Face2Face - Youth Exchange - EFM Poland

What you see when you go to the web? What do you share about yourself? What lies on the other side? And why are we all so drawn to it?

Why we are so drawn to the web world we are maybe not able to answer, or we could but many different answers could come up as explanation.

About the other questions… well, you will have to answer us!

All in all, is not a different challenge than the one we proposed to young people just like you. 30 young people, to be more specific.

30 people – from Poland, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia – were challenged to come to a small, distant place named Marianówka (read it as “Marianuveka”;)) to answer themselves these same questions.

Between 17.10.2019 to 22.10.2019 they were here, being part of a youth exchange called “Face to Face”.

Now, what have you heard about youth exchanges? Do you think it is easy or hard to take part in one?

Maybe you have heard about it or maybe not. Maybe you think you will never be able to take part in one, or maybe you already did it.

All of this to tell you that one of the amazing things of “Face to Face” was this… the encounter between people who were in the situations described above. Some youngsters were travelling for the first in their lives. For some of them “Face to Face”, EFM and Marianówka were the first experience abroad and the group, the first foreigners they have met.
Now mix this with the fact that all of them were here to know more about a subject that they were already very much interested in. There was sharing, learning, questioning, teaching, helping… between them. Not anyone else. Them. How amazing is this?!

And when the mood was not as high as one could expect, they overcame their worries and insecurities and came up with the beautiful „Men in the web”, a short film about young people and the internet.

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“Now I know more about safety on the web, more about cyber bullying and I developed time management, team leading and team working skills as well as my English-speaking skills.”
Barbara – Italy

In the meantime, the “blow your mind” moments. The meeting with a police officer from the department of cybercrime and let me tell you… no one went from that room not feeling overwhelmed with what happens, what can really happen, beneath the surface of what sometimes we think is only social media and fun. There was more knowledge in that day and the certainty that we know now some of the right ways of using digital tools with more safety!

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“I think that I improve my communication skills during this Youth Exchange and I learn more about Internet and cyberbullying. I understand interesting facts about other countries.”
Shota Chaginava – Georgia

But that is not all! There were the new friendships, the development of soft skills and deep discussions about who we are and who we want the others to see of ourselves.

There were the clash of cultures – evenings spent together sharing unique things of each country- and a full cinema reserved just for us, in a Thursday morning, to watch “Nerve”, popcorn and all. (and now we made you curious to know more about the movie, right?!)

“It really gives the chance to get new information, to engage in new activities, to develop English. And of course, you have an opportunity to make new friends worldwide and to see new country, new culture and to be in a fantastic atmosphere.”
Armine Sargsyan – Armenia

One of the great things about youth exchanges is the new possibilities it opens for so many young people. Like a door open to the future, we get the chance to see that there is more around us than we would have thought before!