On October 1, specialists from the Donetsk Regional Youth Center joined the international online conference "European Youth Work in Wartime: Possibilities of German-Ukrainian Youth Exchanges".
The event brought together representatives of youth organizations, experts and partners from Ukraine and Germany, who are jointly looking for answers to difficult questions:
🔸How do young people feel today in a country fighting for freedom?
🔸What approaches and models of work allow us to support youth exchanges, even when war destroys the usual order of things?
The organizers of the event were the National Ukrainian Youth Association - NUMO and IJAB - International Youth Service of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The event's program was rich and included:
🔹panel discussions with the participation of leading experts;
🔹exchange of best practices in supporting youth;
🔹discussion of funding sources that allow us to continue youth exchanges;
🔹establishment of new partnerships between Ukrainian and German organizations.
Speakers included representatives of NUMO, IJAB, GPYO (German-Polish Youth Office), the Association of Youth Centers, as well as Ukrainian and German experts who shared their experience in the field of international cooperation.
The war brought uncertainty, losses and psychological challenges to the young people of Ukraine. But it is at this time that it is especially important to remain open to dialogue, mutual support and international partnership. Youth exchanges are not only an opportunity to travel and learn, they are above all a chance to preserve the feeling of European unity, to see a future without war and to form a generation that thinks in terms of peace and solidarity.