Experience of a lifetime
Spending twelve days with your community, sharing stories, learning and growing, connecting with yourself and nature – what could be better than that? That’s how we spent almost two weeks this summer. And we can agree that this has been a life changing experience for all of us.
YOUth ACTivist Camp was full of emotions, experiences and all colours of the rainbow! All the wonderful activities made us grow and flourish as humans and as activists: street actions gave us courage and strength; discussions made us more aware and made us look from different perspectives; creative and playful activism awoke our inner children; and so so much more! Every day was different, full of activities and learning opportunities, each day brought new knowledge, new perspectives and new challenges. These twelve days seemed so short and so long at the same time: so short that we didn’t want to say goodbyes, wanted to stay there, be present and devote all our time for the good of our community, but so long that we made friends for life, learned and grew so much and were ready to go and do more in our local communities!
Together we made a community. Community that always had your back, was always there, always listened and always supported you. We made this inclusive, safe environment, where each and every one of us could be unapologetically themselves and be celebrated for that! We made friends that we’ll never forget. We made memories that we’ll cherish forever. We made connections that will be so useful in our future activism, expanding our reach outside of Latvian boarders. We came to this project as strangers, but left as a family!
The YOUth ACTivist Camp took place in Olde Vechte Foundation, Ommen, the Netherlands between August 8th and 19th, 2022. It gathered almost 40 participants from eight different countries: Latvia, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Netherlands. This multicultural environment gave us the opportunity to see and experience queer stories from all around Europe and gave us insight on legal and social situations of the LGBTQIA+ community in Europe. While our circumstances are different and each country faces different issues, we all fight for our fundamental human rights. And our fight doesn’t end with our countries, when our friends, our community, our family is in danger across the world.
“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
Fannie Lou Hamer
