12/09/2026
That's a wrap: "Remember, resist, react"
Seven days in Veli Lošinj, 36 people from six countries, and one question we kept coming back to: how do you recognise authoritarianism before it starts to feel normal?
From 5 to 11 September 2026, our Erasmus+ youth exchange brought together 29 young people aged 18-30, their group leaders and a facilitator from Croatia, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Poland, Serbia and Spain.
Here is what the week actually looked like 👇
📍 Day 1 - Arrival and group building. We came in as six national groups and finished the evening as one. Ice-breakers, trust games, expectations, group agreements and the first intercultural evening.
📍 Day 2 - Understanding totalitarianism. Straight into the difficult part: how totalitarian regimes rise, how they hold on to power, and what happens to human rights along the way. Case studies, group discussion, reflection.
📍 Day 3 - Past and present connections. A media literacy workshop on propaganda then and disinformation now, and the uncomfortable overlap between the two. In the afternoon we stopped talking and started acting - theatre and role play on censorship and everyday life under an authoritarian system.
📍 Day 4 - Democracy and active citizenship. A debate on democracy, real cases of human rights violations, and honest personal reflection on what each of us would actually do. Then group work on awareness actions.
📍 Day 5 - Campaign preparation. Workshops on storytelling and social media, international teams building their campaign ideas, and peer feedback that did not go easy on anyone.
📍 Day 6 - Creative action. Cameras out. Teams filmed and edited their videos and launched their awareness campaigns online.
📍 Day 7 - Closing and evaluation. Final reflection, planning of follow-up activities at home, Youthpass ceremony, evaluation and a farewell evening nobody wanted to end.
What we are proudest of: almost every session was led by the participants themselves, in small mixed teams. They facilitated, presented, set up the room, ran the energisers and collected the evaluations. Six cultural evenings, countless conversations after midnight, and a group that learned to disagree well.
🎯 Topics of the project:
- Human rights and rule of law
- Preventing radicalisation
- Democracy and inclusive democratic participation
The exchange is over, but the work is not. Participants are now going home to run peer workshops, presentations and campaigns in their own communities in six countries. Remember. Resist. React.
📌 Project: Remember, resist, react (RRR)
📌 Project number: 2025-3-NL02-KA152-YOU-000375517
📌 Coordinator: Stichting Helende Kunst (NL)
📌 Partners: Platypus (HR), Tomorrow's Young Leaders (BG), O2 por la vida (ES), Eko fun kamp (RS), Fundacja Rozwoju Regionalnego "Olszynka" (PL)
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
