Hey everybody! This is Ian, reporting back from Athens. On the 13th of January 2016 the follow-up activity of PBA ''Be gentle, Explore gender'' took place in downtown Athens. Volunteers and representatives from the organisation "Positive Voice-People and HIV" had the chance to get informed about Erasmus+ projects, gender/ lbgt+ issues and get the overall feeling of the great time we had in Estonia. One of the activities was to take pictures of people holding the estonian and the rainbow flag. Hope you all like my idea! :)

P.S. I would like to thank "Positive Voice" for letting me use their beautiful seminar room. (http://positivevoice.gr)

"Yesterday….. all my trouble seem so far away"….. means DAY 7

Morning was nice and we didn’t have ice…. ghmmm,  between us. We were having breakfast and then…. We heard ‘’BOUN GIORNOOOOO!’’ Comooon gays, let’s start the day  J! We were continuing our projects – yes, we have many good project ideas and we were on fire! People were working hard, becoming to confusion and then again out of it – it is nessecary ;) Getting step by step more clear about our project objectives helped a lot. Of course we had some chill time after delicious lunch. Afternoon we had six short and catchy workshops (like yoga, knowledge about HIV, Erasmus+ etc) leaded by participants – time was flying! After dinner everything went so smoothly like it is usually going here – dance, games, exploring the gender, karaoke, and one crazy workshop by Estonian girls, Annike and Maria….. NB! Be ACTIVE! J Thank you Girls! Anyway time to sum up here…. You know guys WE LOVE YOU!  

Linda Tetsmann

    

Day 6 - Once upon a time in December...

The 12th day of the month, which came along with the first snow <3, was constructive, the start-up for the wonderful projects to come. The first part of the day started with brainstorming, where everybody wrote down their ideas of projects and there were some, followed by forming groups which were going to work on a single beautiful project. We started with finding the needs we need to solve with our projects, followed by the objectives and the presentations. We had the constant help and feedback from out wonderful trainers and fun while coming up with what we needed to write on the colorful post-its. 

The night was, of course, the highlight of the getting in the Estonian culture. Yes, I am talking about sauna, which was enjoyed by the healthy half of the participants, who were brave enough to try swimming in the pond, with or without the ladder. 

Departure day is closer and closer... :(

Cata

5TH DAY - exploring Tartu

On our 5th day we went to Tartu to participate in a meeting with a feminist association in a Youth Center.
We listened an activist girl who explained to us how the Feminist Groups has started in Estonia, their story and what are they fighting for and what are their main chalenges nowadays. If you want to know more about them you can search out on their website http://feministeerium.ee/kontakt/ and on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/feministeerium?_rdr=p.

We had lunch in a restaurant and we went to spend some of our free time in Tartu city center.

After that, we went to the university to hear about the LGBT+ situation in Estonia, what are their main chalenges and what are the next steps they want to achieve.

Mariana, Mati, Katarina and Siim

Day 4 - explore gender

Hello everyone! This is Maria Sas [Italy] and Ian Paschalidis [Greece] reporting for Thursday 10.12.2015.

So, today was about going deep into the topic of gender.

Gender I
For the first session we had to work in two large groups, boys and girls, and write down pros and cons of both genders. This was a good task to see men and women's perspective on gender.

Gender II and III
The tasks were about reacting to several statements about transgender people and the LGBT+ community, in general. We had a great conversation, expressing our opinion and arguing about agreeing or not on the statement.

Gender IV
Empathy task about walking in an LGBT+ person's shoes. Really moving.

Today was Croatia, Italy and Greece's intercultural evening. We had a really great time listening to music and enjoying tasty dishes from other countries.

3rd day - into the topic

-- We started our day with our learning buddies.

 Comments:

Annike: It was great to share my learning moments from yesterday with my buddy. I really enjoyed it.

Fenia: It was kind of fun, because I cooperated and exchanged my learning moments with a new interesting person.

Aslihan: I had a chance to share my experiences and learn from my buddy.

Hugh: Learning from someone who comes from a different culture to my own, has really expanded my mind in terms of the way I think and evaluate situations.

---Next we created our project profiles...

Comments:

Annike: Through these profiles I learned a bit about each person (on professional level). Loads of common topics with what we can continue. Now I just have to get to know these people on a social level - can I work with them!?

Fenia: I loved to find out more information about the whole team in this interesting way.

Aslihan: These profiles helped us to learn our professions, project ideas and NGO informations.

Hugh: I felt that the group I joined were really understanding and made me feel welcomed into the fold, I loved learning from my team.

-- ..and found the definitions for important terms considering the gender and LGBT topics.

Comments:

Annike: Before jumping into a lake, I have to know how deep it is. This workshop gave me a good overview about gender and LGBT lake. I feel much more comfortable swiming there.

Fenia: I loved this part. It was like a goal to me to understand more things about gender issues and this exercise helped me a lot.

Aslihan: Amazing to hear new definitions and differences between them.

Hugh: It really broadened my horizons through defining words that were alien to my everyday vocabulary.

-- After the lunch we had the World Cafe.

Comments:

Annike: I felt so special - I got a role to lead the discussion about the LGBT+ situation in different countries. Learned a lot there - different countries see LGBT+ in different ways. Spain and UK are more open-minded, Italy and Turkey are influenced by the religion, Portugal is quite conservative, Romenia is allowing gay marriage without giving any recognition to it, Greece has more important problems in their society and Estonia can not find a consensus on the political level.

Fenia:We shared our experiences and we discussed about the conditions in our countries.

Aslihan: I had fun while trainers were serving and discussing different topics.

Hugh: I was a table leader and enjoyed managing the various participants that joined in the discussion.

-- To sum up the day we had the debriefing of the day.

Comments:

Annike: I love to whine in my debriefing group. It's so relieving.

Fenia: I liked to discuss with organisers and share my thoughts in that way.

Aslihan: We all could explain our opinions and express our needs.

Hugh: It was really important to input the views and thoughts of the table to the organisers, they were very democratic and implemented our suggestions were possible. This was an excellent approach as all particpants felt they were involved in the project.

-- ... and we ended with the movie night.

Comments:

Annike: ...things are so much easier nowadays.

Fenia: I wasn't there because I was sick, but I'm gonna definetely see it in my home.

Aslihan: Movie that we watched helped me to see difficulties between gay couples and their life.

Hugh: Not applicable.