Training Course in Romania

The course emphasised photography as a tool for environmental activism and campaign making and provided opportunities for participants to exchange ideas and experiences, learn from each other, and develop new skills, including pinhole and digital photography, and green business ideas.

At the end of the training course, participants were able to use these skills to promote positive change in their communities.

The main practical activities:

• Digital Photography workshops, where participants learned how to use different photography techniques to document sustainable practices including discussions on sustainability and how to integrate these concepts into visual storytelling;

• Pinhole Photography workshops, where participants learned the general principles of pinhole photography (the first photography technique used in history) and built their own pinhole camera;

• Solargraphy workshop (using long exposure technique), where we used materials collected through cleaning activities on the public domain (metal cans) and each participant built their own photo 'cameras';

• Ecology, Sustainability, and Environmental Campaign making workshops, where the participants presented the environmental contexts of their own countries and developed sustainability principles and ideas;

• Practical Photography Sessions in nature in Brasov and its surroundings, where the participants were able to apply the principles learned and took photos that will be used in the exhibitions made in the project, both locally and online;

• Green Business ideas workshop - local green businesses entrepreneurs (a candles making business using only ecological materials) visited us to gain hands-on experience and inspiration for sustainable practices.

All these theoretical and practical activities, as well as the precious exchange of ideas between participants, in a multicultural environment provided the youth workers valuable insights and knowledge which they can later on apply in the following local workshops within our project, in the NGOs following activities, as well as in their own work, positively impacting their own lifestyle and local community.