It was not part of a grand plan of any kind; I just wanted to travel and discover other countries, not learn about EU programmes. With every project I eventually got another piece of the puzzle and started to understand more about European youth co-operation. A friend of mine was a SALTO trainer at the time, and he told me it may be a good idea to join the SALTO training of trainers. Even though I was not accepted, it was how I discovered the SALTO website, and started learning about the various opportunities offered.

In 2012, I finally applied for the ‘Go Green’ long-term course on sustainable development and was accepted. This was a real eye-opener, both in terms of the topic and the approach. I felt that sustainable development is an interesting topic that could have a lot of useful applications in youth work and precisely beneficial to our local youth community. I was also impressed with how devoted Federica and Bernard were to their work and how much they knew about what was going on in the region.

The Go Green project was a great experience. It was a long-term training with one event in Tunisia and another in Georgia. As a result, many strong international friendships and networks were built – many of which are still ongoing. The organisation I worked with back then – Waseela for Training and Development – developed and delivered many local programmes for youth using non-formal learning methods. Waseela also collaborated with partners from near and far, including Tunisia, Italy, Austria, Spain, Moldova, Georgia, and Russia. This was a big step in international cooperation for a local grass-root youth organization