"Health Is a Journey" - 22-31.05.2022 - Lithuania
Objectives
PREVENT DISEASES AND PROMOTE HEALTHY LIFESTYLE - raise awareness about the importance of lifestyle and everyday choices to preserve and improve health. Introduce young people to healthy habits (e.g. diet, physical activity, mental hygiene) and practice them together so that they could continue to do it on their own after the project. TEACH YOUNGSTERS CRITICAL THINKING - To question what traditions are important to keep and which ones should be changed because of the negative impact on ourselves that is shown by new scientific evidence. And to question if there are some new habits to be implied because of the positive influence for ourselves. To be able to distinguish different types of scientific research and which ones have more strength of evidence. EMPOWER TO TAKE ACTION - by increasing the sense of inclusiveness and giving them skills and tools to take action on a small and large scale - to take care of themselves and help others. To inspire youth to take a part in active involvement in social, economic, and cultural life. TO PROMOTE CULTURAL LEARNING - Cultural learning increases solidarity, understanding and tolerance. During the project, participants from different countries and backgrounds will interact, work together, and compare their differences and similarities. Therefore, they will be able to broaden their understanding of the surrounding world and themselves, as well as, learn that everyone can teach us something.
Activities
The first day will be focused on getting to know each other better, and creating deeper connections. We will have a session to familiarise ourselves with aims, objectives and course programmes and rules so that participants feel assured and prepared for what is waiting for them. Also, we will talk about expectations and doubts, it helps to understand the group better.
Sessions will help to develop the needed skills for maintaining healthy habits.
Morning Yoga sessions:
By starting the day with a morning yoga session participants will fully wake up themselves and prepare their bodies and minds for the following day. Asanas (postures) and breathing techniques help to increase the blood flow, relaxes tension and stiffness of the muscles, activate metabolism, helps to balance the nervous system and increase focus. As well as that, participants will get to know their body's abilities, boundaries and needs, which is essential to maintain a young, active and strong body, sharp intellect and general well-being. After the Morning Yoga sessions, we are going to have an intro of the day and breakfast.
Health Education sessions:
During midday sessions, we will use non-formal education methods such as open space, round tables, group workshops, cafe learning and discussions. This will let all participants understand better what they know about one or another health topic, where that information comes from and at the same time learn new information.
What is health - deeply understanding what is health - is essential to have it. So the aim is to talk about it, emphasizing that health is not only about the absence of disease, that it is not only about body but also mind and social well-being.
What is the immune system - the immune system protects us from infections and even cancer. It is a very strong mechanism of our body so it is essential to understand its basics of it.
What is infection - after understanding the immune system we will get to know what types of infections there could be.
Life quality and expectancy - everyday actions of us affect not only how long we will live but also what will be the quality of everyday life.
Importance of sleep - we are sleeping one-third of our life and it is essential for lots of processes. So we will talk about what is happening when we are asleep.
Healthy diet - every new cell in our body is made of some ingredients and food is the primary source of it. So it really affects our bodies. We will not only talk about it, but we will present food based on healthy diet principles for participants.
Addictive behaviours - social media, alcohol, and tobacco - that is just a few of the common addictions. We will talk about behaviour, addiction, what are the influences of having more addictions nowadays and what we can do about it in a more conscious way. It will be not only talking as we will limit social media time and forbid any use of alcohol, or tobacco.
Prevention of chronic diseases โ most chronic diseases can be prevented. Knowing more about the immune system and infectious diseases will help us better understand also the reasons why some people are having diseases for months and years and what we can do about ourselves to not have them.
Also, we are going to include: role-playing, and forum theatre debates.
Reflection Time:
Reflective learning is a way of allowing learners to step back from their learning experience, helping them to develop critical thinking skills and improve on future performance by analysing what they have learned, and how far they have come and planning what can be done in the future. Thereby, every session and day is closed with a reflection circle.
Impact
Raising awareness about lifestyle impact and introducing young people to healthy habits can lead to better health and disease prevention. Furthermore, it is empowering to know how and be able to take care of yourself, and help others. By feeling more healthy, energetic and productive they can increase their self-confidence and capabilities, which makes them more productive and satisfied with their life. We expect to help youngsters learn critical thinking which is an important 21st-century skill, as well as, creative thinking, cooperation, decision-making, and solving problems, which they are going to use and implement these skills during and after the project ends. Empowering youngsters to take an action promotes them to be active citizens which can make an impact on a bigger scale (city, country, Europe, etc.). Exposing youngsters to different views, cultures and traditions promotes their cultural learning and increases solidarity, understanding and tolerance. Moreover, by working together they will develop communication, cooperation, language, problem-solving, intercultural skills and research skills. It broadens an understanding of the surrounding world and themselves. We will also talk positively about active participation in society, and how it can have a hugely positive effect on the people we are able to connect to and also on us. If we succeed in this, participants will be able more effectively share their learned information with others. They will plan their further actions to share with others what they have learned by doing workshops, workout sessions, and initiative events to increase awareness about people's health, and the importance of their lifestyles and choices. This will have a positive influence not just on participants in the projects, but also on people in their home countries. During sessions, we will be talking about breaking down prejudices and stereotypes. This also should have an effect on participants after the end of the project. We will foster intercultural dialogue and learning and feeling of being European. The feeling should be staying in participants for most of their lives. The expected impact for participants includes raised awareness about their health, enough knowledge and motivation to change everyday actions for the healthier ones. The long-term effect of these little to medium changes in youth could have a hugely positive effect on healthy life years, energy, productivity, and happiness. Apart from the impacts connected with the topic of the project, there will be general effects connected with all youth exchanges such as viewpoints expansion about different cultures and actions related to it, new valuable connections, and improved English language skills. During the team building and creative workshops time, participants will be in groups which will help to understand the importance of sharing work, learning to collaborate and listening to others' opinions. Working in teams will help unfold not only as a group but also as an individual. The impact provided for project partners is shared knowledge, best practices, working together in a European consortium to develop and implement innovative learning tools and become promoters for education and sustainable development; broader understanding of practices, policies and systems in youth education and health, across countries; increased allocation of financial resources to organize EU/international projects in the field of youth education; increased quality in the preparation, implementation, monitoring and follow-up of EU/international projects; assure visibility of the organizations worldwide. The benefits for communities where participants live will be related to a better understanding of health as they will share their knowledge around. In the long term, this will lead to a healthier, wealthier and stronger society. That will drive forward the development of local, regional, national or even European advancement. Healthier individuals make healthier societies. But it is not only about the physical health of some groups of people. The impact directly affects the psychological side of society which can make them happier people who are much more productive for the general good of the community. This includes active and responsible citizens who are desired to help not only themselves which leads to increased social-emotional well-being of society. On the other hand, it impacts a better economical situation by more active citizens doing productive work and by decreasing funds for maintaining just a bit of satisfactory but not particularly good well-being with lots of years of symptomatic treatment of conditions which could have been prevented in the first place.
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