It’s been nearly two weeks since we all came back to our homes after the seminar in Belarus, Volozhyn (13-15 November 2015). That was a training organized by YMCA Europe, where young leaders from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and Moldova gathered together to discuss the ways of sustainable, democratic development of our local and national YMCA’s and opportunities for future cooperation among our countries.
This seminar that went under the motto "MOVE TO STRENGHT" became an extremely interesting, intensive and emotional weekend for all of us. To meet our friends who are in the same time the key leaders in their organizations is a really rare and unique chance.
Through different activity types we discussed about what "democracy" is, what do we mean by democratic ways of governing, what is the difference between governance and management, and why it is important for us as leaders of Christian organization to understand it. We spoke about organizational structures of NGOs in our countries, compared one with another, learnt from each other’s experience. We participated in a game on injustice, which made us reflect on it for a long time during the game, after it. And what is the most important we spoke about development of YMCA Eastern Platform, which may lead to strengthening of all our YMCA movements, cooperation in projects and communication among young people.
As it usually happens one of the most exciting parts of the program starts after official end of the day 😉 We played, we sang to the electric guitars trying to outvoice them, we had some strong discussions about our future plans, perspectives and common realities.
This type of international meetings always makes you think about different things. By the end of our seminar I needed several days just to make everything clear in my head: I thought about people – so different, but united all together by common aim in a very hospitable house in Volozhyn; I thought about how young people’s life in our countries, what problems and what reality do they face with; I thought about democracy and christianity and their place in YMCA; about our future, our goals, about aspiration and inspiration. And I do really feel that most of us got our personal inspiration there – to work, to share, to create and move to strength.
Thanks for everyone who made an input to this training,
Hope to see you soon,