Climate change is already causing widespread disruption in every region of the world – The report finds that every tenth additional tenth of a degree of warming will increase the threat to people, animal species and ecosystems. Even limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) – the global target under the Paris Agreement – is not safe for everyone.

For example, with only 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, many glaciers around the world will disappear completely or will lose a large part of their mass; an additional 350 million people will experience water scarcity until 2030; and up to 14% of terrestrial species will be at high risk of extinction. Northern Macedonia is dealing with many problems with climate change – Skopje, Bitola and Tetovo are listed as one of the most polluted cities in Europe in 2021. Bad air quality in North Macedonia as well contributes to significant morbidity and mortality—particulate air pollution was the eighth largest mortality factor in 2016, associated with 7.3% of deaths. Apart from that, Lake Ohrid, which is the main one attraction of the country, in recent years it was polluted, and the local community does not take any measures for its cleaning. The situation is similar with other lakes and natural areas in North Macedonia.

The objectives of the youth exchange agree with the objectives of the Erasmus+ program, in order to strengthen them competencies and skills of young people, enabling them to cope with everyday life.

The project is based on non-formal learning methods to support the development of soft skills, communication, organizational, critical thinking and speaking in English among the participants.

The workshops will raise awareness of important topics including climate change, global warming and sea level rise. The project brings together young people from different countries in Europe to get to know each other with problems, to exchange ideas and practices, and to inspire each other to make positive changes in their society. Participants will have the opportunity to step out of their comfort zone, to challenge assumptions and break stereotypes. The inclusive project, «Guardians of the Planet» will meet the needs of participants with limited opportunities, ensuring their full participation in all phases of the project. The skills what the participants will learn during the project will contribute to their personal and professional development.

The goals of the project agrees with the UN Development and Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 13 – Climate Action) and the goals of the Erasmus+ program, and finds an impact on young people, including those who have limited opportunities and international communities.

• Learning by doing method
• Ice-breakers and team-building games to get to know each other.
• Workshops outdoor
• Simulation games, practical work, brainstorming, interactive presentations etc.

• The desired profile of participants for this project are individuals aged 18-30 who are interested in learning about climate change and explore the principles of non-formal education.
• Participants should be willing to step out of their comfort zone to make a positive change and be able to devote to all phases of the project.
• They should also be interested in sharing their learning with others and contribute to networks, while being open-minded and willing to work in mixed teams with people from other countries and cultures.
• Finally, participants should be motivated to participate in an Erasmus+ project and to learn more about the program, YouthPass, ESC and its opportunities.
• participants should be ready to share their experiences in follow-up period with young people from their communities, especially able to take part in organizing and delivering the workshop for young people from their local community;
• with communicative level of English;
• participants should be able to take part in preparatory meetings, youth exchange and follow up activities.

Every national group will include 4 participants with fewer opportunities that are facing cultural differences, geographic, social and economic obstacles. These people will come from socially and economically challenging environment, unemployed, who might face discrimination and prejudices due to their background or living in isolated rural areas.

PROFILE OF GROUP LEADERS:

The group leaders are expected to have previous experience in youth work and the Erasmus + programme, ready to facilitate the project activities and fully support the participants during the project, especially those with fewer opportunities. They will prepare the travel plan, be part of the team managing the main activity, and coordinate the follow-up events.

Struga is a town situated in the south-western region of North Macedonia, lying on the shore of Lake Ohrid. Struga has a population of approximately 15 000 inhabitants. There is one well-known saying: «There is no other place like Struga». Except the Ohrid lake in Struga there is a river called Crn Drim which flows gently through the town, as it does not want to disturb the visitors walking along its banks, thrilled by its crystal clear waters. In the evening when many lights are turned on, the river has even a better view by the reflection of light from its waters.

Hotel Solferino

More information of the venue: https://ckgs.org.mk/centar/centar-solferino/

The participants will be lodged in the hotel “Solferino” in Struga in rooms for 2 or 3 people with private toilets and showers. The participants will be roommates with people from different countries, with the same gender, to straighten the project’s intercultural dimension and good team spirit. There is internet access in the hotel and in all rooms. The Hotel is the property of the Red Cross organisation and is a training centre specialised for Training Courses and Youth Exchanges. Smoking is only permitted outdoors in a designated place. Violation of this entitles the caretaker to immediately dismiss the guest concerned.

Drinking alcohol is not allowed! The quiet hour of the hotel is 10:00 PM

Food

3 meals per day and 2 coffee breaks will be prepared each day. Please, inform us in the application form about your food needs and preferences (vegetarian, vegan, food allergies). The accommodation is covered at the Hotel Solferino
(https://ckgs.org.mk/centar/centar-solferino/), only for the days of the activity (16 – 24 October 2023). In case of a longer stay, there is no chance of reimbursement of accommodation costs. You are not allowed to arrive after 16 October or leave earlier than 24 October . Please keep this in mind when booking the tickets. For any other questions consult with your sending NGO.

To respect the Environment and to go along with the topic of the project, this project supports ONLY GREEN TRAVEL. North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Turkey are available to come ONLY WITH GREEN TRAVEL, using bus, train or carpooling (3+1).

These rules do not apply to the Spanish partner.

The cost given is a limit in total PER PERSON, for both ways.

• Please remember that according to Erasmus+ rules money for travel will be reimbursed according to the real cost you spend, up to the amount given above per country, but not more (which means that if you spend less – you will be reimbursed the money you actually spent or if you spend more – you will get only limit)
• Before buying your ticket, please remember your cost limits, EVERYTHING THAT WILL BE MORE THAN THE LIMIT WILL BE YOUR OWN COST.
• Before booking the tickets, please, make travel arrangements CONFIRMATION with your sending NGO!
• They MUST approve your travel itinerary.

How to get to North Macedonia? For SPANISH participants by plane:

North Macedonia has two international airports, namely Skopje Airport and Ohrid Airport. Skopje Airport is the larger and busier of the two, located 21km from the capital Skopje.

Fly to Skopje or Ohrid Airport

*(You can also look into these Airports: Tirana – Albania, Niš – Serbia, Thessaloniki – Greece, Sofia – Bulgaria)

By plane: You can check the flights to Skopje, with the closest and most comfortable airport to arrive which is 21km to the city of Skopje http://skp.airports.com.mk/

If you fly to Skopje Airport – Take a bus to Skopje Central Station

Shuttle bus: You can get a shuttle bus from Skopje Airport to Skopje and back with a shuttle bus operating at the airport: V2V TRANSPORTER: https://www.wtransporter.com/en (price: 180 MKD = 3 EUR)

NOTE: Check out the links above to get information about the timetables and how to purchase a ticket.

For participants from Bulgaria, Serbia and Türkiye you can check https://global.flixbus.com/ or https://www.omio.com/ to reach Skopje or Struga directly. If you reach the Central Station in Skopje you can reach Struga by bus: There are buses running several times per day.

Every participant is responsible for finding a way to reach the destination.

We need you to buy round trip tickets and send us a copy by email before arriving here, so our accountant knows and adjusts the budget.

We advise you to buy your tickets as soon as possible so that it fits into the limited budget for 100% reimbursement.

We kindly ask you to save all documents (Original tickets, boarding passes, invoices or bills with the ticket price) which are related to your travel, since the documentation background is obligatory for reimbursement.

We kindly please you to buy all travel tickets for both directions – return tickets (plane tickets, train tickets, bus tickets and etc.), because we will be able to reimburse only REAL EXPENSES.

IMPORTANT: We cannot refund any travel costs done by taxi. Reimbursement of travel costs will be done AFTER SENDING your tickets and boarding cards.

Please note if you buy your tickets in a currency other than EUROs, we will convert to EUROs according to the exchange rates from the official European Commission web-site:
https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/procedures-guidelines-tenders/infor mation-contractors-and-beneficiaries/exchange-rate-inforeuro_en

Participants must travel from the country of the sending organization, and back. Following the guidelines of the Erasmus+ programme the travel back must be realized by the participants in a direct way within a maximum of 2 days. Contact us and we will assist you or prolong this where needed, only in special cases.

(You have the possibility to arrive in North Macedonia up to 2 days in advance and leave up to 2 days later. The stay for any additional days is not covered by the projects’ budget, and it can be characterized as tourist travel and we will not be able to reimburse your tickets)

IMPORTANT! We reimburse the transport money ONLY if the participant will ACTIVELY take part during the whole project. This is an international project with non-formal education that is granted from European fund. Participants should be aware that they are not on holiday!

Don’t buy your travel tickets before getting confirmation from sending organization!

The accommodation is covered in Solferino, Struga only for the days of the activity. In case of longer stays or indirect traveling (holiday travel etc.) there is no chance of reimbursement of travel costs. You are not allowed to arrive after this date, or leave earlier than the date of the departure day. Please keep in mind when booking the tickets. For any other questions consult with the group Leaders form sending NGO.

IMPORTANT: Traveling sometimes requires an additional day for catching a flight and staying for an additional night at the city where the airport is situated. We are aware of such situations, but organizers can not cover these costs, participants should cover themselves.

For this reason, we recommend you to use hostels (http://www.hostelworld.com/) or friends https://www.couchsurfing.org/)

What to bring with you

● Passport or ID
● Travel insurance or European health card
● Please bring clothes according to the weather forecast
● Personal care products: , shampoo, toothpaste etc
● Slippers or flip flops
● Laptop Camera etc.
● Pills and medicines
● Positive attitude

Health and travel insurance

We kindly invite you to make health insurance, especially the participants who aren’t EU citizens. The health insurance is not provided and will not be reimbursed by the hosting organization.

Basic rules

Participants’ Task: You must care for the scheduled time, be kind, respect, be positive, destroy the borders, have maximum fun, be cheerful and try to be part of the solution. Be on Time in the meeting Room always, be respectful and friendly to the other participants. To see a problem and to criticize something is so easy. So do the difficult one and tolerate people always, be a positive example for others.

Group Leaders Task: You must collect and manage your national team, share their problems with us kindly, and try to be part of solutions. You are responsible for collecting and organizing travel tickets of the participants, as well as their travel insurance, and to upload to the google drive.

To publish an article about the project on your organization web page. To collect all the boarding passes and send it to us by post.

Preparations

Intercultural evening – Participants are expected to create interesting, interactive and creative intercultural evenings. The intercultural evening gives us a unique opportunity in a creative way to promote your country and culture. Show us what you eat, drink, what are your traditions, music, culture, stereotypes … so prepare yourself to surprise us.

Bring food, drink, promotional materials and whatever else you want to present.

Rules and responsibilites

Participants of the project will have to agree to the following rules for participating. They will sign a document on the first day of arrival for accepting the rules.
Rules that participants should follow according Erasmus + Programme:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1keS8Xb-Z7HsqVZDy1MDrZDyiuDSP1O08/view?usp =sharing