Value the Difference: On local, national and international media

The project Value the Difference, financed by the European Union, through the Erasmus+ programme and coordinated by Babilon Travel NGO, has finished the two main activities:

• A training course for 24 youth workers, educators and volunteers, from 5 European countries, involved in activities with young disabled people. The training was held in Cluj-Napoca and Muntele Băișoara resort, between November 3-11 2016;
• A youth exchange for 40 young people and youth leaders, coming from the same 5 European countries, România, Polonia, Belgia, Grecia și Italia, youth exchange ment to let some of the youth workers, trained during the training course, to practice their gained and developed competences, regarding adaptive sport and outdoor activities, used as tools of inclusion for young disabled people. The youth exchange took place in Poronin/Poland, in a wonderful mountain region (Tatra), between January 16-23, 2016.

In these two main activities, there were directly involved, as participants, 19 blind and visually impaired young people. Through the activities held at the Special High School for Visually Impaired Cluj-Napoca, the project also involved many blind/visually impaired students and teachers of this institution.

The porpose of this article is to review how the project Value the Difference and its main activities were present in the national and international media.

We started to promote the project right after its approval, by posting the first articol and the general info-pack on our own website (in Romanian and English) and on the Salto Youth portal:

• Asociația Babilon Travel – Value the Difference, activități accesibile tinerilor cu deficiențe de vedere
• Babilon Travel NGO – Value the Difference, Inclusion, Sport and Much More
• Salto Youth – Value the Difference
• Salto Youth – InfoPack Value the Difference

VIEWS International, the Municipality of Cluj-Napoca and the Specvial High School for Visually Impaired Cluj-Napoca, partners of Value the Difference, relesed thei first articles on their own websites:

• VIEWS International – Value the Difference
• Visit Cluj (Primăria Cluj-Napoca)- Value the Difference în Cluj
• Liceul Special pentru Deficienți de Vedere Cluj-Napoca – Value the Difference

The sport portal sportanddev.org and the website Youth in Advancement 18+ are also describing the project Value the Difference:

• sportanddev.org – Value the Difference Training Course
• Youth in Advancement 18+ – Training Course Value the Difference

On Salto Youth portal was published the info-pack for the first mai activity, the training course:

• Salto Youth – InfoPack Training Course

On October 27, 2015, one week before starting the trainingBabilon Travel NGO published the first press release in Romanian and English:

• Asociația Bab, ilon Travel – Comunicat de presă
• Babilon Travel NGO – Press Release

Due to this press release and before starting the training, the news portal eClujeanul and the website Radio Cluj, released articles regarding the project and its activities:

• eClujeanul – Value the Difference
• Radio Cluj – Prețuiește Diferența

Value the Difference is also reflected by the audio-visual media, Radio România Cluj and TVR, on November 5, 2015:

First feedback, coming from the participants to the training. This video, created byMaryem Legzouli, could be regarded as the official video of the training course:

VIEWS International posted on their site an article about the outcomes of the training course:

• VIEWS International – Training Course in Romania Value the Difference

VIEWS International also lunched the info-pck for the second main activity, the youth exchange:

• VIEWS International – Youth Exchange and InfoPack
• VIEWS International – Youth Exchange (French)

A talk-show  on the national channel TVR3 and on the local one TVR Cluj, were Babilon Travel NGO describes, during half an hour, its projects and activities, including of course Value the Difference:

The Hungarian language newspaper Szabadsag, publishes on December 10, 2015, an article dedicated to the Value the Difference project:

• Szabadsag – Projects dedicated to Visually Impaired Young People

Before the second main activity, the youth exchange in Poronin, Poland, Babilon Travel NGO published a new press release, in Romanian and English:

• Asociația Babilon Travel – Comunicat de presă
• Babilon Travel NGO – Press Release

This press release and a special article, dedicated to the Value the Difference project, were published on the website of our partner The High School for Visually Impaired Cluj-Napoca:

• LSDV: Value the Difference: Accessible Activities for Visually Impaired Young People

On January 17, 2016, the on-line newspaper cluju.ro posts an article dedicated to the youth exchange in the Tatra mountains:

• cluju.ro – 10 tineri cu dizabilități de vedere participă la un proiect internațional în Polonia

The executive director and project coordinator at Babilon Travel NGO, Gabriel Nagy, gives an interview at Radio Renașterea, concerning the Value the Difference project:

Promotion and dissemination of the results of the project Value the Difference were also done on the Facebook pages, where also the calls for participants and info-packs were posted:

• Youth in Advance
• Babilon Travel NGO
• Youth of Europe
• Mine Vaganti NGO

For each of the two main activities, we created a closed Facebook group:

• Value the Difference TC
• Value the Difference YE

These closed groups had important contributions to the dissemination and exploitation of the results of the project and also raised the impact on the participants and on the partner organisations.

Related articles:

Value the Difference – Inclusion, sport and much more

Value the Difference – Press release (27.10.2015)

Value the Difference – Starting the second part