Youth exchange "Beautiful techniques of art for smiles of children" in Koukli, Greece

“Beautiful techniques of art for smiles of children” – this youth exchange project was hosted by Youth Center of Epirus in Koukli – Greece from 7^th until 16^th of September 2012 the project was created under Youth in Action Programme. These 10 days were unforgettable for 25 people from Greece, Turkey, Spain, Latvia and Poland.

During the exchange project, all participants learned about each other's cultures, exchanged experiences and had some fun.

All 25 people joined one of the three offered art techniques (painting on wood, collage, paper-mache) in order to create pieces of art that now already are at the Child care Center of Ioannina and at the children hospital of Ioannina town. Participants also joined different kind of games and visited some places in Epirus –Greece, such as Ioannina's city center and the Dodoni archeological site.

Here you can read some comments from the participants of the exchange project:

• The project was good, because I liked its aims and activities and the place where we stayed. I enjoyed the people there.  (Agnese, Latvia)
• My biggest personal achievement during the youth exchange was meeting people from all round, making contacts and generally enjoying time with new people (Reinis, Latvia)
• After this youth exchange I will go back to Spain with a lot of new friends. Also even if there were some things I would like to change in this project, I really liked these 10 days and this project made me interested in participating in more youth exchanges. (Laura, Spain)
• This was my first time in Greece and I had a really good time. We could do art in the technique we chose and also have free time to create friendship with people from other European countries. (Alejandro, Spain)
• It’s great to learn about various cultures and people. I got different experiences and friendships. I can say that I spent 10 awesome days in Greece. (Rabia, Turkey)
• Everything was really amazing – food in Greece was delicious, we visited many places and did a lot of things. Normally I hate painting but after this project I really like it. ;) (Onur, Turkey)
• The biggest success of the exchange project was the true integration between participants – this is the way to know different cultures. (Szymon, Poland)
• This exchange was a new experience for me. I have never participated in an international exchange before so everything I saw was something new for me. It was a new lesson for me – a lesson that I will keep in my memory for a long time. (Agniezska, Poland)
• During the exchange, we managed to communicate with each other and we learnt that it doesn’t matter in which country we grew up, the only thing that matters is the fact that we all are people and we see the same moon before we go to sleep. (Eva, Greece)

Youth Center of Epirus wants to say a big thank you to Municipality of Pogoni in Epirus of Greece for hosting the exchange and support.