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The kick-off meeting of the “PRESS” SSCP project was held in Limassol, Cyprus in the period 12-15 May 2022, hosted by the Cypriot partner “Blue Cherry Academy for Youth and Adults”.
All project partners took part in the meeting with 4 participants -representatives of their organisations, sport clubs and other local stakeholders they involved so as to learn from the exchange of best practices shared during the meeting. As a project coordinator we have also included two rural youth to train them project management and show them the sport opportunities for their islandic peers.
During the kick-off meeting partners agreed upon the main project activities, tasks and responsibilities of each partner, signed the DEOR plan and the Activity Agreements.
Each partner shared what sport projects and activities and rural youth empowerment projects they are doing or have done so far thus exchanging best practices and ideas for better social inclusion for rural,marginalized and isolated youth. We also discussed what could each partner organize for MOVE WEEK 2022 involving rural youth in their sport events.
We organised a “Partnership bike ride” along the Limassol coastal lane promoting the project, sport and healthy lifestyle dressed in the project T-shirts for bigger project visibility. We also went on a group jogging and street fitness walk to see the street fitness and jogging opportunities along the Limassol coastal lane.
We strengthened our partnership by rowing together in a dragon boat – another sport activity organized with the support of the “Raging Mouflons” sport club of Limassol.
Participants also took part in the Limassol Sport Festival 2022 where on the Limassol Marina Walk all local sport clubs had info-booths promoting their sport activities. We were impressed by the diversity of sport activities offered to islandic children and youth. There were volleyball, basketball, golf, tennis, archery, field and track-events, martial arts, MMA, karate, rowing, fencing, football, boxing and many other sport clubs represented at the sport festival.
In the last evening of our meeting we could enjoy the intercultural Flower Festival 2022 with folklore performances and a street parade.
The Study Visit meeting in Bulgaria was held in the period 7-10 July 2022, hosted by the Project coordinator- the “Youth and Civil Initiatives in the Rose Valley” NGO from the town of Karlovo.
During the study visit the partners visited 3 villages and a small town in the Municipality of Karlovo to see the sport opportunities for rural youth.
In the village of Voynyagovo they saw the street fitness facilities in the park, the village stadium and the sports field where in the past rural basketball tournaments used to be held with basketball players from all over the Balkans who were accommodated in people from the village bringing life to the whole village. Unfortunately, these Balkan sport tournaments are no longer organized.
In the village of Dabene they visited the stadium where the local football club trains and where we organised the MOVE Week 2022 rural youth sport event and the MOVE WEEK 2021 sport event under our previous SSCP project about women in sport.
In the village of Kliment partners saw the many youth projects implemented in the village including street fitness facilities in the park.
In the town of Banya participants attended a swimming training for rural children at the town’s mineral swimming pool as the town is a popular spa resort in Bulgaria.
In the town of Karlovo we showed our partners the whole Rose Valley from the top of the mountains above Karlovo organizing a morning energizing hiking trip to the “Cross” site. Hiking is a popular sport activity for the citizens of Karlovo –young and old as we live at the foot of the Stara Planina Mountains offering many opportunities for healthy walks among nature.
The participants also visited the town’s main parks with the sport facilities in them as well as the town stadium holding the name of the Bulgarian national hero Vasil Levski who was born in Karlovo.
We also visited Plovdiv- European Capital of Culture 2019 for a meeting with “BG BE Active” – the NGO which started the MOVE Week initiative in Bulgaria.
In the Youth Centre of Karlovo partners shared what each of them did around MOVE Week 2022 and planned the next project steps – the meeting in Lithuania and the finalization of the research about sport opportunities for rural youth each partner has to carry out in their rural areas.
The Study Visit meeting in Lithuania was held in the period 15-18 September 2022 in the towns of Silale and Laukuva hosted by the Lithuanian partner- “Silales r Laukuvas Norberto Veliaus Gymnazija” from the town of Laukuva.
We explored the sport opportunities of the gymnasium, spent a PE lesson with the students practicing some sports and learned and practiced a new sport game-"disc golf" which is very popular in the Scandinavian countries. We found it very interesting and suitable for rural areas.
During the study visit we saw the opportunities for sport in the rural areas of Laukuva (a small town with 1000 inhabitants), Silale ( 5500 inhabitants) and the hiking opportunities in Klaipeda area- the Nida Dunes and “Hill of Witches” path. We were impressed by the well-maintained sport facilities and rural sport opportunities both in Laukuva and Silale.
We visited Silale's swimming pool and spa centre and the park by the pond with bike, walking and hiking trails, beach volleyball pitch and street fitness facilities along the shore.
We also had a meeting with local youth in the “Pulsas” Youth Centre where we saw the opportunities for indoor sport and leisure time activities for rural youth.
The deputy-mayor of Silale welcomed our group and told us about the Sport Programme of the Municipality and the budget they allocate for sport activities. We learned that there are regular sport tournaments among local schools, sport and healthy lifestyle is well-promoted and strongly encouraged and a new big sport hall is being currently built in Silale.
In the period 6-9 October 2022 we held the project study visit in Romania combined with project evaluation meeting.
We visited one of the biggest Youth Centre in Bucharest managed by the FTMB foundation uniting 37 youth and sport organisations. We saw the sport facilities the youth centre has offered for free to their members and presented our project.
We also visited a rural high school in the small town of Branesti near Bucharest where we promoted the project and Erasmus+ opportunities to rural youth, playing some sports with them in their new sport hall renovated under a European project.
We had our evaluation meeting in the Conference Room of the Olympic Centre built near Bucharest by the Romanian Olympic Committee for the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000. The director of the Olympic Sport complex showed us round all the sport halls, the Olympic Swimming Pool, the Olympic Football pitch, tennis courts(indoor and outdoor), Gymnastics Hall where we saw the Romanian Olympic Champion Catalina Ponor training future champions.
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