Do you know what Brexit is? We know. It is occurred to us while helping the protesters, blocking Big Ben and jointly seeking way out of the underground … Of course, this was in a meantime, because the largest YMCA 175 festival is held in London to gather over 5000 participants, invite TED speakers and have good parties.
The event of the year was organized with the support of the YMCA Europe and YMCA USA and took place at August 4-8 at the largest Excel London hall near the Queen Victoria docks.
What interesting things could be learned? Well, first of all, meeting old friends with whom you once worked on international exchanges or organized common projects, or just having fun burning wooden witches. Any good meetings bring together progressive, active young people who are ready for incredible ideas like a regional forum of beekeepers before the apiary.
Therefore, dating at major festivals is a familiar thing, but even more enjoyable: here you can talk about theater with foreign CEO, listen to sophisticated British accents, and also ask leading experts about climate change, new generation trends, working tools of marketing and public speaking.
Workshops – the main part of the event, which was allocated about half of the time, and there really it was talked about everything from the cycle of menstruation – to the human carbon footprint in nature.
I also had the opportunity to do the facilitation (simply to help everyone say their thoughts in time and leave some minutes for others). Our joint youth workshop, organized by Sweden’s international project Youth Agenda, aimed to look for a variety of solutions to sustainable development, combining several topics. Somehow: quality education that overcomes gender inequality, or sustainable urban and rural development that would reduce poverty as a whole. Here we talked a lot about our own experience of local organizations, presented the experience, and still made a lot of beautiful photos. Even so, we even hold a grand hunt – picking up as many keys as possible for the Sustainable Development Goals over the course of 4 days.
It was friendly positive confusing moment. Would I go to London again on land of royal family? Of course.
Do I invite you all to join them in our YMCA family? Come in)