iDoc was a first step into the world of European cooperation for Maghweb.
The iDoc project was originally conceived by association founders Giuseppe Gabriele Tramontana and Vincenzo Allotta as a local initiative aimed at teaching young people how to use accessible ICT tools to create quality audiovisual products. They decided to develop iDoc as a bilateral youth exchange in order to bring a European dimension to Maghweb’s activities, while exploring the possibilities of low-cost video-making as a tool for promoting environmental best practices beyond national borders.
Project description
iDoc was a nine-day youth exchange under Key Action 1 of the Erasmus + programme that was held in Palermo (IT) from 6 – 15 May 2015 in partnership with the Thessaloniki-based youth organisation ENO Greece.
The objectives of the project included:
- Helping young people improve their ICT skills
- Enabling the exchange of experience at a European level
- Fostering awareness of environmental issues among participants, at both a local and European level
- Equipping young people with accessible and cost-effective ICT methods and tools for promoting environmental awareness and European values at local and European level
- Promoting the active participation of young people in society
The exchange brought together 9 Greeks and 9 Italians aged between 18 and 30 to live together, get to know each other and through a series of activities based on non-formal learning work towards the production of a short documentary.
Activities took place in the nature reserves of the Parco delle Madonie and Bosco della Ficuzza as well as in the historical city centre of Palermo. These included practical workshops, brainstorming sessions, reflexion groups, presentations, interviews with environmental activists and youth workers and visits to places of local interest. Participants contributed actively both to the work programme and to day-to-day tasks.
The first part of the exchange focused on enabling exchange between participants and exploring different approaches to environmental sustainability through presentations of best practices from Greece and Italy, study visits and interviews. Participants were then initiated to basic video-making techniques and began to gather footage for the final documentary while taking an active role in editorial decisions. In the final phase they worked towards preparing the final screening of the documentary and reflected on potential follow-up projects.
Results
Equipped with basic materials such as smartphones, tripods and more unexpected tools such as “selfie sticks”, the participants worked together towards discovering their respective cultures, local environmental initiatives and Palermo’s historical food markets among others, documenting the experience through the camera lens as they went along. While some members of the group had previous video-making experience, most had none.
The final video was put together with footage taken by the participants during the exchange and can be viewed here
Conclusions
iDoc provided participants not only with ideas, inspiration and a platform for exchange but also tangible techniques and tools for their effective communication. It demonstrated that with a relatively low budget, non-professional material and a short amount of time it is possible to produce quality audio-visual products for the promotion of socio-cultural initiatives. Maghweb look forward to further exploring these concepts through future projects and exchanges, both locally and internationally.
Online Ressources
Associazione di Promozione Sociale Maghweb
Acknowledgements
With many thanks to:
Serra Guarneri and Talità Kum Onlus for their hospitality
Lipu Onlus
Eleni Ivasina and the team at EN.O Greece
All the volunteers of Maghweb who contributed their time and energy to making iDoc a success
And of course Betta, Aikaterini, Michail, Giulio, Rosalba, Konstantinia, Alessia, Malvina, Chiara, Tolis, Martina, Efy, Virginia, Haris, Enrica, Alessandro, Paschalia and Iordanis!
Download the final report here