The second day of the mobility began with a strong bang with a discussion on tolerance, where the participants had a number of workshop and movement tasks ahead of them. At the beginning, everyone created slogans concerning the promotion of tolerance attitudes. Then, the topic of differences between the behavior and thinking of Poles and Ukrainians was discussed. It turned out that on both sides it looks very similar and there are no clear divisions between us. After a rather serious conversation as part of relaxation, the participants had the task of creating flowers from balloons. The workshops ran very smoothly, and the participants performed the tasks very quickly. It was noticeable that the young people cooperated more and more with each other and opened up to the group.

After the lunch break, a trip to the center of Wisła is planned. They all traveled the city along the Vistula River together to reach the market square. On the way, the participants saw the monuments of Maria Konopnicka and the “Sources of the Vistula”. From the market square, they went to the ski jump next to which there was a cable car that took them to Wierch Skolnity. At the top, the youth had the opportunity to see the largest sculpture of a rombanica in Europe, i.e. an ax stuck in the trunk, met alpacas and admired the panorama of the Silesian Beskids.

On June 12, two groups participating in the project “What we know about tolerance” No. 2022-1-PL01-KA152-YOU-000067324 met for the first time live and started a 5-day adventure as part of joint mobility to the Vistula River.

The event began with an official welcome to the participants, the introduction of the project initiator and a reminder of the main assumptions of the project and the purpose of the visit to Wisła. At the end, the plan of activities prepared for young people from Poland and Ukraine was discussed in detail.

After the official part, several group integrating games were held to introduce a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. At the beginning, the participants were supposed to introduce themselves and show their hobbies in a non-verbal way. The most difficult part of this task was remembering each name and activity, but the participants’ reactions showed that this activity gave them a lot of fun. After introducing themselves, the participants were to line up in alphabetical order, but they were not allowed to communicate verbally with each other. The next game was written deaf phone. Youth were divided into 4 teams. Each team had the same password. The last person to know the password wrote it with their finger on the back of the person in front of them. The next person repeated the same thing until the correct password reached the first person in the row. The first team to guess the password wins. The last game was a knot made by hands. Participants, standing in a circle, had to grab the hands of two people standing opposite each other, and then try to untie the knot formed by intertwined hands without letting go of the intertwined hands. Participants had to sweat really hard to complete this task.

After the lunch break, Mrs. Magda conducted classes on interpersonal communication training as well as verbal and non-verbal speech. These activities required a lot of commitment and creativity from the young people. The participants talked about the features of a good listener and whether they have these features in everyday life. The most interesting exercise, according to most people, was the presentation by one person of the picture he received in words, and then drawing it by the other participants based on what they heard. This task allowed us to see that each of us communicates in a different way and usually presents everything from his own point of view.

At the end of the first day, a bonfire was organized, where the participants continued to integrate with each other, baked sausages and had the opportunity to listen to Polish and Ukrainian music hits.

It’s today! 😯 Let’s start our mobility!

During the 5-day mobility the following activities will take place:

1. Interpersonal communication training. Verbal and non-verbal speech, explaining why interpersonal communication is very important. What are the communication barriers, what are their causes and what are their consequences?

2. Workshop – Am I in the virtual world – am I in the real world? Self-presentation skills. In what situation do you feel better and why – in real life or online? Non-verbal communication – helping or hindering? What’s more reliable?

3. Discussion about tolerance. Are we tolerant nations? The difference between tolerance and indifference.

4. Workshops – artistic

5. Integration activities

And many more, stay tuned!

Mobility is carried out as part of the project “What we know about tolerance” No. 2022-1-PL01-KA152-YOU-000067324.

Soon, the two groups that have been participating in the project separately so far will meet together to realize the main point of the project together!

So far, groups of students from Poland and Ukraine met cyclically among their compatriots to take part in cultural and language classes about their close neighbors. Each group had 5 sessions of learning a foreign language, watched 2 documentaries and obtained a lot of interesting information about their neighbor.

So the time has come to confront your knowledge, knowledge of the language and openness to other people and meet together at 5-day thematic workshops. During their stay in Wisła, young people participating in the project will be able to conduct, among others: integration classes, interpersonal communication training, self-presentation workshops and sports activities. Every day, young people from Poland and Ukraine will have the opportunity to learn a foreign language and culture.

We believe that the trip will allow young people to get to know each other better, to see what they have in common and what divides them, and to accept the differences between them. The time spent together is intended to encourage young people to conclude that being different is a natural state, and thanks to it, each of us is unique and one of a kind.

The project “What we know about tolerance” No. 2022-1-PL01-KA152-YOU-000067324 is implemented as part of the Erasmus+ program.

This time, the meeting of participants as part of the project “What we know about tolerance” No. 2022-1-PL01-KA152-YOU-000067324 stimulated our appetites. Students learned about traditional Ukrainian dishes such as: Ukrainian borscht, stuffed potatoes, solianka, bogracz, Kiev style cutlet, various types of dumplings (pelmeni, chebureks or vareniki) and syrniki.

Ukrainian cuisine is extremely rich in different flavors due to the influence of Ukraine’s culture, religion and geographical location. Her dishes are characterized by simplicity and a characteristic way of preparation. On Ukrainian tables we find dishes based on flour, mushrooms, fish, vegetables, pickles, meat, cucumbers, and buckwheat. Potatoes, called the second bread, are the basis of most dishes.

At the next meeting within the project “What we know about tolerance” No. 2022-1-PL01-KA152-YOU-000067324, its participants had the opportunity to meet their neighbors face to face. Many peers from Ukraine came to Poland as a result of the war and are currently students of the school attended by the students participating in the project. Taking advantage of this fact, we invited students from Ukraine to one of the meetings to be able to learn about Ukrainian youth from the most reliable source – that is, from themselves.

We talked about their interests, what music they listen to and what idols they have. It turned out that they have a lot in common with our Polish youth. This meeting was not only a large dose of knowledge, but also an opportunity to integrate students, which we are very happy about.

Thirsty for knowledge, students discovered what curiosities our eastern neighbor hides. At the meeting carried out as part of the project “What we know about tolerance” No. 2022-1-PL01-KA152-YOU-000067324, participants learned, among others:

• where is the deepest subway station located
• where the third most visited McDonald’s is located
• where is the longest cave
• what is a trombit
• what do ukrainian collector coins look like

The participants of the project were very interested in the curiosities presented and declared their willingness to learn more of them on their own.

As part of the project “What do we know about tolerance” No. 2022-1-PL01-KA152-YOU-000067324, another meeting was held where Polish youth broadened their knowledge about our eastern neighbor. According to the assumptions of the project, one of the two planned film screenings took place during this meeting. The screening was accompanied by a snack, which took the form of everyone’s favorite pizza.

During the classes, the participants watched the documentary “Erase the nation” showing the damage to the cultural heritage of Ukraine made since February 24, 2022. by Russian troops. The film shows the remnants of monuments, e.g. in Lviv, Czernichów, Iwanków, Kiev or Kharkiv.

After watching the shocking film, the students discussed the events that have taken place since February 24 last year. Each of the participants approaches the topic of the war that is happening on our eastern border very emotionally and sympathizes with what the neighbors are forced to experience. A large part of the project participants, wanting to somehow contribute to supporting people from Ukraine, declared that they provide, among others, in collecting clothes, medicines or other necessities.

The next classes of the project “What do we know about tolerance” No. 2022-1-PL01-KA152-YOU-000067324 implemented as part of the Erasmus+ program took on a musical character.

The participants of the project met again with the professor and students from Ukraine, who played the role of lecturers and with great commitment passed on more interesting facts about their country. The conducted classes were devoted to a part of Ukrainian culture, i.e. music. The students eagerly told the youth about solemn Ukrainian songs, as well as about the songs that today’s Ukrainian youth listens to, and about songs that are timeless for them. Each story was accompanied, of course, by listening to a given song by everyone.

The participants enjoyed the music classes very much, and some of them, leaving the room, continued to hum the Ukrainian melody they had heard earlier.

Another meeting within the project “What we know about tolerance” No. 2022-1-PL01-KA152-YOU-000067324 was a journey around Ukraine. Unfortunately, due to the current situation, it was only a finger trip on the map. We visited Lviv, Kiev, Odessa and Kamianets-Podilskyi. We got to know the Romantic Tunnel of Love, the Khotyn Castle and the Karadag Nature Reserve, i.e. tourist pearls that could be seen so far in our eastern neighbors.

The young people taking part in the meeting were impressed by so many beautiful places that Ukraine hides. Many of the students plan to visit the presented places in the future, if possible in the future.