Between 10-13 March 2022, a group of four young members of Woodcraft Folk from the Waltham Abbey, Bromley and Leeds districts, travelled to Barcelona accompanied by Woodcraft Folk’s Development Officer Lauren and ESC volunteer Sandra. The group attended the Kids Got Rights check in meeting hosted by IFM-SEI.
The Kids Got Rights project is a two-year project led by IFM-SEI and is funded by the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2022). The project brings together young people from seven organisations across Europe and focuses on child participation and the empowerment of children through self-organisation and claiming their own rights. The young participants get involved in international meetings as part of the programme as well as national activities, a parallel research action (aimed at raising awareness) and training children and adults around the topic of children’s participation rights.
The group met with other delegates from IFM-SEI (Belgium), Nuorten Kotkien Keskusliitto (NKK, Finland), Arciragazzi (Italy), Esplais Catalans (ESPLAC, Spain), University of Barcelona (UB, Research Group on Moral Education – GREM, Spain), Rote Falken Kinderfreunde Österreich (Austria), Slovenian Falcons Youth Union (SFYU, Slovenia) and DUI-LEG og VIRKE (DUI, Denmark) organisations from across Europe. For all of the young delegates, the trip marked a special milestone as it was the first time they had taken part in an international opportunity and also the first time they had travelled abroad without their parents.
The check in meeting included sessions around evaluating the project so far which involved reflecting back over the past year and looking ahead to what was coming up next. The group also enjoyed a very speedy trip to the Barcelona harbour led by the University of Barcelona. The weekend allowed time for the young people to get to know each other as they played games and shared experiences of living in different parts of Europe. There were a few language barriers however, translators were present to help and towards the end of the weekend, it was lovely to see that the young participants found their own ways to communicate through games and fun. One of the games, ‘mission impossible’ involved the groups having to cooperate with each other (with the only help being translating from adults) to complete 10 tasks in 15 minutes. This activity brought the group together and really helped to break some of the language barriers. The group succeeded in turning impossible to possible and completed all the tasks together!
On the second evening, the group took part in an intercultural evening where every organisation shared a snack and a game from their country. The Woodcraft Folk group shared the classic custard cream biscuit and the more controversial snack of twiglets. The Finnish delegation taught the group the ‘blanket game’ which was a fun way to get to know each others names.
The young people enjoyed meeting their international friends and planning the next stages of the project. The project team is planning to meet again in Austria over Easter for the International Kids Hubs.
Find out more about the project here and look out for the toolkit of activities and resources developed by Woodcraft Folk young members and their international counterparts coming soon.
