We set out to run the project having specific ideas on freedom and democracy in mind: How can you counter right-wing populists in Germany claiming that freedom of expression should have no limits and using their freedom to discriminate others? How can we set free energy for democratic youthwork in Poland to counterbalance a government that fuels xenophobia and places national interests in front of European integration? How can you support a young cosmopolitan generation in Lithuania to take a stand in generational struggles with what they call “homo sovieticus”? How can we strengthen civil society in Tunisia in giving no space to Muslim extremism to unfold? How can you keep up the notion of freedom while NGO and youth activists have to work “underground” in Egypt? How can we help Jordanian partners to find a balance between keeping stability and implementing democratic changes in their youthwork? Those were the questions, we started out with and we were determined to find answers to in the implementation of the project. These were the challenges we expected to encounter. And in a way we did: Yes, there was still talk about right-wing populists in Germany, but they mixed with cross-mind intransigent thinkers (“Querdenker”) and Corona-deniers; there was talk about xenophobia in Poland but it was all drowned in the measures against the pandemic – and so was the generational struggle in Lithuania that we wanted to address. In Tunisia political polarization unfolded and the president undertook extreme measures – unforeseen events, which we had to address, because democracy was at stake, at least in the opinion of many Tunisians – and many were afraid of loosing the freedoms they had been fighting for through Covid 19 measures that installed restrictions and limitations and reduced human rights. And in Egypt the military was in charge of fighting the pandemic – another step to limit civil society? In Jordan similar things happened as in Egypt and the teacher’s strike was topped by schools having to close – taking opportunities of education away from the Jordanians who consider education as a basic human right and a beginning of democratization. Thus, we addressed the topics which we set out to address. And we supported young people in building up capacities for democratic youth work. We helped them identify their goals and targets. We provided them with skills to implement their visions. We supported them in finding the approach in youthwork and democracy building suitable for their country and environment. We enabled them to develop their own notion of freedom and establish this in their countries. But everything took place under the auspices of the pandemic. The reduction of freedom, the struggle for democracy, the limitation of human rights – all done in the context of the pandemic – were our targets and topics. Thus, we achieved our the objectives: building capacity in youth work based on the structure of each country; identifying measures of strengthening democracy in those structures; providing competences, skills, knowledge and methods needed to fill their notion of freedom with life; to use their freedom of expression; to counter discriminating structures; to use their vision of freedom for empowering themselves and unfold self-efficacy. We took the current circumstances into account – and achieved a lot. The pandemic started three weeks after we had turned the application in. And it was not gone when we finished the project almost three years later.