The concept of gender equality is trendy and even fashionable worldwide. But today gender inequality persists everywhere and stagnates social progress as it is often seen as a women’s’ issue. Young people everywhere are being affected by gender issues as they are subject to peer pressure, social exclusion, violence. These things cause low self-esteem, lack of confidence, stress and bullying, therefore poor life choices and destructive behaviour. Gender equality is a universal issue as it is bound to social dynamics and human nature that manifests itself wherever people are. It is an acknowledged global objective: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action and one of the goals, Goal 5, is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. On national level, equality between women and men is a fundamental aim of Swedish foreign policy. Ensuring that women and girls can enjoy their fundamental human rights is both an obligation within the framework of our international commitments, and a prerequisite for reaching Sweden’s broader foreign policy goals on peace, and security and sustainable development. In 2014, Sweden became the first country in the world to publicly adopt what it explicitly called “a feminist foreign policy,” putting the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights at the centre of its diplomatic agenda. Gender equality is furthermore one of four thematic priorities at SIDA, along with environment and climate change, human rights and democracy and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment are a priority in the Swedish development cooperation and humanitarian assistance and we wanted to align our work within this project with a bigger picture of international project work. We, young people from Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and Albania, think that Gender Equality is a hot topic in our societies and we think a young exchange would help us to come together and discuss gender equality issue and look for solutions while learning each others’ cultures and contexts. Young people are often not able to ask questions frankly and debate such sensitive topics with their families, and may not be encouraged to in formal education settings. Open and aware youth work settings would provide we thought, a supportive learning environment to empower and challenge attitudes. The aim of the youth exchange was to raise awareness of and to promote gender equality among young people in an intercultural environment. The objectives of the youth exchange were: -To share the realities and experience on gender issues in different European countries -To discuss gender-related issues (gender roles, discrimination, gender-based violence, harassment etc) -To overcome genderr elated stereotypes and prejudges from different cultures, races and religions. - To support intercultural learning and to improve understanding and tolerance around gender equality -To discuss and analyse the challenges of young people on gender equality and develop solutions - To empower young people in achieving gender equality - To articulate possibilities for mutual work and future collaboration as individuals, youth groups and organisation. We wanted to conduct the project long time ago but due to different reasons among which was corona, were only able to do it past autumn. Our partners were out of the EU travel zone, and they could not fly to Sweden. Were given the opportunity to extend the project for 12 months. The project links to two of the objectives of the Erasmus+ programme: Inclusion and diversity and democratic participation. Articulating gender issues as formative factor for society, the project articulated hidden discourses of power, mandates and representation, where fewer opportunities can be caused not only by physical capacity, disabilities, cultural, educational or social barriers but also deeply inrooted perceptions about gender roles and models. Through the project's intensive activities we aimed to encourage participants to active citizenship, explain and de-dramatize principles of lifelong learning, fostered the development of social and intercultural competences, critical thinking and media literacy. By raising awareness of young people in issues that has a hidden but strong effect on social and economic development like gender equality, the non-formal and informal activities of the project contributed to more diverse participation in democratic life, social and civic engagement on different levels and with regard to people's different life premises and sometimes different understanding the European Union context. We aimed together with the young people, discover the meaning of gender equality among other European values, the principles of unity and diversity as well as their social, cultural and historical heritage.