They attended the project and met 80 participants from across the globe where they discussed the outcomes of young people’s experiences.
The 7th World Youth Exchange “Bridging West and East” has become a unique annual celebration for youth collaboration and a window to the outside world for many local youngsters. The Residential World Youth Exchange Project is the only one of its kind in the UK.
Most Education’s CEO Dr. Lana Briton said: “After recent political events in the U.K. this project can’t be more significant as we’d like to indicate to the World that Durham City welcomes visitors and is open to businesses worldwide. The event further promotes Durham City and the North-East of England to a worldwide audience for future tourism.”
Groups of young people from England, Germany, Finland, Kazakhstan, China and Russia spent an enriching 8 days together in Durham City.
The Youth Exchange project originated in 2009 and was specially designed to give the young people of the North East a personal experience and the confidence to work in an international context developing interpersonal and communicational skills.
In the context of the project, the young people involved took responsibility for many aspects of the programme such as being involved in sports activities, learning about different cultures, customs, peer mentoring and delivering a Youth Manifesto, which they created during their workshops and activities.
The World Youth Exchange fostered mutual understanding between young people from different countries; this inevitably will lead to lifelong international friendship amongst many of the young participants.
There is no shortage of foreign policy and international issues affecting these young people, from state cooperation to deliberation of the future of global development policy. The issues of immigrants and refugees, war and peace, the environment, disability and cultural tolerance were discussed on the World Community Day and culminated in the Youth Manifesto.
Project Leader and Most Education’s CEO Dr.Lana Briton said: “World issues and politics can often feel like something which is far removed from everyday life, and something which most young people don’t easily relate to. Yet, it’s very much about engaging young people to enable them to make positive decisions for themselves as well as giving them the skills to be able to interact positively with the world around them. So inevitably, the issues that most affect them in their daily lives have been discussed and addressed in the course of the Most Education Youth Exchange in July 2016.
“Most Education strongly believes that encouraging young people to engage in debates is about giving them a voice, and helping them to understand and discuss problems and issues which are important to them and their families.
Acquisition of these important skills will enhance the youngsters’ chances in life and stand them in good stead for the future,” concludes Lana Briton.