MyHandScraft Festival in Greece

On 19 June, Active Citizens Partnership held an event to present the results of the European project „MyHandScraft“. The project started in 2018, with a duration of 30 months and is part of the Erasmus+ European Programmes for Adult Education.

During the project, local workshops were successfully held in all partner countries with the participation of local and migrant handcrafters from all over the world, based on the digital educational material created during the project. The first part of the project facilitated the development of intercultural skills and relationships through non-formal educational methodologies and aimed to create a welcoming and safe atmosphere for the participants. In the second part of the workshops, participants had the opportunity to explore new craft traditions from other regions of the world, exploring their materials, techniques and history. These included: knitting, sewing, jewellery making. Finally, participants had the opportunity to reflect on their future and entrepreneurial skills through creating personal portfolios and designing action plans for new business ideas.

The MyHandScraft project will soon come to an end, after 2.5 years, during which, despite the many challenges caused by the global pandemic, the project partners managed to deliver successful activities and quality results in all countries involved: Italy, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Cyprus, Greece and Lithuania. Throughout the project implementation, handicrafts proved to be an innovative framework for skills development and for the exchange of cultural heritage and goods between migrants and local residents, as it integrates traditions, heritage, culture, technical skills, talent and art, thus providing a fertile ground for encouraging intercultural cooperation, learning and dialogue.

During the event, which took place at the Second Chance School in Mytilene, Lesvos, were presented the aims and objectives of the project, as well as the results, including: the handbook for adult educators (IO4) that has been created, the digital guide (IO5), the project’s website, a presentation of the participants’ profiles and some photos from the workshops that took place.  Later, based on these photos, comments were made on how the workshops were organised, what skills and interests were needed by both the participants and the facilitators and issues related to social entrepreneurship.

The project’s website «MyHandScraft»: http://myhandscraft.eu/

Contact with Active Citizens Partnership: acc.greece@gmail.com