Stories by Participants from the Youth Exchange: Together for SDGs in Oeiras, Portugal (Artemis Salpingidou)

In July, between July 1-14, I took part in a youth exchange entitled “Together for Sustainability Development Goals” in Oeiras, a suburb of Lisbon in Portugal. During the program I had the chance to work with people from 6 different countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia and Greece) with whom we discussed issues related to ecology and sustainability. The main topic of our discussions was how we can both individually and as countries limit ecological destruction, switch to renewable energy sources and integrate sustainability into our daily lives.

These two weeks were definitely something unique and I am very happy that I was able to be a part of this whole program. As an experience, everything seemed amazing to me, from the organization, the people, the activities to the country. Every day we woke up and started work. We did sustainability projects, invited experts to talk to us and learned how to help such situations. Along with the work we did, I met some of the best people from all over Europe. Each of them was special and I learned something different from each one.
I finally fell in love with Portugal and the people there. I would go to such a program again for sure at the first opportunity to learn more things and make more friends.

– Artemis Salpingidou