After Seminar in Chile

The Seminar and Study Visit “Think Global, Act Local” in Chile finished and it was a unique learning experience for all of us. Young people coming from Chile, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, United Kingdom, Poland and Luxembourg came together for 12 days to discuss about global challenges that we are facing.

The amazing cultural diversity in the training course made it both challenging and enriching. At first, the language barriers between Spanish and English-speakers as well as the cultural barriers were high, but throughout these twelve days we created great group dynamics. The aim of the seminar was to train “global ambassadors” who would come back to their countries after the seminar, multiply the message of the project and organise ativities for other young people raising awareness about global issues.

We visited a lot of NGOs, organisations, governmental institutions and local authorities in Chile and exchanged with them their experience from dealing with some of the global problems. We discussed a lot within our groups about topics like gender equality, sustainable devel opment, human rights and the rights of minorities, HIV/AIDS and all participants contributed with their own experience.

However, we did not only discuss. Our main aim was to turn the inspiration and ideas into concrete actions. During the seminar, participants from all the six countries created plans for specific small local projects in their countries. These will be implemented around five action days, like the World Environment Day, World Day for Cultural Diversity, etc.

We decided, however, to share also our experience from our stay in Chile. Participants themselves wrote articles about the programme of the seminar as well as case studies from various organisations that we visited. Please share with us our experience from Chile.

Jiri Peterka

Facilitator of the seminar