Training 'The Fundamentals of a Democratic Society Stockholm 2015’

At the beginning of June we assisted in a project training ‘The Fundamentals of a Democratic Society Stockholm 2015’, organized by NGO “Active Ukrainians in Europe”.  The project had taken place for 12 days since the 1st of June and included activities in Stockholm (different meetings), Gotland and in NGO’s place.  There were participants from Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Moldova, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium.

Among events in Stockholm were meetings with Civil Rights Defenders, Östgruppen, Swedish Institute, Amnesty International, European House and even with the politician Stefan Nilsson from Swedish Parliament. (we even had an excursion over the Parliament and visited Old Chambers!!)  We took part in most of these events. Also our manager from Framtidståget Kristina Morzevska made a presentation of our hosting NGO for participants, which happened to be very interesting and followed by a lot of questions.

Of course, every evening there was an intercultural evening, presented by country’s national food, souvenirs, songs etc. I think Georgian and Belarusian evenings were really the best ones. ;)

On the 6th of June there was National Day in Sweden. And participants also took part in it but in their own way. At that day they organized so-called Vyshyvanka [‘embroidery’] March, Ukrainians and Belarusians were wearing their folk clothes with beautiful embroided or printed ornaments. :)

Link Hip-Hop

   
   On the 4-5 of June, in Linkoping a reception was held to make Hip Hop Festival, named – LINK HIP HOP.  The event was organized by the “Kulturhusen Elsas & Skylten”; the organizer was EVS volunteer, Lionel.

   Festival was full of different kinds of activities, such as: Beatmaking Workshop, Writing Workshop, Scratching workshop, Graffiti Workshop, Live Painting and Live concerts. Despite the fact, that I am not a fan of hip hop, these days were so interesting for me. We participated in two workshops and tried to learn how to write the rhymes and draw graffiti.  In the end of the days there were Live concerts: 4^th of June - Ays’N’Beez ( Den Där Tim – Blezz) / Rusty Label; 5^th of June -  the Original Maylay Sparks, Antone Mecca, 100 Crew, Pharcee.

  
  Apart from useful workshops and enjoyable live concerts the days in Linkoping were really memorable. We were 4  EVS volunteers and 3 local volunteers who hosted us. We were joking that an International band has a tour in Linkoping. 

  The city is so cozy and cute, full of interesting and nice places. We visited old Linkoping, place where one can see a lot of old houses, museums and shops of hand made things. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to see everything in Linkoping, but it is a good reason to visit it again.

   As you know, we volunteers are not rich people (just try to save money) so, our breakfast was food from ICA, and we had cheap lunch in a park. And also, we had cookies from Stockholm and eco nuts from eco village, for FIKA.  We slept in a dancing room, with big mirrors and great music system - the one I was using in the mornings to wake up others.

As you see, it was such an adventure and a nice visit. For sure, it will be continued...