For a week, the Pestalozzi Children’s Village will be the meeting place for around 150 young people from ten European countries. Through workshops, shared daily life and cross-border encounters, 17-year-old Gosia discovers new perspectives on herself, on others and on the world.
The bus stops in front of the Pestalozzi Children’s Village in Trogen. As the doors open, teenagers carrying heavy bags get off – some still looking tired, others looking around curiously. Right in the middle of them all stands Gosia. The 17-year-old from Poland is in Switzerland for the first time and is taking part in the European Youth Forum in Trogen.
For a week, young people from various European countries live together in the children’s village. They attend workshops, discuss peace, climate change and democracy, and experience what intercultural exchange really means in everyday life.
“I hadn’t expected everyone to be so open straight away. People wanted to talk straight away, share food they’d brought from their home countries and get to know one another.”
“When we got off the bus, other delegations were already waving and calling out to us,” recalls Gosia. “The atmosphere was incredibly friendly right from the start.” Before long, a mix of languages, small and large groups, and lively conversations became a regular feature of daily life in the children’s village. English became the common language.
Challenging preconceptions
Gosia opts for the ‘Beautiful Trouble’ workshop – one of five workshops that form the core programme of the EYFT. There, the group explores identity, stereotypes and the associated social issues.
The young people explore the labels that society attaches to groups such as refugees, women, men and others – and how hurtful and inaccurate such labels can be. “Many people judge others even though they’ve never met them or spoken to them,” says Gosia. For her, such assumptions can even be the root cause of violence and social conflict.
At the same time, the participants share experiences from their own countries. They discuss corruption, inflation, the climate crisis and violence, and learn about challenges that are barely visible in their own everyday lives. Gosia realises just how limited her own perspective can be. “Most of us live in a sort of bubble,” she says. “Our lives represent only a small part of how people live around the world.”
Grappling with the concept of privilege leads her to re-evaluate her own everyday life – not by weighing up problems against one another, but with a greater awareness of different starting points.
‘Many people judge others even though they have never met them or spoken to them.’
One of the methods in the workshop poses a particular challenge for Gosia: drawing. It hasn’t been one of her strengths so far, and as a self-confessed perfectionist, she finds it difficult: “When I do something, I want it to be perfect,” she emphasises.
Nevertheless, she gives the task a go, puts her thoughts down on paper – and is satisfied with the result: “Even if it wasn’t perfect, it was mine.” The experience-based educational approaches in the project deliberately encourage participants to step outside their comfort zone, try new things and discover skills they didn’t know they had.
Gosia overcame her fear of failure and realised that it’s not the perfect result that counts, but the courage to express herself.
What brings us together
Just as important as the workshops are the encounters that take place outside the programme. Gosia lives in a house with young people from France and Ukraine. They go about their daily lives together, share household chores and, in the evenings, talk about school, music, politics and war.
‘You see a lot of information about the war on television and online. But talking to people who are actually living through it is something completely different.’
These personal conversations change her perspective. A distant news story becomes the story of a person sitting at the same table as her.
Gosia has a better understanding of what it means to have to carry on with everyday life under wartime conditions. She says these encounters have had a lasting impact on her view of the situation in the world.
‘This week has given me time to reflect on myself, society and the state of the world.’
She also learns more about other countries and the social challenges they face. For example, she comes to realise the extent of knife crime in Scotland, or how much political developments shape the everyday lives of young people in Turkey.
The forum thus opens her eyes to issues she previously knew little about. At the same time, for the first time, she feels part of something bigger: a European community of young people who not only talk about problems but want to take responsibility. “It gave me the feeling of being part of something important.”
Over the course of the week, friendships develop across national borders. They work together, dance, sing and play volleyball.
Gosia describes the atmosphere as “collaborative, safe, peaceful and a bit mad”. She laughs. Collaborative, because the young people tackle tasks in the workshops and in their daily lives together as a team. By ‘mad’, she means it in the best possible sense: “People are open-minded. You can just be yourself.”
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By the end of the week, however, Gosia has gained more than just new contacts. “This week has given me time to reflect on myself, society and the state of the world,” she says. In future, she wants to make a conscious effort to set aside time for her thoughts, learn more about global challenges and take part in further projects.
Above all, though, the other young people give her hope. Gosia is surprised at how many of them are determined to campaign for peace, the climate and a better future. “In every delegation, you could sense this determination to bring about change.”
‘For me, the EYFT shows that young people have the capacity to take action and can work together to take responsibility across national borders.’
For Gosia, this is also what makes the forum so significant: young people meet face to face and realise that, despite their different backgrounds, they are more alike than they might initially have thought. They discover different perspectives and later share these with their schools, families and friends.
The impact does not end with the participants. “The young people will share the views and ideas they learn about here with others and carry them out into the world.” Above all, however, one realisation remains: “We’re not so different after all. We’re all working towards the same goal.” A peaceful future