Youth Exchange
2 - 12 May, 2025
Vatra Dornei, Romania
Vatra Dornei, Romania
It has a period of 11 days (including 2 travel days and 9 activity days) between 2 - 12 May, 2025.
The location for activities is Vatra Dornei, a small picturesque mountain resort in the Carpathian Mountains of Northern Romania.
Participants
7 participants per country – 6 youngsters (18-30 years old) and 1 group leader (above 18, no superior age limit).
The group present at activities will consist of 36 young people, 18-30 years old, and 6 group leaders, 18+ years old - 42 participants in total.
Improving green skills among young people is essential in the context of current ecological problems and the need to protect the environment. We have identified an essential need to learn more about the topic, most young people having only basic notions regarding ecological behaviors (sorting, recycling, plastic reduction).
In the “Eco Me, Eco We” project we focus on improving skills and promoting ecological and sustainable behaviors, our objectives being:
- To improve the green skills and motivation to act of the participants.
- To help young people create sustainable habits and encourage sustainable lifestyles at a broader level through educational materials to be created by participants (6 posters and 6 videos)
- To support the involvement of young people in ecological community and civic initiatives (carrying out a greening action during the mobility period, followed by 6 activities in each community)
We will have a complex approach to the topic, so that young people develop their understanding of sustainable living, of the impact of individual and collective actions on environment and of the concrete actions they can take. We will help young people identify that set of behaviors that can be changed and improved for a more sustainable way of life.
Arrival to Bucharest
Breakfast
Meeting each other
Erasmus+ & Youthpass
“Eco Me, Eco We” – needs and objectives
Lunch
Getting to know each other
Fears, Expectations, Contributions
Learning Agreement
Reflexion
Dinner
Romanian Cultural Night
Breakfast
Teambuilding
Lunch
Eco challenges in our countries
Solution tree
Reflexion
Dinner
Cultural Night
Breakfast
Eco systems – study visit
Lunch pack
Study visit to local businesses
Reflexion
Dinner
Cultural Night
Breakfast
My eco habits
Connecting to nature
Lunch
Eco café – creative sesssion
Reflexion
Dinner
Cultural Night
Breakfast
Debates
Lunch
Eco forum – discussion session
Reflexion
Dinner
Cultural Night
Breakfast
Ecological prcatical activity
Lunch pack
Eco hunt
Reflexion
Dinner
Free Evening
Breakfast
Imagine - theater
Lunch
Creation of project materials - poster
Reflexion
Dinner
Cultural Night
Breakfast
Creation of project materials - video
Lunch
Creation of project materials - video
Reflexion
Dinner
Movie Gala
Breakfast
Dissemination plan
Youthpass session
Lunch
Evaluation and feedback
Reflexion
Dinner
Farewell
Departure day
* For the days outside the venue lunch packs are provided, including water.
** Some activities may be moved/switched, depending on the availability of local partners and weather conditions.
The travel days are:
2nd & 12th of May 2025
We will arrange transport between Bucharest and
Vatra Dornei. The bus travel is scheduled for nighttime
to maximize comfort and convenience.
Departure from Bucharest:
May 2nd, 2025, 18:00,
from Gara de Nord.
Arrival in Bucharest:
May 12th, 2025, 08:00,
at Otopeni Airport.
Important Booking Guidelines:
Arrival in Bucharest:
Ensure you arrive before 16:00 on May 2nd, to have enough time for the meeting and bus departure.
Departure from Bucharest:
Ensure you depart after 10:00 on May 12th, to match the arrival time of the bus.
Public transport form Otopeni Airport to Bucharest
Train to Gara de Nord:
Check the train schedule from Otopeni Airport to Gara de Nord
(tickets are about 5.5 RON and you can pay with your card directly
on the train).
Bus to City Center:
Check the bus schedule to the city center of Bucharest
(tickets are about 3 RON and you can pay with your card directly
on the bus).
Public transport in Bucharest is easy and accessible and any route
can be checked using Google Maps.
Coordinate your travels with fellow group members
to enhance the experience.
You have the option to extend your stay up to 2 days
before or after the project at your own expense.
Currency exchange advice: Limit the amount of money you exchange at the airport/ bus station due to less favorable rates. We suggest exchanging no more than 5-10 euros upon arrival.
The Romanian currency is LEU (RON):
1 Euro = 4.98 RON (Feb 2025)
Explore more about Romania
Enhance your visit by exploring these resources
https://www.facebook.com/romaniatravel.ro/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania/ https://www.romaniatourism.com/
To qualify for Green Travel support, you must use sustainable means of transport for most of your journey, such as bus, train, or carpooling, both outward and return.
We have Green Travel support for ALL countries Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Croatia, Poland, Italy.
We strongly recommend that participants from these countries opt for green transport.
For participants from other countries who wish to travel green, we are open to discuss and analyze this proposal.
It is very important to have all the travel and financial documents available, otherwise the reimbursement is not possible. Reimbursement will be done by bank transfer in the account of your sending organization, according to the rules of Erasmus+.
The travel reimbursement is 309 € per person for normal travel or 417 € per person for green travel.
We chose a guesthouse in the outskirts of Vatra Dornei town that is close to nature, but also benefits fully from the comfort of modern life.
Here are links to the website and Facebook page of the guesthouse:
https://www.facebook.com/siady.pensiunea
https://hotelguru.ro/casa-siady-vatra-dornei
We will accommodate 2-3 persons per room, maybe some rooms will host a max. of 4 persons. Each room has its own bathroom and toiletries.
Some rooms are designed as matrimonial, thus two persons might share one bed, but rest assured that the beds are big enough and each of you will have his/ her own blanket.
There is mobile signal and wi-fi connection throughout the establishment.
We will have our meals at the guesthouse restaurant, serving fresh eco products from country side.
Attention: We will be in the middle of the Romanian mountain countryside in a place that serves traditional Romanian food. For vegetarians / vegans might be hard to adapt because here most meals contain meat and cheese products.
We will surely have vegetarian / vegan options, but please come with an open mind because you may need to eat a lot of potatoes, bread and polenta. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polenta).
We will have many typical Romanian meals with meat, cheese, eggs, because most of the products served are from farms and households in the area, but will make sure to have suitable options for all dietary regimes.
If you wish to learn more about the town and the region you can check the following links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatra_Dornei - town of Vatra Dornei, https://taradornelor.ro/en/ - the region
Typical food and drinks from your countries. During the youth exchange we will have cultural evenings. You can bring national costumes, decorations, leaflets, food, sweets, drinks and much more. There might be the possibility to cook something using the kitchen of the establishment.
Unfortunately, we don’t have budget to reimburse these expenses, but try to be creative and funny.
You can show videos, photos, sing songs and dance traditional dances from your countries. We are counting on you to make these evenings as interesting as possible and promise to help you in any way we can.
Each national team should have at least 1 laptop and 1 good photo camera / phone.
In May it can be cold in the mountains. Prepare for temperatures between 15 Celsius (or higher) during the day and 10 Celsius (or lower) during nights. It is recommended to bring warm clothes in case it rains or you wish to stay outside during evenings, when it gets a little bit chilly.
Bed linen and toiletries are provided by the guesthouse, however we encourage you to bring your own towels, flip flops and other items you might need, so that you feel comfortable.
We will provide water daily. Please bring your own water recipients to avoid use of plastic glasses.
We will have available the emergency medical kit. However we encourage you to bring the remedies you are used to for most common situations such as fever, headaches, stomach aches and more specific needs, if it is the case.
It is mandatory to have a valid health insurance, although we can’t reimburse the costs. As Romania is an EU member, an insurance should be cheap and easy to make. If you have an European Health Card, please bring it with you, it is valid in our medical system.
Friend’s Society is a member of D.G.T. (Do Great Things) Network and its main targets are high-school and university students, young entrepreneurs and disadvantaged young people in Romania. We are a non-governmental organization that was born from the passion of a few youngsters who wanted to take action and make a change in the society they were living into.
Our founding members have also the desire to give back all the things they have learned and experienced during previous years of volunteering. Our mission focuses on national and international networking among young people, students, trainers and teachers of different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds. It tackles topics such as inter-cultural exchange, non-formal education, ecology, climate change, sustainable development, European citizenship and international politics (geopolitics). All these are added to facilitate the accumulation of experience by young people, through voluntary activities, allowing them to put into practice the theory learned in school.
Facebook DGT: https://www.facebook.com/DoGreatThingsNetwork/
meisxmaster@yahoo.com
+40 748 213 791
cata.sorbala@gmail.com