Life is not the same after 28th International Leadership Workshop for Rural Youth!
We (Anna from YPARD Armenia, Hana from YPARD Kosovo and myself Seher Gumus from YPARD Turkey) attended the 28th International Leadership Workshop for Rural Youth on the 9-22nd August 2017 in Herrsching am Ammersee, Germany thanks to the financial support of YPARD Europe. The workshop is for leaders all over the world to develop and strengthen rural youth work. There were around 100 participants coming from 55 countries. However, this was not a workshop where you would only develop leadership skills, but also it was a warm atmosphere where you felt that you belonged to a big community around the world.
The motto of this workshop Inspiration from Diversity Herrsching Works! exactly came true during these two weeks in Herrsching. I have met different people coming from different nationalities and backgrounds. Among this diverse group, you could see that diversity makes us much more successful with communication and collaboration. Everyone was there to learn from each other. If a farmer from Nigeria, a researcher from Ukraine, a volunteer from the Philippines, a youth worker from South Africa, and a teacher from Kenya are in the same group, there is always something to learn from each other.
Learning, sharing and having fun
Another good point in the workshop was to learn with games! Who would guess that you could learn the importance of communication and cooperation while you are playing the game crossing the line? The aim of this game is to cross the line all together at the same time. It seemed easy in the beginning, however, if you dont communicate with your friends/colleagues, it was not possible to reach the goal. There was another game called donkey; where you realize that everybody has their own motivation to act in group works and you must try different ways to reach the result.
There were some challenging moments as well; like group work for World Café; which is the most diverse part of the workshop. You need to work with people you just met and where 3 languages (English, French and German) spoken in order to make a presentation. Even if it was challenging sometimes, we could discuss common issues and the best practices on different subjects (agricultural production & consumption, entrepreneurship, agricultural education & research, and youth capacity building) in different countries.
Making an Action Plan at the last part of the workshop made me concrete my plans for YPARD Turkey, and it helped to make my future plans into the reality after replying the questions such as what, why, who, when and how!
What I brought with me from Herrsching is knowing better my capabilities & talents; teamwork; learning different presentation techniques like role play and Pecha Kucha; learning/teaching with games; and the most important thing I gained a big family all around the world!
After Herrsching, my way of thinking will not be the same; I am inspired by diversity and Herrsching worked, indeed!
Picture credit: 1) herrsching works, 2) Arpineh Nikolyan