Stories by Participants: Involvement and Impact: The NExt Level!
Training Course in Bant, The Netherlands (6-14/11/2022)
By: Alex Karampoikis
November 2022. Village of Bant in the Netherlands. I have been there to participate in a wonderful Training Course on inclusion. Title: “Involvement & Impact”.
This program was truly an experience of a lifetime for me.
“Lost” somewhere in the north of the country, in a fairy-tale landscape with fantastic houses around a lake and with nothing around, we had the opportunity to coexist and work with more than 40 young people from 13 countries on things that concern all of us. The experiential approach and the “non formal” framework that distinguishes the projects carried out under Erasmus+, was in this Course (but also in general) the best way to see the need for inclusion in front of us and to create ways, tools and activities that are suitable for people of all abilities and capabilities.
In addition, living for a week with so many different unique people, eating with them, sharing a room as if we had known each other for years, having fun with them, sharing the culture of our countries, looking in their eyes, feeling freedom next to them, hugging them and being able to call them friends in such a short period of time, is for me a situation that should be experienced by every person on this planet. Because, this is a great way to see yourself “naked” and become a better person. In other words, this is a great way to change the world.
I could write pages about the Training Course but there is no need to. I think it would be enough to thank one of the best people i’ve ever met from the bottom of my heart: the creator of the program, the man who got us there, the man who could in the same moment train the group and dress up as Batman and the man with the truest smile you can meet! Chris Van Maanen, thank you for sharing your way to change the world with us!!
And just for the record, the organization before, during and after the project was excellent both from the Dutch organization “Rock Solid Foundation” which hosted the program and also from “K.A.N.E.” which was the greek organization that sent us there.
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