Interview with a representant of Cyprus "See Why" Informal group.

1. Why did you join project with your group

2. What do you think about idea of 'living history lesson' method

3. You were participant of 'Let me tell you a story II'. How you would advertise such project for young people who did not participate in previous parts?

As “See Why”, one of the main aims we have as a group is the promotion of peaceful coexistence on a local, European and global levels. Every month we organize local educational events on this topic. We are hoping that through our participation in similar projects, we will gain useful knowledge and skills that will help us in our future activities and at the same time we will show other participants and partner organizations some good practices that we have already been using in Cyprus.

We are collaborating with the founder of HEureka Generator, Andrzej Smyk and other partner organizations for a long time now and we have very good communication between us. Each one of us  have also participated in the previous part of “Let me tell you a story” project and we are very satisfied with the results and the impact of the youth exchange, so the idea to do a third part came very natural.

The “living history lesson” method is something that we all like the beginning. We saw that even participants who are not interested in the history of WWII so much were so enthusiastic and interested to learn more and more after their participation on “Let me tell you a story II” and that is because we showed them history from a different teaching perspective. We have also noticed that even our guests felt useful, happy and even relieved that the society, and especially the youngsters, want to learn something from them and that will make the world a better place.

Since recent history, my country Cyprus suffered many conflicts, fights and wars. Our island is still divided and the wounds are still here. We are trying to communicate with local elderly people who are interested in taking part in projects with “living history lesson”. Next month, we are having our first attempt in ‘’living history lesson’’ on a local educational trip that we are planning to do. If we have good results and impact, next year we are thinking even to write a project within Erasmus+ that will take place in Cyprus.

As a group, when we participate in projects, we always explain to our participants the importance of acting as multipliers by sharing the knowledge they gain through their participation. So, at the end of each project we guide our participants to show the others who didn’t had the chance to participate what they have learned. We are always very flexible and supportive with the method each participant prefers to use, because we understand the uniqueness of each individual. Some of them prefer to use videos, others like writing articles, making presentations, showing photos, speaking on the radio etc.

Since I was one of the participants on the second part of “let me tell you a story”, I have chosen the ‘’presentation method’’ to explain to other members of our group what I have learned. I have also used the facebook account of our group to share my experience with our members. Since one of the main aims of “let me tell you a story” was to create a book, as soon as I received my copies I went to the Cyprus national agency and some local NGOs we were collaborating with and I presented them a few things regarding my experience.