When you see what the European Commission is doing to address the problem of disinformation and fake news, this is exactly what they are aiming to do: educate the population on critical thinking and increase the awareness about the problem. In this case, it is in the form of a Youth Exchange, a meeting between youngsters of different countries, inside and outside of the EU. During 7 days we worked on the topic, nothing less than in Kemer, a coastal city in the south of Turkey. We could join with people from Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy, Czech Republic, North Macedonia and, of course, Turkey. We could learn using non-formal methods like debating, role-playing, creating materials and taking action, most of the time enjoying the great weather outdoors. Below there’s a summary of what we did each day.
The first day was all about meeting and learning the names of each other, team building and knowing the place. In the morning, we had some games about name-remembering and in the afternoon, we divided into teams to complete ‘the impossible mission’. We had a list of tasks to complete in 1 hour and finally almost all groups could accomplish the objectives. At the end of this day, it felt like we knew each other for more time.
The second day we learnt about what Erasmus+ offers us, the key competences and all the actions within the programmer. UE makes a great effort to develop a capable youth generation which works in the same way to improve our society. In the afternoon, we dived into the topic with an activity about analyzing cases of fake news, the motivations behind them, their causes and consequences at the time they were spread.
On the third day, we had the opportunity to check the reality in our countries. We did the activity called Step forward and then, by national teams, we presented the main problems of our media in our countries. After lunch, the greek group introduced the problem tree. The Spanish group presented the forum theater and by groups, we represented one of the problems we introduced in the previous activity.
On the fourth day we started our antidiscrimination campaigns. We worked on them during the morning and we made a presentation of our main ideas and SWOT during the afternoon. The presentation was done in front of a jury which provided us some feedback.
The fifth day was our free day and we spent it going for a boat trip. When the boat party finished we had some time to walk and go shopping in Kemer.
On the sixth day we launched our campaigns on social media such as IG and TikTok. Also, we presented the campaign in a meeting to all the groups to discuss the topics.
Overall it was an unforgettable experience, we are all eager to continue fighting against disinformation and willing to participate in more of the activities that Erasmus+ has to offer.
