European union evening in Multikulti

          

          European union (EU) is european organisation, contained of 28 member states. More than 500 millions people of different ethnic, religious backgrounds live in EU and it is the biggest single market on the world. EU was established in 1993 by Treaty of Maastricht, which transformed the previous European economical community (created in 1957 by Treaty of Rome). EU is very important economical and political organisation with influence not only in Europe but worldwide. Despite huge power of EU, still many people don´t know much about EU, about its functions, history, geography, economy, politics and so on. That is why I decided to organise this evening, where through various activities, watching videos and discussion, me and participants tried to share informations about EU and educated ourselves. Macedonia is a country with candidate status for EU entry negotiations, so knowledge about EU is very usefull and important especially for young people who will be in the lead when Macedonia one day enter the EU.

          At the Monday 21th of August at 18:00 European union evening in Multikulti youth centre was organised. I started to prepare our playing room in Multikulti for the evening around 17:30 and luckily I made it until 18:00 when people started to come. I set the projector and screen, prepared board and some snacks to eat and drink. Not a lot of people came, just a few but they were active and was joining into activities I prepared. Whole evening was in the form of quiz to make it more interactive, not just lecture with me talking and people listening. We were finding countries on a blank map, painting the flags, trying to find out when all the member states entered the group, matching the countries with their contemporary currencies, or guessing the names of the cities according to pictures of them. I divided activities in a three blocks and between each block we watched the educating videos about EU. Participants were active and they knew a lot of stuff. 

          The event was organised at 21th of August, what is an important date for many Czechs and Slovaks, because at this day every year we commemorate the invasion of armies of Warsaw pact countries to Czechoslovakia to end the Prague spring, what was the period of liberalisation and democratisation of socialistic regime. This day is memento that democracy and freedom are not obligatory and we have to care about it, because it can easily be lost, or stole. Membership in EU is garant of our freedom and independence. So I explained to participants why in Czech republic and Slovakia we remember this day and we watched short video about this day. At the end of the evening I counted the points from the quiz and rewarded the winner with chocolate and EU handmade crown in the colours of EU flag. I would like to thank to all people who came and spent this evening in Multikulti with us and I hope that it was usefull and educative for them.