Change Making Tour (2018-3792) is a project financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission – EACEA under the Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices – KA2, Capacity building in the Field of Youth in the deadline of the 8th of March 2018.
Overall, this project aimed at developing a scheme of mobility labelled as a “Change-making Tour”: it is a mobility experience that puts together elements of sustainable tourism, volunteering, and political analysis of oppression, managed by local NGOs and focussing on the topics that they address at the local level. The project was based on the cooperation between European NGOs active in the international mobility sector and Latin American NGOs supporting local communities with fewer opportunities, like the Guaranì in the South of Brazil, the Koguis native communities of the Sierra Nevada in Colombia, and the Haitian descendant community in the Dominican Republic.
The 3 main objectives of the project were:
- Build the capacity of the Latin American organisations to host Change-making Tour in their community;
- Build the capacity of the network to promote Change-making Tour by creating videos and other content;
- Support change-making in the local communities involved and raise international awareness of local challenges through CMT.
The creation of the Change Making Tour was made possible thanks to the approval of the Capacity Building project “Change Making Tour” within the framework of the European Commission’s Erasmus+ . The project brings together 8 organisations: 5 from Europe and 3 from Latin America.
Partners:
The partners were coming from Italy (No Borders, the applicant, Diramarsi and Ostello dei Balocchi), Spain (Brújula Intercultural, Viaje a la Solidaridad), Brazil (Outro Olhar), Colombia (Fundacion Gaia) and Dominican Republic (MUDHA). In the EU we had: the main partner plus the organisations hosting the International Volunteers, which were 1 in Spain (Viaje a la Sostenibilidad) and 2 from Italy (Ostello dei Balocchi and Diramarsi). In Latin America, we had only 1 partner from each country, both managing the activities and receiving the international volunteers:
|
No Borders is an italian association born from the desire of a group of young people to develop their ideas. The young people involved in this reality are people with different experiences at the international level and in project management. The association develops projects in which young people can improve their skills and acquire competences. |
|
Brújula Intercultural is an association of social promotion created in June 2017 and based in the province of Burgos (Spain) with the aim of promoting mobility and learning opportunities for young people. Our mission is to provide non-formal educational opportunities for young people in international contexts. |
|
Viaje a la Sostenibilidad is a Spanish organisation committed to moving towards a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable society through educational activities with young people. They work with the Erasmus Plus program, facilitating international mobility for young people and adults across Europe through exchanges, training and volunteering. |
|
The Italian Association Diramarsi was born from the initiative of a group of students and young workers to regain balance, serenity and general well-being through a closer connection with nature and people, promoting awareness of the culture of sustainability in all aspects: environmental, social and economic. |
|
Legambiente Ligonchio was born with the intent to provide a concrete example of sustainable development in tourism and the environment characterized by a strong historical and cultural roots with the territory. This is how the Ostello dei Balocchi was born, the only structure within the National Park of the Tuscan Emilian Apennines in Italy. |
|
The Movement of Dominican-Haitian Women (MUDHA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation in Dominican Republic. It was founded in 1983 by a group of Dominican women of Haitian descent living in the country’s bateyes. The organisation wants to improve the living conditions of vulnerable communities through the implementation of human development programs. |
|
Misión Gaia Foundation is a Colombian organisation that supports community stakeholders, interested in proposing more sustainable activities, by implementing best practices in tourism. A large percentage of the sale price goes directly to local tourism providers, in order to improve their activities. In addition, the benefits generated support the development of participatory actions at a community level. |
|
The Outro Olhar is a Brazilian non-profit association, formalised in 2008 by a group of multidisciplinary associates which have in common the characteristic of caring about the reality in their surroundings and seek to gather knowledge and experiences in the search for egalitarian human development based on social ecology. |
Project’s flow description:
In the table below you can find more details on each meeting. In general, the goal was to build the capacity of the consortium to implement and promote Change Making Tours experiences with local communities in Latin America.
To do so we:
- Trained 2 members of local communities from Colombia and the Dominican Republic in a volunteering experience in an environmental / training center, respectively in Italy and Spain;
- Created several promotional videos and other promotional materials for the Change Making Tours with the help of Spanish and Italian international volunteers who spent 2 months in Latin America;
- Implemented a pilot version of the Change Making Tour with staff members from the partner organisations and external experts in sustainable tourism and online communication.
| What | When | Where | Participants Profile | Main goal and results |
| CMT development seminar | Sept19 | Genova, Italy | Project Managers | Team Building and project planning |
| Pre-Departure Training (PDT) for Latin American volunteers and CMT Definition | Nov19 | Guarapuava, Brazil | Future International Volunteers from Latin America going to the EU, Project Managers | Preparation of future volunteers, Definition of Change Making Tours |
| Study Visits in Latin America | Nov19 | Guarapuava (Brazil) Minca (Colombia), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) | Project Managers | Understand the local reality, experiment with the activities that will be implemented during the Change Making Tours, and co-design the final version of the tours |
| International Volunteering with Diramarsi | 2020 | Moncalieri Italy, hosted by Diramarsi | 2 Colombian volunteers | Learn about sustainable tourism and agriculture, management of workshops with the local community. |
| International Volunteering with Viaje a la Sostenibilidad | 2020 | Zaragoza, Spain, hosted by Viaje a la Sostenibilidad | 2 Dominican volunteers | Learn about sustainable tourism and agriculture, management of workshops with the local community. |
| Interruption of the project due to covid pandemic | ||||
| Pre-Departure and Video-making training for EU volunteers | Feb22 | Lecco, Italy | Future International Volunteers from the EU going to Latin America, Project Managers, video-maker | Pre departure training;
Technical training in video-making and social-media communication |
| International Volunteering with Outro Olhar and Fundacion Gaia | March – April 2022 | Guarapuava, Brazil and Minca, Colombia | 2 volunteers from Italy in Brazil, 2 Spanish and 1 Italian in Colombia | Video-making, social media communication |
| Final Evaluation | May22 | Santa Maria del Campo, Spain | European Volunteers, Project Managers, video-maker | Evaluation of the project, finalise the post-production of the videos. |