IGE day 7: Emerging forum

We started the day with the group presentations. We had nine of them throughout the day and I especially liked the one that talked about gender equality. This is the shocking/inspirational video that was also in the presentation and that every woman should watch!

A lot of people beside the IGE delegates and staff and volunteers came to the forum: the Earl of Wessex himself and then the trustees and the director of the youth center we are staying at and many more other guests :) John May also revealed the results of the elections and we have now two new EMAS emerging leaders: Warren from Malta and Peadar from Ireland. Looking forward to staying in touch with these two!

I am really happy I had the opportunity to work with 7 amazing people this week. Our presentation about participation in civic life was a success and I couldn't be more proud :) Thank you guys for everything this week: fun, hard work and great ideas!

                                 

After the forum we gathered around the campfire place to have dinner outside. Koreans prepared a whole party for us! When we came we could listen to Skrillex and then we had a live music, a Korean metal band! After this we danced and had so much fun while the DJ was mixing the music! There is no better way than this to celebrate our last day at the youth center and the presentations success!

IGE day 5: Second field visit

We took the KTX train to Seoul today and then a van picked us up and brought to the methodist church. They took us to the 19th floor of the building and showed us an amazing view on the city. Then they took us to the buffet restaurant, where I had too much cheese cake and I'm gaining too much weight here in  Korea, and then to the Jongro underground shopping center. After an hour, we met some girls from the christian girls-only high school who are doing their bronze DofE International Award. We got so many souvenirs and food today! And we are constantly taking photos with everyone and I feel like I'm a very important person here but I'm not and I still feel like a president :)

We visited the Baeksa village with our new friends and they've been trying to make some development there since it's the poorest village in Seoul region but volunteers still have so much work to do. For our research we got some photos of the paintings on the houses and fences that volunteers drew and we also interviewed a very nice old lady :) Then we visited girls' high school and had a meeting with their principal who is also very fond of the DofE Award and volunteering projects.

Since it would took us one hour to get from the high school to the train station and then 40 minutes of driving by train and then 30 minutes of driving by bus and we would miss the KTX train anyway, our personal van driver said that he is just going to take us straight to Cheonan by this church van and he dropped us off right in the front of our restaurant right in time for dinner. I am really thankful for this experience though I am very tired of driving and running from one appointment to another today. I am falling in love more and more with these people and their kindness :)

IGE day 4: First field visit

Our group's first field visit was to Daejeon Culture and Education Center. We didn't know what to expect, what kind of people will be there and what kind of stuff did they prepare for us.

I was a little disappointed that there were no students in the center since they are all attending school in the morning. But then we had the most amazing experience with the volunteers who work there!

The Center was set up to help the youth who has some family, violence, drinking, society, crime problems. The main cause is to make them feel loved and then motivate them to study and reach their dreams. The Center is a non-profitable organization so the founder sometimes gives her own money to keep the Center running. They also offer a free dinner for the kids since they don't have one at home.

All of the teachers are volunteers. The teachers we met are a high school student, soldier, retired university professor, engineer and others. They are not pushing the youth to learn, they only encourage them and then the youth slowly gets the will to learn because they see others are doing it too.

With their help a lot of students who didn't attend school graduated (in Korea everyone can take the "graduation exam"). There was a guy of 19 years old that went to prison because of violence, so he couldn't attend high school at that time. Because of the friendship of one very commited volunteer he managed to graduate and nowadays he attends a nurse school. He is still comming back to the Center and helping youth like that one volunteer had helped him :)

The volunteers in the Center taught us how to make traditional Korean "sushi" called kimbap. We made lots of it and then took it to the elders home :)

Our last visit was to the city hall. They were not expecting us but still gave us some leaflets and rice cakes and then lent us a van so we didn't have to walk 25 minutes to the bus station. This is a perfect example of selfless Korean hospitality! I really love these people :)

IGE day 3: Preparing fold field visits

As I already wrote, each group got a theme to work on during the IGE. The themes are: education, employability, healthcare, civic life, social inclusion, environment, gender equality, peace building and crime reduction. Each group has to go to two field visits to get some information about their theme.

Today our facilitators were preparing us on field visits. They talked about Korean culture. Although they are globalized they still have their own tradition and are very proud of it. For example, one of the things that are totally normal for Koreans is asking your age, because in Korea age equals wisdom, authority and power.

We were also preparing for field visits in group, making up the questions to ask the stuff, volunteers and participants in Daejeon Education Culture Center and Beak-sa Village in our case since our theme is increased participation in civic life.

During the IGE there are also elections for emerging leaders going on. Two people from each region (EMAS, Africa, America, Pacific) will be elected on Thursday. Today the candidates gave short speeches and we'll see who's gonna get elected! They were all very good and the competition is really big! :)

After dinner we had a Cultural night. We showed some skills we learned yesterday in the evening (drumming and tekken) and then each region preseneted itself. The EMAS region (Europe, Mediterranean and Arab states) came up with the fun facts of the 12 countries participating in IGE, Finnish folk song, traditional Irish dance and Turkish delights.

Sorry for the bad quality of the photos, they are all taken with my phone.

IGE day 2: Theory of leadership

This post is only in English since all the speeches and lectures here are given in English and I don't want to translate everything to Slovene. If you are a Slovenian interested in this kind of theory and don't understand English, feel free to ask me about it :)

Yesterday was a lecturing day. We were trying to do some learning about ourselves, about leadership and also about the host country, Korea.

Since we all got some group tasks yesterday, there is a model we can help ouselves with while solving the task:

1) Model for solving the task: DOOR
D as Decide: What are we trying to achieve, to do? When do we need to do it? We need to have clear objectives and a time scale.
O as Organise: List of requirements, what resources do you need...
O as Operate: Do not spend too much time planning, there has to be action!
R as Review: What went well? What difficulties occured? What would you change for the next time?

Later we were talking about 4 leadership styles and then played some team games and tried to figure out what style did the leader of the task use. So we have four different styles:

1) TELLING: Use it in critical situations when immediate action is needed. Like when te fire breaks out :D
2) SELLING: It's mostly about selling your idea and motivating people.
3) SHARING: Being a facilitator of the team, gathering all the ideas, searching for the answer ot the question together
4) DELEGATING: Giving/delegating tasks to people

Before the IGE started we were asked to fill an online form called Belbin. It is about discovering what role do you play in a team. It tells what tendencies you have and give you some self-knowledge. There are 9 different roles that are action-, people- and thinking-oriented. We discovored our strengths and also weaknesses. Most people in my group got a team worker as the least recommended role. Since all of us here are leaders, we should not forget that leader is still a part of the team and that we have to be team workers first and leaders after that. You can learn more about the roles here: http://www.belbin.com/

Our last lecture was about how to develop and sustain a high performing team. There are 4 main steps and 1 plus step.
It all starts with forming. People don't know each other, they are polite, they are getting acquainted, it's an ice breaking stage. People are unsure, uncertain, trust is low, they need directions, group skills are unrefined. We can get through this stage by having warm up activites, creating a common goal, clarifying roles and responsibilites and encouraging participation.
After this we come to storming. A comflict and competition appear. Frustration sets in, leader is rejected, power struggles.
After storming comes norming. It's about building trust. Group members resolve the conflict and power issues, group re-defines ground rules.
The last one is performing. Group feels united, the productivity is high, everyone is commited to the goal, roles and responsibilites are clear, group continuously improves itself.
There is a plus one step called adjourning when the group re-groups, thanks each other for the successful project and moves on.

Here is Henry Ford's quote for closing this lecture:

Coming together is a beginning,
keeping together is a progress,
working together is a success.

First day of IGE!

Danes smo imeli uvoden dan. Zajtrku je sledila predstavitev organizatorjev, prostovoljcev, gostov in koncepta IGE-ja. Razdelili so nas v skupine po osem dobitnikov zlatega MEPI priznanja in vsaki določili temo, v katero se mora poglobiti in s katero so povezani tudi obiski raznih institucij.

Moja skupina, ki jo poleg mene sestavljajo še delegati iz Indije, Kanade, Malezije, Malte, Kajmanskih otokov, Zambije in Kenije, je dobila temo aktivnega državljanstva. V ta namen bomo tekom tedna obiskali vas Beak-sa, ki služi kot primer uspešnega prostovoljskega projekta.

Po kosilu smo se lotili team-buildinga v skupinah, po rekreaciji pa je sledilo uradno odprtje konference. IGE je z govorom odprl John May, generalni sekretar iz Londona. Po še parih govorih je sledila kratka predstava taekwondo mojstrov, nato pa svečana večerja.

Today was an introduction day. After breakfast we had a short briefing of IGE concept and an introduction of all the guests, organisers and volunteers. We were divided into groups of eight gold award holders and each group got a theme to work on.

My group with delegates from India, Canada, Malesia, Malta, Cayman islands, Zambia and Kenya got the "Increased participation in civic life" theme. In the next week we will visit Baek-sa village that serves as a successful community service project.

After lunch we had some team-building and then the IGE 2014 Opening Ceremony. The opening speech was given from John May, secretary general from London. After few more speeches we were shocked by a taekwondo show and later by delicious buffet for dinner.