The main goal of the exchange ‘Let’s Talk: Interreligious Dialogue’ is to create a space where young people from North Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Sweden, Spain, and Italy can explore the religious diversity and intercultural dialogue as a means to fight religious discrimination. Moreover, the exchange is intended to serve the promotion of non-formal education concepts in the countries represented in the exchange.

To sum up it approaches the topic in three aspects: the right of religion as a human right, the diversity of religions, and the participation of young people in fighting religious discrimination.

-to open the topic of interreligious dialogue, to explore the religious diversity in participating countries;
-to create a safe space to discuss the roots of religious discrimination, hate speech strongly present in all participating countries;
-to look for ways of creating more open and inclusive societies and communities respecting people coming from the different religious backgrounds;
-to develop participant’s competencies such as communication, teamwork and provide them an opportunity to fully benefit from the Erasmus + Programme internationally youth activity;
-to create inspiring environment and to support brainstorming ideas for future projects in the international field;
-to create a short movie – key project result with the aim to bring the topic of interreligious dialogue closer to young people in participating communities;
-to organize movie projections in participating countries with the aim to open the topic of interreligious dialogue and to present Erasmus + Programme to a wider audience.

Youth Exchange ‘Let’s Talk: Interreligious Dialogue’ will connect 56 participants, young people, and group leaders from 7 countries (North Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Turkey).

Talking about the background of the groups we want to stress that the primary focus of the future participating organizations is not interreligious dialogue but the organizations decided to take part in this youth exchange because young people involved in their local activities expressed a strong interest in the topic, that is occupying their public and media space.

Participants of youth exchange should have the following background:
● Young people in age 18 to 30 residence of participant’s countries;
● Strongly interested in exploring the topic;
● Have experience or interested in movie making;
● Aware of the negative impact of social networks on youth development and are intensely interested to gain deeper insight into the influence of social networks on self-esteem, self-awareness;
● They are Interested to get to know the diversity of religions from other countries and learning from their peers e.g. in increasing awareness on certain issue/topic that is applying for them;
● Motivated to work on the development of their personal and professional
competencies in an international setting (communication, teamwork,
problem-solving, conflict management, facilitation, and presentation);
● Motivated to take part in Erasmus + project, work in an international team and share their experiences in follow up period;
● Ready to work in a mix-intercultural learning environment, to contribute to successful project implementation;
Every group will include participants with fewer opportunities facing cultural differences and social, economic obstacles. It means young people who meet unemployed, are coming from a socially and economically challenging environment, and/or might face discrimination, stereotypes, and prejudices in their communities.

Profile of group leaders:
Group leaders will be selected by each organization. The group leader is expected to be a person with previous experience in youth work and Erasmus + Programme who is ready to facilitate the project activities and provide support to the participants during the whole project, especially during the implementation phase abroad but also during the preparation and follow up period. Their responsibility will also be to prepare the travel plan. There is no age limit set for group leaders.
NOTE: Our partners are kindly invited to send equal numbers of participants from both genders!

● Learning by doing method
● Ice-breakers and team building games to get to know each other.
● Workshops will leave room for guided but controversial discussions.
● Simulation games will allow us to identify current challenges of non-formal education and show possible measures that strengthen them.
These sessions will provide the participants with concrete ideas that can be implemented in their local communities, thus ensuring an important multiplier effect.

Working language of the youth exchange will be English. Do not worry, your English proficiency should not be perfect, enough is to understand and be understood!

Every participant is responsible for finding a way to reach the destination. Here are some tips:
Use Websites:
● https://rome2rio.com/ for trip planning
● https://www.momondo.com and https://www.flightconnections.com/ for flight connections
● https://waze.com/ or download the app from the app store;
● Download offline Google Maps.

HOW TO REACH THE VENUE
An invitation to try to travel mindfully – with no excess luggage and extra effort to store it.
Welcome to use tips from EC: https://bit.ly/3r23I00
Constantine the Great Airport is the closest airport to the venue.
Flying to Belgrade and Skopje airports is an alternative. (you can ask us for some recommendations on how to reach Niš, from those airports.) If you land at these airports, you will have to take a bus to the Niš Central Bus Station (check timetables carefully – https://www.polazak.com/en/).

1. Flying to Niš Constantine the Great Airport
● Take a bus 34A (ride 14 stops and exit at Staro groblje).
The bus usually goes every 20 minutes. When you leave the bus, you just walk 10 more minutes and you will reach the hotel (https://goo.gl/maps/KR45vrELX6RfGxCr8). The single ticket costs 60 RSD (Serbian dinars) and you can pay it only in CASH. Calculate 45 mins for the total trip from the airport to the hotel.
● Take a taxi (non-refundable) which costs around 5 EUR per car (1-2 EUR per person in a full car) and can be paid by CARD or CASH. It takes around 15 minutes. EKO taxi is recommended (+381603309000).

2. Coming to Niš Bus Station
(https://goo.gl/maps/YZbapobSet7niRoE8)
● Take buses 7, 9, 12, or 34A.
For lines 9 and 12, enter the bus at Glavna autobuska stanica and exit after 4 stops (Stanoja Bunuševca).
For lines 7 and 34A take a bus at the bus station Glavna autobuska stanica
(https://goo.gl/maps/bBwaGWhnHFAJ1DXXA) and exit at Staro groblje. Then walk for 10 minutes and you will reach the hotel.
● Take a taxi (non-refundable) which costs around 4 EUR per car (1-2 EUR per person in a full car) and can be paid by CARD or CASH. It takes around 10 minutes. EKO taxi is recommended (+381603309000).

Accommodation and food are 100% covered by the Erasmus+ program.
The participants will be lodged in the Niš City View Hotel (https://niscityview.rs/).
Niš City View hotel is located in the calm city area, but just 1200 meters from the promenade of the city center.
Every room and apartment features a terrace and includes a flat-screen TV. The rooms are equipped with a private bathroom equipped with a bath or shower. Please bring your slippers.
For your comfort, you will find free towels and a hairdryer. The hotel features free Wi-Fi throughout the property. Also offers a gym and fitness area and massage (additional), reception, bicycle rent, and transportation from the property.
Your enjoyment of the first-morning coffee or romantic evening wine will undoubtedly complete the unreal view from the spacious terraces.
Check IN: 14 – 23h
Check OUT: 7 – 12h

PLEASE bring your own slippers.

Important information about the accommodation:
● During the activity, participants will be accommodated in a room with 3-5 other people from different countries.
● Each participant will have a roommate from a different country, and we can’t make exceptions to accommodate people from the same country in the same room. The rooms will be gender divided.
● We can’t arrange separate rooms for couples or make additional changes in the room match.
● Participants are obliged to take care of the rooms and working space inventory, and if damaged it will be charged. The hotel is recently opened, almost new.

There will be 3 meals per day provided, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they will be served in the hotel.
During the official part of the event, and in the territory of the whole hotel drugs are strictly forbidden! Smoking is not recommended and in case of urgency only permitted outdoors in a designated space.
Everyone is welcome with these restrictions. Violation of this entitles the caretaker to immediately dismiss the person(s) concerned. No refund on travel costs will be guaranteed in case of dismissal.
Please, inform us in the application form about your food needs (vegetarian, vegan, food allergies).
The accommodation is covered at Niš City View Hotel, only for the days of the activity (24 July – 02 August 2022). In case of a longer stay, there is no chance of reimbursement of accommodation costs.
You are not allowed to arrive after 24th July or leave earlier than 2nd August. Please keep in mind when booking the tickets. For any other questions consult with the group leaders from sending NGO.

Max. amount (EUR): 275 EUR

NOTE:
● 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 SPENT, 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 paid 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 flight, please make travel arrangements CONFIRMATION with us!

Please note that only public transport is subject to reimbursement. If you travel by airplane use only economy class. Taxi is not covered. Please consult us!
YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO LEAVE THE PROJECT ONE DAY EARLIER TO CATCH YOUR FLIGHT OR BUS. PLEASE BUY YOUR TICKETS ACCORDING TO THE PROJECT’S DATE.
We need you to buy round trip tickets, and send us a copy by email before arriving here, so our accountant knows, and adjust the budget.
We advise you to buy your tickets as soon as possible so that it fits in our 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 the tickets for the travel for both directions – return tickets (plane tickets, train tickets, bus tickets and etc.), because we will be able to reimburse only REAL EXPENSES (made expenses). IMPORTANT: We cannot refund any travel costs done by taxi.

After sending their tickets and boarding cards, participants will receive the reimbursement of their travel costs. Travel (flights, other means of transport) expenses are compensated (up to 100%), based on the actual expenses incurred and the distance from your location of residence to the location of the project – Niš, Serbia. These distances must be calculated using the distance calculator supported by the European Commission. We send only money to the sender organization and the sender organization will pay to participants.
Please note if you buy your tickets in a currency other than EUROs, we will convert them to EUROs according to the exchange rates from the official European Commission website:
http://ec.europa.eu/budget/inforeuro/index.cfm?Language=en
We are not able to reimburse missing tickets!!!
Participants must travel from the country of the sending organization, and back. Following the guidelines of the Erasmus + program, the travel back must be realized by the participants in a direct way within a maximum of 2 days. You have the possibility to arrive in Niš up to 2 days in advance or leave up to 2 days later.
IMPORTANT: Traveling sometimes requires an additional day for catching a flight and staying for an additional night in the city where the airport is situated. We are aware of such situations, but organizers can’t cover this cost (accommodation), it is the participants’ own cost too.
For that reason, we recommend you to use hostels (http://www.hostelworld.com/) or friends https://www.couchsurfing.org/).

● Passport or ID
● Comfortable clothes for the activities.
● Please bring comfortable clothes and hiking shoes and check the weather channels.
● Personal care products: shampoo, toothpaste, flip flops, etc.
● Camera, laptop, etc.
● Pills and medicines.
● Positive attitude
● FOOD and DRINKS for the intercultural night

HEALTH AND TRAVEL INSURANCE

PLEASE, WHEN COMING TO THE PROJECT, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A VALID EUROPEAN HEALTH INSURANCE CARD WITH YOU OR PRIVATE INSURANCE. ALSO, IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU NOTIFY US OF ANY HEALTH RISKS OR POSSIBLY NECESSARY MEDICINES, SPECIAL FOOD ARRANGEMENTS (SUCH AS VEGETARIANS, VEGANS, INTOLERANCES…), AND SO ON.

Weather

The expected daily temperature in this part of the year is 30°C+, and during the night it is warm. Bring comfortable shoes and clothes for day and night, but also for a hiking-barbeque day and your swimming suit.

Money exchange

In Serbia, the official currency is Dinar (RSD). Credit cards are accepted almost everywhere.

• Intercultural evening – Participants are expected to create an interesting, interactive, and creative intercultural evening. The intercultural evening gives you a unique opportunity in a creative way to promote your country and culture. Show us what you eat, drink, your traditions, music, flag, culture, and stereotypes.
• Find interesting videos/games/exercises/educational activities related to the topic.
• Morning/Afternoon Energizers: We would be really happy if each group prepare some energizers to increase the group energy
• Wherever possible, take your laptops, digital cameras, smartphones, and tablets – we will be doing some multimedia work that requires mobile equipment!

All the participants will be expected to be present and active in all the activities unless being ill. Unauthorized absence from the activities and workshops won’t be tolerated. Stress, nerves, and bad mood are prohibited everywhere. Bring your best mood and a big smile with you and keep it through the exchange! Prepare for fun!

Participants’ Task: It’s very important to 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.