Training week

3 weeks after our first steps in Beijing, we had a training week. These days were a time where we have to think about the goal of our work and how to do it for the next 5 months.

The first day we just spent some time together by visiting the Forbidden City and having lunch together. Later in the afternoon we met at Cango office to have a look to the program of the week.

The second day, we had a meeting about civil society in progress. It was about achievements, future developments and cooperation between the three regions for sustainability. The dialogue strengthened a common understanding on many issues among the 17 participating CSOs from China, Europe and South America The participants shared their experiences and their knowledge about economic development and evolution concerning different lifestyles, lot of materials were spoken about. It’s urgent to develop a better understanding and strategy and promote human harmony and civilization. In conclusion, it was a very interesting experience since we had the opportunity to know the activities implemented by NGOs from all over the world and understand how they work together.

The third day, we had a time for the presentation of the EVS program and the different actors: European Commission, volunteers, host organization, sending organization, coordinating organization and the relations between them. We tried to think carefully about the specific role every actor has in order to be able to deal with any kind of problem and issue. After, we had more information about EurAsiaAmerica project, the links between these tree countries and the associations how it works.

Also, we learned about project management and how this knowledge could be used for our work in the different associations. In particular, we tried to understand how to write a project, i.e. which steps we have to follow in order to design a successful project. We have documentations about this aspect call training kit and project management. It’s ours to use it well and it will be helpful to initiate project.

The fourth day we visited On action, that is one of the organization involved in our project. It was a stimulating time because we had a discussion about their activities towards migrant workers and thanks to the staff we understood some peculiar aspects of the educational system in Beijing.

The afternoon, we had an exchange with Mr Zhao Daxing about the differences between Chinese and European culture. He gave us some concrete examples about how to act in front different person during working time and Chinese habits at the restaurant. We realized the differences between Europa and China particularly in the case of you would like something. It’s necessary to beat around the bush.

The last day was about how to live in group and how to react if there are conflicts. We focused especially on how to deal with one’s flatmates since the most common problems are related to house management. We understood that the best way to act is being easy-going towards flatmates’ needs, forgetting of the past arguments and focus on how to improve relationships in the future.

During all the week with have time to prepare a presentation about France and Italia countries for the employees of CANGO, Gabriele spoke about Italian monuments, food, Amel and Norman made an interactive presentation based on a typical journey in France. We did this activity the last afternoon.

After that, enjoying the last moments with coordinators and following our EVS.