTEDLY, IS THE BEST WAY OF LIVING:

There was no better way of warming up for Agora Zaragoza 2013, than with a pre-event on the Mediterranean shore, in the welcoming city of Alicante. We were five minutes away from the beach, and three minutes away from the the city’s party area.  In this city there are just two seasons: spring and summer. Given that the event took place between the 26^th and 30th of October, we could say that we were in the cool period of our summer, with temperatures around 20-25 degrees Celsius.

It all started at 16:00 on the day of arrival. However I have to confess I was not present in that first gathering, as the football match between Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona forced me to arrive some minutes late (240 minutes to be specific). The rest of the participants had a pleasant walk through the streets of Alicante, and a great first contact with the city that was going to be their home for the next days. Once the night had fallen, the amazing, awesome, attentive, charming, outstanding organisers had prepared an authentic Mediterranean dinner, with a varied mixture of meat, vegetables, eggs and more, to the delight of their participants. Throughout the event, they did not only maintain that level of cooking, but they even improved! Legend has it that one of the organisers made the bread every day, and twice a day she carried it to the hostel and delivered it to the participants, freshly baked, and with a huge smile.

The second day started with a yoga class at 8:30 AM (a typical time when everybody takes yoga classes, obviously), followed by the breakfast right there, and thanks to the high temperature we went to swim in the sea.  Some of us went to swim as well the second day, after the “Zumba” class. Simply fantastic.

In addition to all those sports (yoga, beach volleyball, football, jogging, salsa, zumba, or the hardest one, beer-pong), we did a lot of different workshops. A broad range of them: some were more dynamic, others funnier (the one about alcohol. Though it was supposed not to be exactly funny, with Spanish people and our anecdotes relative to that topic, it was really hard to take it entirely seriously) some more reflective (as the one about the effects of the lack of sleep, conscious eating, or the one about healthy lifestyle) or more cultural (the astronomy workshop).

Unfortunately, the nice weather betrayed us the last day, but our organisers had a back-up plan. The first plan had been to go to the mountains and camp there. But because of the weather forecast, we decided to stay in Alicante, and have a Ukulele class. This class was really funny, even for me, despite the fact that I could not play the Sponge Bob-Ukulele (I am still quite upset with that). After that, some of us went to visit the Castle of Santa Bárbara. And after living in Alicante for seven years, it was incredible that I did it for the first time…

As you can see, in spite of this being “only” a pre-event, and relatively short, much could be written about the event and about its people (both all the participants and all the organisers) because in AEGEE we will always have a lot of things to tell (not only because with AEGEE we sleep very little and therefore, days are very long), because every AEGEE experience turns out to be an unforgettable experience.

As “Participelper” (half participant, half helper) I can speak in the name of everybody when I say THANK YOU both to the participants for being so funny and collaborating in every activity with a great smile, and to the organisers and helpers for their hard work and for their positive attitude throughout all the event. And AEGEE-Alicante was not alone in this, as Maria and Sygrit from the Health4Youth project were also involved, whom showed us many interesting and useful things about how to live in a healthy way.

P.s. another participant, Elmar Guliyev, AEGEE-Baki, made a nice compilation movie about the pre-event.

Written by Carlos Castillo Perez (AEGEE-Alicante) & Sygrit Andringa of the Health4Youth Project Team.

Since the first steps of our lives, we never stop acquiring knowledge and living new experiences. The knowledge we gain starts with our parents and after our own childish-mistakes we acquire knowledge through experience. This pattern goes on during the school years and university. Approaching the last years of the systematic education, we are realizing that we have minimized the theoretical knowledge a lot and we started learning more and more through our gained experience. Opening books is getting a boring process and we prefer to focus our strengths on offering our gained knowledge to the rest of the society.

In this step most of us make a common mistake. We forget to refresh our knowledge. Our decisions affect not only our professional lives, but also our personal development and our health.

We searched for you and we found the following health related courses:

•  Biology & Life Science: (https://www.coursera.org/category/biology)
• Health and Society & Medical Ethics (https://www.coursera.org/category/health)
• Food and Nutrition: (https://www.coursera.org/category/food)
• Medicine: (https://www.coursera.org/category/medicine)

Logo for the USCF course for Nutrition and Disease Prevention

Leading by curiosity, the Health4Youth Project followed the “Nutrition for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention” for three weeks. It is given by the University of California -San Francisco (UCSF). The coordinator is Katie Ferraro, a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Educator with a Masters in Public Health: Public Health Nutrition. She is also an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California.

During these 3 weeks we had the opportunity to:

1. Learn the recent data of public health which was nutrition related.

2. Follow the process from the food groups to food pyramid and the new plate system which is introduced now for dietitians.

3. Learn how to measure your macronutrient and calories needs, according to your age, weight and height.

4. Learn the difference between the EU and American legal System on the dietary supplements.

5. Learn what are fatty acids and how to separate the healthy from the unhealthy.

6. Understand the connection between the heart disease and specific diets such as TLC diet, Mediterranean diet and DASH diet.

7. Comprehend the connection between eggs and cholesterol and trace the myth about the correct amount of egg consumption.

8. Be taught in methods of lowering the salt consumption.

And these were only some of them! We found this course very important for people who are interest in health related topics and want to learn new things or to enrich their already gained knowledge. Even we found some new information, which we had not heard of before!

We are inviting you all to follow us in such kind of learning-journey for refreshing our knowledge and gaining more through the lifelong education. Only with this method we can keep our ideas fresh and modern to make this world a better place!

Written by Arsenis Tselengidis, AEGEE-Thessaloniki, Health4Youth Content Manager

Featured image by Jannes Pockele @ Flickr

This event was exactly as the title states: everyone had a good life in Brescia! Somebody would say, “for sure you had a good life, spending a summer in Italy, how could it not have been good?”

Eighteen AEGEEans, from Spain to Azerbaijan, gathered together for ten days in Brescia, to try to find the answers; get new ideas; receive advice on how to overcome bad eating habits; think why to start playing any sport; and how to decide which one fits you the best… In other words – our goal was to write a recipe for a good life, our aim was Health4Youth (H4Y)!

By participating in the H4Y workshops, we got to know each other better, they made us work as a unique group! And everyone realized that we definitely had a lot of bad habits in common, no matter from which part of Europe we were from. The most common bad habit was eating too much candy when under stress! It is well known that most people fall for the delicious gusto of chocolate. There is a theory which says that eating chocolate is a trigger that releases a hormone of “happiness” in our body. Sure those endorphines make you ‘feel’ better.

Let us enjoy the moments of pleasure that such a sweet food (produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree) offers to us! And that was what this SU was all about. To change those things that in the end have a negative effect on our health. It is not easy to change a habit, it is definitely easier to replace the sort of food we eat. What we tried in this SU was to come up with creative ideas – like making a fruit salad with some nice dark chocolate dressing, eating a dried fruit etc. The concept was not to give up on chocolate completely, but just to try to combine it with some healthy food. In times, this turned out hard, because our minds are stuck in what we are used to doing.

Another example we came up with, for those who prefer salty food, was to try nuts instead of chips, especially pistachio or peanuts with shells – it takes time to remove the shells, and as the time passes by, we have less and less urge to eat. We all learned how amazingly these small things are.

But, besides bad habits, we also had one good habit in common – playing sports! We organized a great volleyball tournament and also had a nice time playing aquatic sports!

And in the end, what is the recipe for having a great Summer University? Synergy! The interaction of multiple elements (participants + organizers) in a system (AEGEE Summer University) to produce an effect different than, or greater than, the sum of their individual effects! Add a lot of Good Life to it, and you start to understand and appreciate the beauty of life in general. It was an amazing time. Period.

Written by Zlatko Djordjevic

Photos by Hekim George