Five members of the Malta Unesco Youth Association led by team leader Alexander Thenner recently took part in a multilateral youth exchange entitled Winter Creativity – Ecology and Healthy Living held on Seli Mountain in Greece.

The project was aimed at providing young people the possibility to experience living in the mountains, to develop an understanding of the environment and its preservation, an appreciation of healthy living and of a harmonious relationship within a community.

The 72 participants from Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and the UK worked in six creative workshops on the topic of ecology and healthy living. Special task forces were dedicated to animation, administration and waste management and energy saving.

The participants were also given time to interact with each other to discover the variety of cultural and other backgrounds and thereby foster intercultural sensitivity.

One of the Maltese participants, Michael Zammit, said: “This trip to Greece was truly life-changing. We met so many new people and had such a great time. I could easily say it was one of the best weeks of my life.”

Speaking about his experience in a photography workshop, another participant, Matthew Fenech, said: “I learned a lot, especially how to use my camera’s settings to adapt to different surrounding environments. Ever since I came back to Malta I have started to take more pictures than usual.”

The project was funded by the European Commission’s Youth in Action programme.

The Malta Unesco Youth Association is a youth associationrepresented in Malta in cooperation with the National Commission of Unesco in Malta. It seeks to develop culture, education, science and communication and spread the ideas of Unesco by organising training courses and exchanges on national and international level and the production and distribution of publications of scientific, cultural and didactic character.

For more information e-mail info@muya.info.