droni newsletter april 2014
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Read DRONI News April 2014TRANSCRIPT
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New Italian EVS volunteers at DRONI
Elena is a 26 year old anthropologist from Italy. She
grew up in Verona and moved first to Trento and then
to Perugia for studying. She has always loved travelling;
this attitude brought her to Luxembourg for an
internship, to London for an Erasmus, to Germany and
Ireland for short-term jobs and finally here in Georgia!
In DRONI she will work at the Tbilisi Sea School. She
has some experience in working formally and non-
formally within education which will hopefully enrich
her volunteering. She is deeply interested in Caucasian
culture, history, and above all collective memory both
from a personal and professional perspective. Elena
has done an ethnographic research on conflicts
resolution and peace-building working with youth
coming from here. The first time she came to Georgia
was last August, she fell in love with it and decided to come back! She has come here for a 9-
month project aiming at learning by doing and discovering.
April, 2014
DRONI News Droni rules, not the kings!
Hot news:
New Italian volunteers
Human Library in Zugdidi
Georgian– French cultural
exchange project at Tbilisi Sea
School
International projects and
trainings
In this number:
New Italian EVS volunteers 1
10 days of silence–
Vipassana meditation 2
Human Library in Zugdidi;
It’s good to be different! 2
The Yellow Brick Road
project 3
Tbilisi Sea School activities
during March 3
Training Course ‘’Paths to
Inclusion’’ in Ireland 4
Youth-Work Revised for
conflict transformation 4
Julian is from Pescara, Italy. He did his Bachelor studies in
Milan in Interfaculty between Foreign Languages and
Political Sciences. After one year of professional
experience as International Sales Executive for an Italian
company, he decided to move to the UK where he did his
postgraduate studies in International Relations and
Democratic Politics. During and after his studies he
worked as Fundraiser and Researcher for two NGOs in
the UK and then he moved to Czech Republic where he
was hired for a 4-month project at the OSCE-Prague
office. Julian is enthusiastic and happy to work with the
IDP students of the Tbilisi Sea School for the next 9
months.
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10 days of silence – Vipassana meditation
10 days of silence, 10 hours per day sitting and meditating starting from 4 o’ clock in the morning, disconnected from the entire world, not
even pencil or book allowed to have. This is how I spent my 2 weeks in Turkey and it is called Vipassana meditation - seeing things as they
really are, staying in the present at the most extreme degree possible.
In order to realize the true nature of our existence we were observing our natural breath and sensations throughout the body, learning
not to react to them and practicing mindfulness 24 hours per day. 24 hours per day practicing mindfulness means being aware of every
activity we do without any judgment, craving or abortion: when walking, using the bathroom, making your bed, getting dressed, opening a
door, brushing your teeth, drinking water, feeling pain or other feelings.
To see your own mind clearly and sense your body fully is to see ultimate reality. This experience results in short-term calmness, bliss and
leads to wisdom and permanent freedom from suffering and all kind of miseries. So called "Nibbana" in Pali (old Indian language) -
enlightenment. Vipasana is the ancient technique started in Myanmar and rediscovered by Buddha in India 2500 years ago. It is not
connected with any religious practices or ideologies, trying to help all the humans reach the so called “Dhamma” – inner freedom. At the
moment there is all over the world Vipasana centers running and everybody can join the courses for free. http://www.dhamma.org/
All of us suffer from the mental sickness of desire, attachment, craving for pleasant emotions, neglecting what we don’t like. Vipassana
was like an operation of my mind and total liberation of all kind of negativities and impurities. Just don’t think Monika became an angel, it
requires continuous work everyday, self-discipline and big determination.
May you all experience this ultimate truth. May all people be free from misery. May they enjoy real peace, real harmony, real happiness. Fully liberated with love and peace.
Monika Peldaviciute
The Human Library is a voluntary project organized by open-minded youth
tries to promote human rights, fight against stereotypes and raise
tolerance in the society!
During one month a group of four EVS Volunteers from Czech Republic:
Jana, Jan, Martina and Richard will work to set up the event of Human
Library on 26th of April. This year will be the fifth time for DRONI
organizing this event. But it will be the first time it will be held in another
place than Tbilisi.
This Library that will be inhabited not by paper books but by living books;
people who decide to tell their own story because they have been
discriminated and are victims of stereotypes. Everyone will have the
chance to come in the human library, choose the human book she/he
wants to read and start a conversation with her/him.
The group took a day train from Tbilisi to Zugdidi on 24th March. They arrived in the evening and moved to their new home in
Sukhumskaja street 106. Their housemates welcomed them heartedly with a delicious cake and chacha. They spent a night brainstorming
about ideas for the preparation of our event. The following day they went for a walk to take a look at the places where Human Library
could be organized.
In warm and sunny weather they walked around the botanical garden and the palace to the lively city center. They visited a rhetorical
performance of local youths in Art gallery and quickly presented our project to the audience.
At the end of the day they bought necessary supplies in the famous local Bazar and came back to our house to contact local organizations.
Currently they are working on the promotional materials and communication on social media. In the following days and weeks there are a
lot of people to meet, materials to create, articles to write and work to do. Nevertheless they are eager to create an unforgettable event
here in Zugdidi. It's good to be different!
Human Library in Zugdidi; It’s good to be different!
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their communication skills, interact and
exchange while entertaining themselves.
On March 20 Alice and Ioanna gave a
workshop on cultural life, practices and
traditions of the counties of Georgia,
Greece and France. Children created their
own collages of the three countries. The
workshop aimed at creating the first parts
of a big cultural map for raising children's
European awareness and geographical
knowledge. This first approach was an
introductory session to a five week project
on intercultural exchange between France
and Georgia based on informal learning.
This is a project between the french
community centre, Château Des Échelles
in Ambérieu-en-Bugey, France and Youth
Ioanna and Alice, the new DRONI EVS
volunteers together with the support
of local volunteers continue their
weekly visits at Tbilisi Sea School’s IDP
settlements. On March 6, children
participated in an outdoor session of
activities related to the Mother’s Day.
Games, energizers and pantomime
strengthened children's participation
and entertained them during the
workshop! On March 13 a second visit
took place. This time they visited
Tbilisi Sea School and gave a
workshop on comics. Children found
self- expression by drawing comic
faces illustrations which they
mimicked by the end of the session.
This activity helped them improve
Association DRONI in Tbilisi , Georgia aiming
at linking socio-cultural realities between
Georgia and France for alternative
educational purposes. So far children have
created created a video of themselves
saying Gamarjoba! while introducing
themselves to the children in France and
completed parts of the map collage
focusing on the two countries’ traditions
and cultural life. Next sessions are aiming at
making the link between the two countries
even stronger by the rotating cadavers;
portrait collages of all kids from both
associations mixing characteristics and
identities while learning from each other.
The Yellow Brick Road project
Tbilisi Sea Scool activities during March
The Yellow Brick Road was a synergy project held
by Olde Vechte Foundation in Ommen,
Netherlands with the participation of 8 countries
including Georgia and DRONI participants.
According to the participants, the training was
very different from the ordinary projects. There
were various activities like jumping in one foot,
inner beauty, trust walk, minimum and maximum
dance etc. Participants went through many
different stages of thinking about themselves and
the others surrounding them. There were various
activities focusing on self-concentration and self-
discipline as well as meditation around life
purposes, goals and ambitions. Participants were
very much satisfied with the different structure
and rare opportunities for deeper interaction and
exchange given during the project.
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Youth Association
DRONI
Gambahidze str. 3/6
0179 Tbilisi
Georgia
Tel.: +99532306703
Fax: +995322920999
Facebook: https://
www.facebook.com/
droniorg
www.droniweb.org
Edited by:
Sakellaraki Ioanna
+995 568 17 4994
Training course “Paths to Inclusion” in Ireland
From March 10 to March 16 was held a
training course “Paths to Inclusion” in the
small eco-village of Cloughjordan in Ireland.
The project was organized by VSI- Volunteers
Service International which is branch of SCI
network in Ireland.
Project participants from Georgia were
Youth Association DRONI and Children and
Youth Development Fund which formed a
good balance between representatives of
public and non-governmental institutions.
The main topic of the training was inclusion
and participants from 13 different countries
were sharing their experience on how they
work around this topic. Participants had the
possibility to meet with local people, see real
eco-village and be part of their everyday life
for one week.
After the project participants stayed few
more days in Dublin to celebrate St. Patrick’s
Day. It was a real national celebration. All
generations: from small children to old
people were outside to watch the parade
around the whole city. The day after
participants spent their last moments in the
countryside nearby Dublin, at the seaside of
Howthof full of positive emotions about the
unforgettable time.
From March 12 to March 20, in the framework of
the EU “Youth in Action” program, the NGO “Social
and Youth workers” (SYW) in collaboration with the
Federation of Youth Clubs of Armenia (FYCA)
carried out “Youth Work-Revised for Conflict
Transformation” learning course. The participants
were representatives of NGOs from Belarus,
Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Georgia, Hungary,
Moldova, Romania, Armenia and Turkey.
“Youth Work-Revised for Conflict Transformation”
is one of the unique initiatives, which not only
served as a source of knowledge and inspiration for
young people’s interest, but also helped in
overcoming the controversies present in our
society, making them the immediate part of that
process”- mentioned the project coordinator
Mariam Sahakyan.
During the initial stage of the project each delegate
presented the conflicts related to his/her country's
society, the primary grounds and incentives of their
emergence as well as the role of young people in
case of conflicts; how they can intervene.
At the end of the project the participants
expressed their gratitude by sharing some notes
for useful knowledge, good memories and the new
friends they made. Finally, they
left Armenia “gaining knowledge from one of the
ancient cradles”.
Youth Work-Revised for Conflict Transformation