From 6th to 14th of October 2007 creACTive hosted an international Youth Exchange developed in the framework of the Youth in Action Programme of the European Commission. The youth exchange was named “Girls as leaders! It is not a joke”, and it gathered around 30 young people from Bosnia, England, Estonia, Macedonia, Poland and Serbia for 8 days in Struga, Macedonia.

This multilateral Youth Exchange was designed to give young girls from six participating countries an opportunity to participate in planning and organising their own activities, to experience decision making and responsibility and to test new cultures and values, with the inclusion of young men in order to work on the future of gender – equality.  In today’s society leadership development is vital for all young people, especially for young women. As we know from experience and extensive research young women who become leaders are self-motivated toward reaching defined goals.

Structured activities such as interactive workshops, teambuilding games, volunteer service, and community fieldtrips offered young women the opportunity to speak out from their own lives, learn more about themselves as leaders, learn about other cultures and ultimately change their lives and communities. It also gave men participating in the Youth Exchange an opportunity to be involved in the empowerment of women.

This project was applied by the organization “Minorities of Europe” from England, with a great support by Jaroslaw Wisniewski, and it was managed by our member Valentina Joshevska.