🌀 IMPLEMENTATION PAGE: CACAT-NFE-FORI YOUTH EXCHANGE

Welcome to the heart of our Youth Exchange experience – a vibrant journey where creativity met inclusion under the Greek sun. From July 25 to August 2, 2025, 36 young people and 6 youth leaders from 6 countries gathered in Kato Alissos, Patras, Greece, to explore how culture and creative arts can be powerful tools in non-formal education for inclusion.

This page captures the daily implementation of the CACAT-NFE-FORI project through participant-written reflections, interactive workshops, energizers, cultural nights, and unforgettable moments. With photos, videos, and direct testimonials, we bring to life the energy, learning, laughter, and emotions that defined each day of this Erasmus+ journey.

Explore how we tackled topics like discrimination, inclusion, and human rights using art therapy, dance, theatre, forum-theatre, and deep cultural dialogue. Each activity was designed not just to raise awareness, but to empower participants to become changemakers in their own communities.

✨ Scroll down to dive into each day, experience the workshops through our eyes, and discover how we turned creativity into impact. The full implementation journal and media gallery await you below!

Day 1 – Saturday 26 of July 2025

Co-written by the fascilitators' team

The first day of the project!

After a long bus ride to the accommodation the night before, and much needed rest, the day began with lots of getting-to-know each other activities.

The first activity was the name hangman, where each of us had a piece of date stuck on us, with underscores with the same number of letters as our name. For example, Bobbie was _ _ _ _ _ _. We then fished for our letters from each other, but we could only do so from people who have the same letters as our names.

Later, we played the portrait game, for this Bobbie was playing music, and each time the music stopped, we had to draw a different part of our face. It was funny, and we have some ridiculous looking portraits of ourselves.The last activity before coffee break was the speed dating stations. In this activity, we were in mixed groups, and we went around talking about certain topics like mountain vs sea, or gyros vs pizza.

After coffee break, we did the fears, contributions and expectations backpack, where we drew the backpack and filled in our fears for this project, what we expect to learn from it, as well as how we can contribute to it. After understanding where we stand with the project, we learned all about the Youthpass, where we had different stations, based on different competencies. We had to complete mini tasks (such as teaching each other greeting in our languages in the multilingual competency) to get stamps. Now we are ready to track our competencies for the rest of the project.

In the afternoon, we got to know each other better, by playing a dancing energizer, where the person in the middle had to figure out who was leading the dance, then human bingo, where we had to find certain traits about people, such as who has been to more than 15 countries, and lastly. 3 truths and 1 lie. For this activity we had to write 3 truths on a piece of paper, as well as a lie, and other participants had to vote which one they believed to be a lie.

The last activity of the day were the tasks in Kato Alisos, where we had to figure learn a lot about the area, and take photos with the subjects. It was really fun! You can check out the dedicated page of the website here

https://cacat-nfe-fori57.webnode.page/tasks-in-kato-alissos/ 

Day 2 – Sunday 27 of July 2025

Co-written by Poland 🇵🇱

We started the day with breakfast.

After breakfast, we had an energizer led by the group from Armenia – we played musical chairs, but with a fun twist because today, in their country, there's a holiday where people splash each other with water called Vardavar. So naturally, we ended up a bit wet and very awake!

For the first activity of the day, we had a deep dive into the topic of the project and Bobbie gave a short presentation about the topic, and why this project was written. Bobbie also gave examples of how, in media, a lot of cultures are often misinterpreted. As Bobbie didn't grow up in the age of reels or TikTok's, Bobbie gave examples of movies, for example the movie Borat, which created a bad image of Kazakhstan, even if certain scenes weren't even shot in Kazakhstan, but Romania instead. Then we did an activity about our media profiles, about what positive and negative stereotypes we saw while growing up. We shared this in pairs.

After the coffee break, each group presented the preparation activities, and it was interesting to see how many countries share the same issues that exist in discrimination, and how each country finds different methods of art to fix it. Some are local initiatives, but some are very much NGO based.

After that, we had lunch and took a break – some of us went to the beach to relax.

Later in the afternoon, we came back for a workshop on communication. We had two workshops.

The first was about active listening, but actually half the group was tricked. One half was taught to tell a good story, while the other group was asked to avoid listening. It was interesting to talk about how we felt, in either role.

After the workshop, the Armenian group led an activity where we created short scenes and acted them out in the method of image theatre.– it was super fun and creative. We had different words and concepts, such as "love", or stereotypes that exist about our own countries.

We ended the day with amazing Cypriot food and cultural night. We got to taste traditional Cypriot food and learn more about their culture. It was a beautiful and tasty way to finish the day!

Day 3 – Monday 28 of July 2025

Co-written by Georgia🇬🇪

What an exciting day it was today! In the morning, we were met with an awesome surprise - a sweet greek desert! After breakfast, the Polish team did an energizer. Firstly, we imitated 2 dancers, after that, the Polish team pulled up an ace up their sleeve - a game where couples are holding hands in a way that they make an arch in-between them. These couples then make a circle in such a way that we get a tunnel. One person is alone and snatches a person from a pair and runs to the end, filling the circle. The vacant one does the same, until the music stops. THAT WAS FUN!

The first activity was "World Cafe". It basically gave us a creative freedom of expressing our opinions on 5 given discrimination issues. We filled out flipcharts and learned what others had to say about the matter, while we had to rotate the topics, each team working on each issue. At every station there was a person, giving us instructions and brief description of the work other teams had done. Afterwards we presented one flipchart per team. To be honest we ended up feeling great after expressing our thoughts and learning more from each presentation. Afterwards we went to the well-deserved coffee break.

Next, the leader of the Polish team did a presentation about posters and their influence in everyday matters. Afterwards, he split us into 7 groups, giving us a specific topic each. The task was simple yet thrilling - we had to create a poster coinciding with the issue given to us. Now believe me when I'm saying, each team unlocked inner artists. The posters turned out astonishing. We presented our work and spoke a bit about it.

After the break, the Polish team returned with energizers. Firstly, we did a game where two teams were opposite each other, split apart with a piece of cloth. The facilitator removes the cloth and the couple opposing each other should say the other person's name first. The game goes on until we have a winning team. It makes you think hard and most importantly fast! There was no choice but to wake up!

Next, we did an activity called "Take a Step Forward". Each participant was given a description of their character, and we stood in a line. Bobbie then read out stuff and if we believed that we had a coinciding opportunity, we had to take a step. Such activities make you think about how vastly the lives of people vary throughout the world. After that, there was the preparation for forum theatre. Each team received an inclusion/discrimination issue and our task was to create a play/sketch about it, with a twist. The twist is that tomorrow we're going to show the play in the city of Patras and the viewers will dictate the ending of our acts. Thrilling, isn't it?

Finally, it was time for our activity - Walking through art. We prepared multiple stations. Participants had to rotate through 5 "Art Experience Zones", each offering a different artistic medium and challenge, basically the participants could express their ideas, emotions and thoughts through almost every art form there is. There were members of the Georgian team at every station facilitating the activity. After all rotations, we gathered everyone for reflection, so that participants construct their own meaning through experience and reflection. Truly outstanding day this was!

Meanwhile, the Polish team was cooking dinner for us, and of course this involved pierogi, potatoes and even more potatoes. We also had sour cream, egg salad, as well as soup with sausages. It was amazingly tasty food. Poland also hosted their cultural night, which involved a Kahoot quiz, which the Greek team won and they received copies of the posters Piotr had shown during the Polish the activity. The day ended with lots of polish traditional dances.

Day 4 – Tuesday 29 of July 2025

Co-written by Cyprus 🇨🇾

Today was a day to remember! We started off with a visit to Saint Andrew's Church in Patras — the largest church in Greece and an incredibly peaceful and inspiring place. After some quiet time to admire the beautiful surroundings, we headed to the Patras Amphitheater for an exciting round of Forum Theatre.

We were split into 5 groups, and each group received a different topic to explore through a short play.

• Group 1 tackled ageism,
• Group 2 focused on racism,
• Group 3 explored sexism,
• Group 4 took on classism,
• Group 5 was about hate against influencers.

It was a powerful experience — not just acting out the issues, but also involving the audience, who helped decide how the scenes should end. It made us think, reflect, and most of all, connect with the deeper meaning behind each topic. And yes, it was also a lot of fun!

Afterwards, we headed to downtown Patras and let us just say… gyros have never tasted so good! Everyone agreed it was the most delicious street food we've had so far. A bit of shopping followed — souvenirs, small treats, and lots of laughs — before heading back to the camp.

Back at the accommodation, we all gathered to do something special: a few team games and bonding activities to help the Cypriot team get even closer with the other national teams. It was great to see how the energy shifted — we're becoming more like one big family now.

And then… the smell from the kitchen hit us. Tonight was Georgian Night, and the Georgian team absolutely outdid themselves. The food was exquisite — full of rich flavors and traditional dishes we had never tried before. We all fell into a delightful food coma shortly after.

Unfortunately, the Georgian team was too tired to show us their traditional dances tonight — but no worries, because tomorrow night we'll continue the celebration. We can't wait to see their moves!

Day 5 – Wednesday, 30 of July 2025

Co-written by Romania 🇷🇴

Jumping from the Cypriot energizer, which was the game of mantili straight to politics, this day was very varied!

The first part of the day focused on political and cultural aspects of countries, and as such, we were asked, in mixed groups to make up a country, including its currency, such as denominations, flag, culture, how the country is governed and more. It was very interesting. Some of the countries presented were –

• Migelva, a country with the ruling method of "creative autocracy"
• Pagra, a monarchy, and a rich island
• Ritmolandia – a country based on a god of music, and speech his only done by dance
• Alamiks – a democracy (finally), who happens to have a lot of diamonds
• Locologo – a country with Nikolas as king
• Geocyland – a mix of Georgia, Poland and cyprus

The twist was after the coffee break, where three jurors, one representing west Europe, one central and one the Caucasus, pretended to be the UN, and judged the countries to make sure which one would receive recognition. With some hard hitting questions, the eventual winner was Migleva! Congrats!

In the afternoon it was the Greek activity, where divided into 4 topics. Topics were love, resistance, hope and empathy. After collecting pebbles from the sea, each person drew on them, and then in a circle, we spoke about the choice of colors and more.

The last activity of the day was by the Romanians, which were competitive based games, which required very dedicated teamwork. It was a lot of fun and included running around cones, putting them in the correct order, as well as collecting water from the sea in the bucket in record time!

The night was dedicated to Armenian food, which included a lot of meat, great sweet rice, lavash, salad, and a sweet dessert called gata. The food was what is usually cooked during weddings, and the cultural night was themed as such. It was a great time, and we learned a lot about how weddings are done in Armenia!

Day 6 – Thursday, 31 of July 2025

Co-written by Armenia 🇦🇲

As usual, our breakfast was followed with an energizer activity to get everyone up. The energizer was led by the Cypriot team who organized a catch the flag game. For the game, they seperated us into two teams and we were competing in who will catch the flag faster and bring it back to the team while the opponent tries to tag them. Not only was it fun to have a competition but it was also a great way to get up and get our moods up.

After the Cypriot energizer, we had a walk to the venue's greenhouse to see the plants and flowers that grow in the area. It was a great way to learn what type of plants and fruits are widespread here. Moreover, we had the opportunity to try some of them and learn about everyday life of the locals.

After the midday snacks, we had yet another energizer to get ourselves excited for the following activity. This time the energizer was led by the Georgian team who organized a game of catching the marker. In pairs, we had to touch different body parts announced by the host and then when the host says to grab the marker, we needed to do it before the partner. The most entertaining thing about the game was that the host would always try to trick us when giving commands so we needed to be very careful.

Next, in order to contribute to the community that we've been staying with for the past week, we went to a nearby beach to collect the litter there. As a result of our teamwork, we have extracted several bags of trash and improved the cleanliness of local ecosystem greatly. Most importantly, all of us were grateful for the opportunity to do something meaningful.

Then we had lunch, and the rest of the day was dedicated to creating videos about the project. Each national team had to create a creative video in our national languages talking about the activities and games we had. We all had a nice time reminiscing about the time we spent here and the experiences we had while creating our videos.

Cyprus Video

Greece Video 

Armenian Video 

Georgian Video

Romanian Video

Polish Video 

Lastly, our day ended with the Romanian Cultural Night. The Romanian team prepared a delicious dinner for everyone with such dishes as mamaliga and ciorba de perisoare. After enjoying the meals, they presented their culture through a video about their country. Then, they taught us many Romanian dances and put on Romanian music. Everyone, enjoyed the party greatly which was a great end for the day.

Day 7 –  Friday 1st of August 2025

Co-written by Greece 🇬🇷

The last day of the project, where everything comes to an end!

The day started with a watch party of yesterday's video making. Until now, we hadn't seen the videos other teams were making, and it was very nice to finally chance to see what each of the team had prepared. Bobbie also explained the importance of such videos, so the idea of Erasmus, and our learning can be spread much further than just the project itself.

After this, we found out about all the Erasmus+ Opportunities, such as training courses, ESC volunteering, the Erasmus semester that we can do abroad from university, as well as Erasmus Mundus later if we want to do masters.

Bobbie also taught us about the youth card, that we can all get, as well as the once again, the importance of Youthpass, and how we can use it in the future.

In the afternoon, we returned to talk all about the follow-up activities, so Bobbie told us all about what needs to be done when we return home, and how to share what we learned to others in our home countries.

That was followed up by evaluations, and the ever popular Youthpass ceremony!

The night ended, of course, by our host country, with Greek dishes, dances!