This project aimed to enhance the capacity of the Ankraj and EIVA organizations to offer quality non-formal learning experiences while creating a meaningful intercultural dialogue space for young people from Guadeloupe and Romania. Our objective was to promote mutual understanding, deconstruct stereotypes, and foster sustainable relationships among youth from vulnerable backgrounds. Through workshops, experience-sharing, and collaborative activities, participants acquired key skills such as active listening, intercultural communication, and cooperation. The project also enabled the training of 12 youth workers, the creation of an educational toolkit, and the involvement of over 200 young people at the local level. In addition to skill development, we aimed to formalize sustainable cooperation among partners, strengthen social cohesion, and promote non-formal approaches to foster inclusion, civic engagement, and social transformation. This initiative also allowed Ankraj, a new player in the Erasmus+ program and the European Solidarity Corps, to professionalize its approach and broaden its perspectives on an international scale.
Our application was motivated by a desire to learn, share, and contribute to a world more respectful of cultural differences. The exchanges carried out offer a valuable opportunity to broaden our horizons, deconstruct stereotypes, and foster mutual respect, which is essential for well-being and personal growth and organizational development. This project allowed the youth workers involved to explore other cultures while sharing their own. It also responds to an identified need: that of creating spaces for dialogue between professionals and young people from different cultural backgrounds. For Ankraj, an organization established in a postcolonial context where young people often face discrimination, this project represented a real opportunity to strengthen its teaching capacities, integrate non-formal education tools, and position itself within a dynamic of European cooperation. This approach has encouraged the organization's international outreach, strengthened its network, and professionalized its educational team. The project was a transformative experience for both the workers and young people and the structures involved.