Recently, I’ve been lucky enough to take part in ‘European Activist Factory’, a project organised by Shokkin Group International. It was held in Vihi (Estonia) and it was my first project in my home country. Never before had I participated in any Estonian projects, to be honest I did not even know what Vihi was! Estonian projects have seemed somewhat boring to me – what can you learn in your home country? You already know everything, right? Turns out I was wrong, and you can still learn a lot and become a better person in the process.
The topic of the project was social activism, and everything connected to it, from learning about already existing social campaigns to steps needed to create your own. The objective of the project was to raise the awareness of this kind of activism among the participants and to, of course, promote European values. When I got there, I did not know what to expect from the project, as the topic was completely new and unfamiliar to me. Let’s say that sometimes I am not very keen to be understanding other people’s problems. But nonetheless, I left completely satisfied, with new friends from all over the world and with better knowledge of this beautiful planet we live on, as well as of the people that surround me.
The activities we participated in throughout the course were not only theoretical – we got to put the knowledge we got into practice and to begin organizing our own social campaign in our home towns/countries. Our next aim is to conduct these campaigns and to report the results to the Council of Europe – a difficult, yet wholly rewarding task to do.
Our days usually began with something theoretical: new knowledge on what has already been done and how other people made successful campaigns that have actually changed the world in a way. Take, for example, ‘Movember’ who are the people behind the No-Shave November and who raise a lot of money to promote the importance of men’s physical and mental health. Or ‘Humans of New York’ – a campaign that helps people to learn about lives of complete strangers. In a way it is like walking in somebody else’s shoes for a few minutes: you see a picture of a stranger and get to know about their lives, which can be unexpectedly eye-opening. Then later, closer to the evening, we began working practically by applying our newly acquired knowledge into practice: by completing exercises that were given to us by our wonderful trainers, we solidified what we have learned in the morning. We also got to know about the steps needed to make an impactful social campaign of our own!
The other participants and trainers that I spent my time with in Vihi are all very compassionate and kind people – they all care about others deeply and are very eager to be of help to the ones that need it. Sometimes when I looked at them, I felt myself very coldblooded in comparison. Yet, I think I am on the right way to become more caring. Of course, my relative carelessness did not stop me from making friends and spending some excellent time with others – I really enjoyed the social aspect of the project and even began learning Spanish!
Reflecting on my time in ‘European Activist Factory’, I can tell that it has certainly had a good influence on me. I became more compassionate and ready to take on new ideas – of course, not without critically analyzing them first. I became more sociable and responsible for the actions that I make and more aware of the problems we still experience in the modern world. I certainly recommend others to always be open to something new and to take part in projects, even if they are held in your home country: it is worth it, trust me!
Fjodor Tšebakov
Participant of the Estonian team #ActivistFactory
If you want to know more, check out the project’s website www.activistfactory.org.
“European Activist Factory” is a project organized by the Shokkin Group International network in collaboration with Shokkin Group Estonia , Shokkin Group Denmark, Shokkin Group Norge , Awesome People, Ticket2Europe , Logos and Asoc.”Un strop de fericire” with the support of SA Kodanikuühiskonna Sihtkapital, the European Youth Foundation and the Council of Europe.”