Implementation

OUT OF THE BOX took place in Pissouri village in Cyprus from 04 to 11 July 2021 and was implemented by ACPELIA organisation. The Project Manager was Nikolas Nikolaou and the trainers were Katerina Daniil and Orfeas Kritikos. The activities that were implemented were the below:

Monday 05/07/2021:

· GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER: Activity to encourage the getting known of all the participants. Participants were sitting in two lines the one opposite the other and they had 3 minutes to talk with the person that was in front of them and to tell their name, country, studies, hobbies and one crazy think that they had done. When the 3 minutes passed, the one, in the one line only, who was at the end had to run and go first and all of them in that line should move one position to talk with the next person.

· INTRODUCTION TO THE PROGRAM: There were 3 teams. The topic of the first will be "Human Rights", the topic of the second will be "Self-knowledge" and the topic of the third will be "Innovation". The participants had 30 minutes to discuss as a team and draw anything relevant. When they finished, they present their "works of art" to the other teams and discussions followed, being directed by the trainers, to introduce them to the aims of the project. Purpose was to introduce our participants into our three main topics as written above.

· EXPECTATIONS, FEARS, CONTRIBUTION. The participants were shared in 3 teams and each team had to right in 3 different coloured papers their expectations, fears, contribution regarding the project, and when each team finished its topic, then they moved to the next topic. When this activity finished, the participants were asked to write their basic information about themselves in order to create an envelope, where each participant could write a message to him/her.

· ELEMENTS OF INNOVATION: The participants were divided in 8 teams. Each team was given a paper which included thirty blank circles of the same size. They had 30 minutes to complete in innovate way their paper. In the end, all the teams compared their results and discussion guided by the trainers followed. The goal of this challenge was to push people to test their creativity by turning circles into recognizable objects in a very short period. They challenged their flexibility in ideas. They combined ideas and all the teams "broke the rules", with aim to be innovative and to think out of the box for their self and team development.

Tuesday 06/07/2017

Who are I?: The trainers asked the participants to reflect what is interesting or important to know about someone else when you first meet, and brainstorm the general categories of information. For example, name, age, sex, nationality, family role, religion, age, gender, ethnicity, job/study, taste in music, hobbies, sports, general likes and dislikes and more. Then each participant was given a coloured paper to draw his star with the 10 most important information about him/her as lines of the star, assuming that they are stars. When all of them had finished, they were divided in groups of men and women to compare what is important for each one, and if they had something in common they had to make the line bigger and write the name of the person that they had the similar information. When this phase finished, they were divided in groups regarding their country, where they had again to compare the information and make the lines bigger by completing more names. At the end, they were divided in groups randomly and they did the same thing. We discussed about how identity develops and which aspects of identity are social constructs and which are inherent and fixed, especially those relating to religion and gender. It was worth asking participants to consider their own process of growing up and how certain aspects of their identity have changed over the years, perhaps even those aspects of their identity that they think are fixed. We combined also the discussion with Human Rights. Some purposes of the activity were to find out who we are and who are the others, to see that all of us have something in common, but all of us are unique, like stars, they have their own identity and this makes the world more colourful and beautiful. If we know ourselves and we learn how the others think about us and how the others seem, we can develop the world.

Lost on a Deserted Island: We divided the participants in 4 teams, and we gave them the scenario that everyone was lost and stranded on a deserted island and each person describes one object that they would bring to the island and why. The purpose of this activity was to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills to survive being stranded on a desert island. Additionally, lost on a Deserted Island is an approachable way to get people to open up and share a little bit about themselves and what they enjoy or value.

· Team building challenge (Lego): We divided the participants in 4 teams and each team was given a LEGO game with the instructions of how to build it. Each team had to find methods to be as fast as possible, so they worked on the teamwork, cooperation, creativity and innovation. Some other purposes were to understand that this situation can be in real life, in a workplace, where they have to work as a team for the best results.

• Team building activity in Pissouri village: The participants were divided in teams of 5-6 persons and each team had to resolve all of the 16 tasks in the village, to get known with the place, the people, the tradition of Cyprus and to enhance team building. An example of a task was: What is the main church of the village? Can you find it? (There are a lot of churches and small churches in the village but we want the main one. A photo of the group in the church is a must for our tasks.). Purposes of the activity were to know better the participants, to work as a team to find the solutions in each "problem" and to get in touch in a funny way with the environment and the culture of Cyprus. (Tasks in Pissouri village in a different page)
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WEDNESDAY 07/07/2021

· CLOUD POWER: Each team was given a role: Rich businessman/woman, Athlete, Student, Businessman/woman that bankrupted, Pregnant woman and Blind person. They had to draw something relevant and to make some clouds in each drawing showing the following: esteem, personal fulfilment, basic needs, personal security, health, family, friendship, basic needs. This activity developed into a discussion about human rights, but that they started by thinking about what it means to be human. Some other purposes were to link human rights with human beings and to enhance the interest in empathy.

· ONE STEP FORWARD: In this activity there were 30 different situations coherent with discrimination, human rights, entrepreneurship and society, where each participant randomly took a role. At first, they were all in a line and then, when the trainer was reading a question (ex. Have you ever found any difficulty in your life?), if the answer was positive, the participant would make a step forward, otherwise he would stay in his position. Some purposes of the activity were to understand that we are all equal, but some are more equal than others. In this activity participants took on roles and move forward depending on their chances and opportunities in life. They raised awareness about inequality of opportunity, they developed imagination and critical thinking and they fostered empathy with others who are less fortunate.

THURSDAY 08/07/2021

· Inclusion activity: The group was divided into 5 teams and had to prepare a theatre. 1 team was visually impaired and must communicate with their eyes covered. 1 team was deaf-mute and must communicate without speaking. 1 team was in a wheelchair and must communicate without getting up from the chair. 1 team had mental disabilities and must communicate in their own language, English were prohibited. 1 team had multiple disabilities such as diabetes, epilepsy, turret syndrome, food allergies. Each team had the task of finding methods to access workplace / a space in the area. Purposes of the theatre were to understand how the others feel in different situations, to discuss about human rights of these people and to be innovative and find solutions to adapt them in the situation in regard each time. Many people concluded that we may have self-knowledge but is difficult to have empathy, and this is an aim of all of us, because if we feel the other we can help him/her for the improvement of his/her condition of life and of the society in general. In addition, we concluded that the most important is to be educated respectively starting from a small age.

· VISIT A GRAPE PACKAGING PLANT IN PISSOURI: Purposes of the activity were to understand how innovation leads to success of a small business in a village.

· REAL LIFE EXAMPLE: Maria Markou, a famous and successful Para athlete in Cyprus in weightlifting (second world champion) and in wheelchair basketball (player in Apollon Wheelchair Basketball) visited us and told us about her story, how her life has changed since her accident, what makes her motivated, how she sees life, what are her aims, human rights in regard to people with disabilities, opportunities in life and many other matters. Additionally, she told us how she practises every day in order to achieve the qualification in the Paralympics in Tokyo 2021. The participants were enthusiastic about this visit and the next days were still discussing about her inside and outside power, and were using her example in the following activities.

SATURDAY 10/07/2021

BUSINESS PLAN: The participants were divided in 5 groups and each group had to think about the creation of a business which combined human rights respect, innovation and self-improvement. This activity aimed to make a summary of what they have learnt during the training, to cooperate as a team and to give them motivation to think always out of the box to achieve their aims and to be successful.