The project “Sexuality and sexual behavior among youth” was held from first to 10 December in Bar, Montenegro, where participants from twelve European and Balkan countries participated. For me and Dimitar Chukovski as representatives of the Volunteer Center from Skopje, it was a privilege for us to be part of this project, primarily because of the lectures that gave us opportunity to learn a lot about the topic, from many different aspects, but also because of the friendship we made with exceptional persons with whom we worked on projects.
The lectures were organized in several parts and personally for me the way the content was present was excellent. Much more than ordinary lectures, in all lectures without exception, the participants were interactively involved through discussions or making certain projects or products. The whole project an unique opportunity to change the mind of thinking about expanding and breaking the prejudices imposed by us by society and parents.
At the same time, besides learning, we had the opportunity to talk with our peers and colleagues from different countries to get to know new cultures, world views and discuss specific topics in order to break the barrier between us and create new experiences and friendships through which in the future we could work on even bigger and more important projects.
In our free time we enjoyed informal socializing with other participants. We went out together, we made friends and we created memories that will long remain in us as a reminder of a wonderful project that has changed us a very positive way. One of the last days we were divided into several groups, we gave them a theme and we made hammers, we made the workshop in the city so that all interested citizens could learn about our project. The last days were a little more relaxed, so we organized an excursion in the beautiful towns of the Montenegrin coastal area Kotor and Budva.
For the very end, we want to thank the organization and our mentors in Montenegro for the opportunity to participate in such a project from which we learned a lot about sexual and reproductive health, about the diversity of each of us, about ourselves and about how we transfer knowledge here in our country after our return.
Elena Maksimova