Within the framework of the European Project “Sharing is Caring”, young people with less opportunities and young refugees from France, Greece, Slovenia and Spain broaden their vision through transversal experiences.

The Institute of Entrepreneurship Development gave the opportunity to three young persons from Greece to participate in the training activities that took place in the city of Novo Mesto, Slovenia, on 24 – 29 October 2016 and in the city of Marseille, France, on 12 – 16 December 2016.

During the 1^st training activity in Slovenia, the participants were informed by the host partner organization about the current and historic situation refugee situation in Europe, in all its diversity, the demographic, cultural, economic and socio-political dimensions.

The participants had the opportunity to argue about the topic, share their thoughts and define the refugees needs based on Maslow’s pyramid of needs. Furthermore, they visited local organizations related to the subject of the project, Zrc Sazu, Slovenian Global Action, Slovenian Philanthropy and Slovenian Asylum Center. The knowledge they acquired helped them to form an overall picture of what refugees and migrants need.

During the 2^st training activity in France, the host organization led a discussion the participants informed by the host partner organization about what is a Givebox, where does the concept come from and they all discussed how is it a relevant solution to help refugees and what shape can it take to be easily built, used and replicated at the lowest cost.

The participants had the opportunity to work over a wooden givebox model and they exchange ideas about what items it should involve (refugees’ testimonies and skills, first-aid kit, info packs useful for refugees, etc). Furthermore, they visited local organizations related to social actions and constructive workshops where they worked in practice over the givebox. In addition, the participants saw related examples of giveboxes that were already exhibited in public.

IED will guide the participants at the final stage of this training program on how to transfer the knowledge they acquired to the public.