Hello, I`m Caroline and I was one of the lucky participants to be part of the project in Finland between 1-7th September in 2021.
The project was hosted by the Belgian association “Joetz” which is situated in Brussel. The Austrian sending organisation was MOVE to Be You – Bewegung für Wohlbefinden. We were 24 participants from Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Finnland, Croatia, Belgium, and Austria. To get to know the culture from each country better there was an intercultural night organized. Everyone brought typical food and drinks and we showed each other typical music and dances from our home country. The topic of this international training course was “Find your own nature”. Since in Finland more than 75% of the land area is covered by forest, it was the perfect country to host the project. We had activities outside in the forest. Since we all loved the nature, we even spent after the program our free time outside sitting next to the warm bonfire. One night we we´re so lucky to see the northern lights!
During the week we learned nature-based tools to help people with mental issues. We shared our own experiences of copy mechanisms when we have stress. Then we discovered new methods how to handle stress better and how the nature can help us.
During the project we learned to use the nature to be creative. We used things which we found in the nature to make art and to make together music.
One of the most important lessons for me was how to integrate all the knowledge we learned during the training course in our daily life. To remember this, I took a stone from the lake which was next to our accommodation in Finland which is now situated on my desk at home.
Thanks to the well-organized project and the enthusiastic and motivated participants it was a pleasure to be a part of that Eramus+ Project. I can warmly recommend to everyone to participate on an Erasmus+ program. You will get to know yourself better and you will learn more about different countries and cultures. People who were strangers in the beginning turned to be friends. I´m thankful to had the chance to be part of this instructive project.
Caroline Pauer, Austrian Participant
