More than a year ago, none of us could have imagined that we would “live” something like this literally like in a movie, but that 2020 happened, which we will surely remember in many ways. At one point we had the feeling that the whole world has stopped, the fear of that unknown virus spreading at the speed of light was a part of every human being. That something invisible, small and indestructible has changed the lives of many people at an alarming rate.
We began to appreciate things that we usually ignored or were forgotten and put aside. Our habits, needs, and demands have become relative. We began to realize what was really important, what really meant to our lives. After a short period of stagnation and fear, we learned how to live in such circumstances where this still unknown virus reigns and moves invisibly among us.
In the difficult and unusual year of 2020, Youth Power has found many ways to continue to work on the goals that has been promoting since the beginning, how to entertain, inform and educate people and turn their thoughts to something positive from the worries and problems that 2020. year gave us. Of the many campaigns and activities we did last year, we have chosen 12 events that we think would be interesting to you and to remind ourselves what we did in 2020.
1. We started 2020. with training for peer educators from eight high schools in Herzegovina. The aim of the training was to improve the skills of educators and prepare them for conducting educational workshops on violence prevention and promotion of healthy lifestyles in the local community.
2.Every year we want to remind people that love is the initiator and source of everything positive, so we regularly organize a campaign on the “World Valentine’s Day”. Young people said that we should love each other regardless of our differences.
3. In February we had the opportunity to organize “IntRApersonal aspect of Entrepreneurial mind-set development” training in Mostar where the main goal was to educate young people about the entrepreneurial mindset and how entrepreneurship is related to the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.
4. Training on Vlašić with pedagogues and high school students with whom we cooperate was also one of the important events that took place last year. On this training we created campaigns that were implemented in schools and the local community. The campaigns that were conducted were created with the same goal and that is the prevention of violence and the promotion of healthy lifestyles.
5. Before the pandemic, we organized another training in Mostar where young people from different parts of Europe participated and listened to educational lectures on how sport and youth work can be connected in many innovative ways
6. Our first major online campaign in 2020 called “Stay safe” was implementing in April. With inspiring messages, young people tried to motivate people to take care of their health and their safety and to stay in their homes until the worst is over.
7. 12 educational video workshops have been published on our social networks. Each workshop had a special theme and the video materials were created in an animated way. You can find the videos on our 8.Facebook page and on Instagram profile @ ngo.youth.power.org
8. The next activity that attracted the attention of the public and the media was on the occasion of the “International Day of Peace”. The aim of the video was to encourage people to be kind, to spread love and peace. The video surpassed the number of 15,000 views.
9. The street action on “16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence” was also one of the most important and perhaps the largest action that we implemented last year. With this action, young people sent a message to the city of Mostar and to the world that they want the world where violence against women will not exist and that they want to eradicate all forms of violence. The action was well covered by the media and on social media all posts surpassed 20,000 views.
10. We organized an online conference “Advancing LGBTIQ Equality” where the lecturers shared their stories about the situation in their countries. We talked about methods we can use to improve the current situation when it comes to LGBTIQ people.
11. There are currently 9 young people in our Youth Welfare Centers in Berlin. Young people are provided with accommodation, food and all other necessities that they need for life. Every young person has their own social worker who supports them in growing up and education and guides them through life’s paths.
12. In 2020, our social media posts exceeded 500,000 views, we had over 200 posts and we can proudly say 20 approved projects.
