YOUTH, SPORT, ACTION!

The opening conference of the Youth, Sport, Action! project took place in the historic town of Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia, from 10 to 14 April 2007. The participating countries were Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Israel, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and UK. The conference brought together the different country groups (a total of around 200 young people) to develop their projects.

AIM OF THE CONFERENCE
The aim of the event was to inspire and motivate the young people so they can be fully involved in implementing the project activities, and to ensure that participants have the skills and confidence to achieve their goals. There was a strong emphasis on team building, and above all the event was fun. There were also parallel programmes for training a group of young people involved in filming the projects and for project development sessions for the leaders.

VIEW A PHOTO GALLERY OF THE CONFERENCE

PARTICIPANTS
The young people participating were:
- different ages (ranging from 15 to 24)
- from different countries
- from different cultural backgrounds
- with different educational and intellectual levels
- some with physical disabilities or other individual needs
- with different levels of English

ACTIVITIES
One of the aims of YSA was to break down barriers and enable the young people to experience diversity and get to know other cultures. So they spent some of the time in mixed groups with participants from all the other countries. The most appropriate activities for this mixing were the outdoor / physical activities. On the other hand the young people spent time getting to know their project partners and developing ideas about their projects. The workshops also helped to strengthen these relationships.

All the sessions celebrated universal sporting values such as equal opportunity, inclusiveness, participation, team spirit and fair play. The overall aim of Youth, Sport, Action! is to enable young people in the participating countries to understand and share these values, to give them confidence to put these into practice in their communities, and to extend their personal horizons through international contacts.
For more information, please contact Elizabeta Jovanovska and Snezana Velkovska.

VQ on Youth Sport Action!

The long-awaited-for April event, Youth Sport Action!, took place in Ohrid from 10-14 April and the Values Quest Core Team was part of it. During the event, seven of us followed the participants’ program and attended different workshops and sport activities; Frose, our film person was involved in the film-making training sessions and our coordinators had a special group leaders’ program.
The exciting thing about the five days in Ohrid was that they brought all the project groups from the different countries in one place and it was an excellent opportunity for all of us to communicate amongst each other, to get to know each other and have fun together. We also got the chance to learn interesting things about other countries and traditions and encounter diversity of cultures, but at the same time bond with people with similar interests as ours.
What most delighted us was that we met our project partners from Southport, England, a wonderful group of crazy and fun people. We are so glad we got along so well with them and so happy that they are our partners, we just can’t wait to have them in Macedonia again!
All of this made the April event a great experience for us.


Written by: Daniela Atanasova

Pictures of Spase

Spase Vrednovski

Spase Vrednovski is the name of the most popular member of the Values Quest team.

He is the cutest lad you have ever met. So far, this hearbreaker has reached to the hearts of quite a few girls. With his smile, his bright eyes and his funky hairstyle, he is a real charmer.

Spase enjoys listening to music, reading books and watching TV as well. His favorite music genre is rock. So, there you go – meet the coolest rocker around. Spase likes geography and wants to discover things about all countries. He enjoys playing football, but he is interested in other sports too. Look him up for basketball, handball, volleyball and whatever else played in a group.

Spase is a friend, very loveable and much loved. We are proud to have him on board. Get ready to be charmed by… SPASE!!!!


Written by: Milica Arsovska