Youth Exchange February 2010

On the 13th February 2010 a Youth Exchange with Special Needs Young People started at Eccles Hall School. During the 9 days full of workshops, excursions and games everybody had a really great time.

There were 10 participants and 3 leaders from each country of Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. We also had 2 English Participants and 15 English Mentors to help with some tasks but could enjoy the exchange as well.

The first day started with some Team Building and Get to know you Games. The following two days were the Citizenship workshop (a simulation game called “Crisis Point”) which was really interesting but we realized that we had many understanding problems because most of the deaf people couldn’t understand English very well. Nevertheless the workshop worked out well and most of the young people enjoyed it.

The trips to London, the beach and Norwich were great and we were really lucky with the weather, on both excursion days the sun shined and it was warm! In London the groups split up to visit different museums or do sightseeing. In Norwich most people went shopping or visited the cathedral.

Thursday the topic was Diversity and we had Drama and Art workshops. The presentation of the Drama scenes was full of creativity.

The activities day with Climbing, Shooting, Swimming, Dancing and Orienteering was good as well since we had good weather in the afternoon.

In the evenings we had different activities, like Disco and Karaoke night and we had a lot of fun together and could enjoy the relaxed atmosphere.

I really enjoyed the exchange and I think most of the other people did as well! We met great people, made new friends and actually 9 days were way too short :).