From July 10th to July 16th the CGE team had the pleasure to participate in a Training Course organized by EduPlus on the beautiful Island of Tenerife, Spain. This Training Course was part of the “Diversity in Action- intercultural competencies and organisational development for everyone!” project – a project on new teaching tools and methodologies for adult education.
In this training course, we had the opportunity to learn a lot about Tenerifes’s biodiversity, its ancient forests, the volcanos and its National Park. With this, we had the chance to connect the beautiful landscapes of the Island with several topics, such as environmental protection, outdoor education, and conservation of natural and cultural heritage.
As such, on the very first day of the TC we had a guided tour of Anaga Ancient Forest, which is considered a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. On this day, we discussed environmental protection and why we need it and talked about creative outdoor and nature-based techniques to increase learners’ motivation.
On the second day, we met at Centro Ciudadano of Punta del Hidalgo, where we had some interesting sessions on building trust and cohesion within a group, and explored non-formal education techniques for an engaging learning environment, as well as non-verbal methods for trust-building and self-expression.
On the third day we had the chance of visiting Isla Baja, compare past and current uses of natural and cultural heritage, and discussed how to conserve traditions. On the same day, we got to witness something extremely interesting: the traditional peasant jump (“Salto del Pastor”) and the peasant whistle (“silbo gomero”). These were ancient practices done by peasants to dislocate through the mountains and rocks of the island, and communicate with each other from different points of Tenerife. They both require a lot of skills, so everyone was very impressed!
Wednesday was the fourth day of TC, when we visited the Teide National Park and learned about its geological origins of it. We also saw beautiful exotic animal species from the Island and the biggest volcano in Tenerife!
The next and fifth day, it was one of the most captivating days. We visited the SOS Children’s Village in Tenerife. We visited the facilities of the Children’s Village and learned about the organization’s work in helping children, women, and families as a whole. Our guides also showed us a lot of the groups and activities they have in the Village, in which we participated in: bio-construction, eco-farming, gardening, and the different uses of medicinal plants. These are creative outdoor activities to children, youth and adults, and learners with special needs.
On Friday we went back to the Centro Ciudadano Punta del Hidalgo for some sessions on experiential learning to train soft skills and self-expression, tolerance, empowerment, empathy, and active listening.
On the very last day, we closed the training course by discussing and reflecting on what we saw and learned during the week, the participants gave their feedback on the activities and summarized the key learning points for each of us and the group as a whole.
It was an amazing opportunity for all of us, and one of the participants, Dilshod Umirov left us with some heart-warming words about his experience:
I was very surprised. First of all, the location was very nice, which helped to get closer with the team. During the Project, we did different exercises with the project team. The exercises were focused to learn how to show our feelings in different ways and it helped me to be more open with my feelings and feel free to show them. We also learned about Tenerife, about its history and culture of the people living there. The incredible ocean and views also allowed me to enjoy in and out of the project time. As summary, I would say that the project was very successfully organised. I learned a lot and by next possibly would do it again.
Dilshod Umirov
This mobility has been funded by the European Union within the project “DIVERSITY IN ACTION – Intercultural competences and organisational development for everyone” (2020-1-DE02-KA104-007360).
