It has a period of 10 days (including 2 travel days and 8 activity days)
between 20 - 29 March, 2025.
The location for activities is Vatra Dornei, a small picturesque mountain resort
in the Carpathian Mountains of Northern Romania.
The group present at activities will consist of 36 young people, 18-25 years old, and 6 group leaders, 18+ years old - 42 participants in total.
Our aim is to develop empathy and empathic communication skills, as a means of solving conflicts and diminishing personal and social differences, thus fostering prosocial behaviors, having set the following objectives:
1. Cultivating empathic attitudes and prosocial behaviors among the project participants.
2. Improving the empathic communication skills of the participants and further perpetuating them in our social circles.
3. Creating tools for promoting constructive dialogue among young people to diminish radical attitudes.
By having a diverse team and applying various non-formal learning methods - knowing each other and connection, experiential, artistic and creative, study and practical application, and other methods, we aim to create a valuable learning experience for participants.
Arrival to Bucharest
Breakfast
Meeting each other
Erasmus+ & Youthpass
“Empathy Road” – needs and objectives
Lunch
Getting to know each other
Expectations, Fears, Contributions
Learning Agreement
Learning Journal
Dinner
Romanian Cultural Night
Breakfast
Teambuilding sessions
Lunch
Our community problems - theater
In your shoes - reflection
Learning Journal
Dinner
Cultural Night
Breakfast
Exclusion labirinth
Lunch
The books I read
Learning Journal
Dinner
Cultural Night
Breakfast
Imagine - improvisation
EQ and communication styles
Lunch packs
Practicing win-win model
Learning Journal
Dinner
Cultural Night
Breakfast
Nonviolent communication
Lunch
Building harmonious relationships through NVC
YES to empathy - theater
Learning Journal
Dinner
Cultural Night
Breakfast
Empathy tribes
Lunch
Instruments for a
constructive dialogue
TEDx preparation
Learning Journal
Dinner
TEDx Evening
Breakfast
Creating the instruments
for a constructive dialogue
Lunch
Creating the instruments
for a constructive dialogue
Learning Journal
Dinner
Cultural Night
Breakfast
Dissemination plan
Closing session
Lunch
Youthpass session
Evaluation session
Learning Journal
Dinner
Farewell
Departure day
* The schedule is subject to adaptations depending on the flow of the learning process.
Travel days are: 20th & 29th of March 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:
March 20th, 2025, 18:00, from Gara de Nord.
Arrival in Bucharest:
March 29th, 2025, 08:00, at Otopeni Airport.
Important Booking Guidelines
Arrival in Bucharest:
Ensure you arrive before 16:00 on March 20th, to have enough time for the meeting and bus departure.
Departure from Bucharest:
Ensure you depart after 10:00 on March 29th, 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).
Bus to City Center:
Check the bus schedule to the city center of Bucharest (tickets are about 3 RON).
Coordinate your travels with fellow group members to enhance the experience.
You have the option to extend your stay by 2-3 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 (January 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 closer countries Croatia, Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
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:
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 March it can be very cold in the mountains. Prepare for temperatures between
10 Celsius (or higher) during the day and 0 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 chilly. It is not uncommon to see snow in March, especially in the mountains around.
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.
The Pro Bono Youth Club Association was established in January 2023, in Suceava, Romania. It is a non-governmental and non-profit association, independent, and with legal body. It operates in accordance with the country's laws and its statute.
The main goal of Pro Bono Youth Club is to promote and develop education, social values, and encourage civic participation among young people in Romania and beyond. To achieve this goal, the association has the following objectives:
- Motivating and increasing the mobility of young people;
- Ensuring the exchange of positive experiences among young people to enhance their cultural and informational levels;
- Promoting cooperation among countries, tolerance, and deepening the idea of European unity;
- Stimulating cultural activities and implementing educational programs that represent the values of Romania and the European Union;
- Collaborating with other national and international institutions or organizations that align with the objectives and ideals of Pro Bono Youth Club.
Our association is committed to fostering youth development, promoting cross-cultural exchange, and supporting activities that contribute to the personal and professional growth of young people in Romania and beyond.
probonoyouthclub@gmail.com
+40 755 587 169
cata.sorbala@gmail.com