Creative Social Problem Solving in Refugee and Immigrant Youth Integration

Last week, a training, which is named creative social problem solving in refugee and immigrant youth integration, was held by our organization. We had 20 participants from Turkey, Greece, Slovakia, Italy and Armenia. We’re really proud to hold the training successfully I’m going to refer to our training in that text. During the training, we discussed about integration of refugees and immigrants, which problems can we face during integration, art techniques in solving integration problems and how can we apply these techniques in real life.

First day, when we came together, naturally everbody was sleepy and we needed an energizer game, we gave a mission for every group. So, every morning, one person, who is from group, was going to play us an energizer game. Group Slovakia was volunteer on first day. After energizer game, everybody came to life again. Then we got the know each other. Everybody introduced himself one by one. But there was a funny thing that one of our participants (Matteo), last day he introduced himself as a Serbian guy and he changed his name as ‘Marko’. When his turn came, he had to say truth. All of the group were surprised and already the group were getting used to each other. In that section, we talked about our expectations from the training, our and project aims and youthpass. Then there was a huge paper on the table and everybody was wondering why it was there. That group work was about introduce yourself with drawing. Everybody had limited place and they should’ve created their world in one small circle. After drawing, we wrote our thoughts about other drawings on the paper where is next to drawings. What did the drawings mean to you? Firstly, the person who owned the drawing was explaining what he wanted to tell with the drawing and saying which comment he/she liked the most. There were funny and also serious comments. As you can realize that everybody, who was there, was different each other and it was really nice experience to observe these. Afterwards, we gave a diary to each participants to write their daily experiences, activities, what they like and dislike, shortly whatever they want. Our another and the last activity of the day was refugee and immigrant dolls. It was about to understand the differences between refugee and immigrant. Participants made babies with differences and also presented their small presentation about differences. As we saw, every participants was really interested in that issue because everybody was trying, writing, talking, drawing, creating and discussing each other. They showed up their knowledges on subject. We discussed why the creative art techniques is important in integration and mentioned evaluation of the day. But completely we didn’t finish the day. That evening after dinner, we had a cultural evening in hostel. Participants brought their local foods, drinks, snacks, presents and shared each other. Sorry but I was really happy when I saw what Turkish team brought because I deeply missed baklava. We danced our local musics, ate foods and also we had some guests from Japan, Germany and Russia. It was totally international environment but we had to finish a bit early because of rules of hostel. At the end of the day, there were sleepy eyes, tired bodies. A tough day was waiting for us.

Second day, we started making art works which was about what refugees’ and immigrants’ needs are. In this activity, participants used their magazines which they brought from their countries. The aim was to tell with collage technique also we wanted our participants to write their names to paper and to close them and to put in the box. Then they picked random one paper and the person who is written on paper was going to be his/her secret friend, everybody had envelope hanged on the table. The person would put something whatever he/she wanted into the envelope as a present. It could be a note or chocolate. At the end of training we would open together. According to that, everybody had a chance that makes each other happy and could be unforgettable for secret friend. And lastly, our clay activitiy.. we would create a house of refugees and immigrants by using clay. We were divided to two groups and we needed to use all of the clay. My group created like a complex. There was almost everything that they could need. Sport areas, psychological corner, small hospital and ambulance, animals, trees, flowers. According to rules of complex, the people who resided there would produce something. It could be art, cook, education, caring with plants and animals, agriculture. They would sell the products and could contribute to complex. Another group create a tower. There were really good things, especially they made a seagull from clay.

Day third, we made our id cards and wrote our names, surnames, ages and one drawing that explains ourselves, so everything was normal except Mariangela who is from Italia. So she drew a flag but which flag? She was talking about yourself and she said that I’m Italian that’s why I drew Italian flag but there was a Hungarian flag. That moment was also one of my favourite because almost I was dying from laughing. Then we evaluated our activities which we did until that moment. What were the activities, what was the goal of activities, to which age we can apply these activities, what were the advantages and disadvantages, what were the materials, how we can apply in real life , what could be modifications. We made a presentational paper and we talked what we got from activities.

Day fourth, it was a free day for walking and discovering the city. In the morning there was a excursion in Vilnius university and library. Then we went up the tower and saw the whole city. It was impressive because Vilnius is more beautiful from above. After that, some of us went to Kaunas and Trakai, some of us chose to stay Vilnius, to enjoy the city.

Last day, we could say also emotional day because you got used to each other then tiktok, time to say goodbye. We had also activities about the evaluation of all training. We shared what problems we faced in integration.

As a result, I believe that we had a great training. We obtained too many useful the way of integration. I think that these problems are not only for them, generally for world, for every people and also these the ways of solving problems can be used in every step of life not only integration. That’s why I’m saying that they are useful informations. I want to thank again to everyone who participated in training. Ačiū.