Hana is a student at Tunis Business School and a Facilitator with Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange since 2018. Her journey with the Virtual Exchange began as a participant in the Connect Programme. She highlights: “I tremendously enjoyed the online interaction as it gave me hope for an offline interaction, where diversity is embraced and conflict is remodelled into intercultural learning.”
“I believe in the power of empathy that virtual exchange programs are constructing, slowly pathing the way for an interconnected world”, Hana continues.
“I think the most powerful moment in the dialogue sessions was reflecting on conflict management and conflict transformation amidst the current COVID-19 crisis that the whole world is facing. The groups are designed to be diverse and this fostered genuine exchange which pathed the way for brainstorming potential initiatives that everyone can take within their communities”.
Hana adds: “Having this programme during COVID-19 allowed participants to build empathy for one another as this is a shared crisis. The dialogues allowed participants to highlight the importance of protecting the most vulnerable segments of our communities (i.e. refugees, otherwise abled people, victims of violence…) through peacebuilding”.
“I think there are a lot of stereotypical thoughts that underestimate the efforts and the potential of youth (“too young”, “inexperienced”, “not trustworthy”...) which are putting down a lot of creative minds. This is why programs like Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange are most needed, because they don’t only give youth the chance to connect with one another by praising cultural differences but also encourage them to execute their ideas within their respective communities”, she concludes.
