Noortevahetus "C.R.E.A.M" Portugalis

Youth Exchange "C.R.E.A.M." 
Date: 6.-16. March 2024
Location: “Castelo Novo” historical village, Fundão municipality, Portugal
 
Together with young people from Portugal, Romania, Estonia, Spain and the Netherlands, we spent 9 days in the historical village of Castelo Novo, located in the heart of Portugal. The main goal of the project was to combat youth unemployment and poverty by promoting financial literacy and good financial habits among young people.

We spent the first days of the project getting to know each other, remembering names, doing team building activities like Marshmallow Challenge and Mission Impossible, playing group games, icebreaker and energizers.

Then we began to gradually delve deeper into the project topic. We covered topics such as what financial literacy is, personal cash flow, why to save money, needs and wants, investing in different instruments, compound interest. Self-reflection activities helped us analyse how we handle our money, create personal financial plans and share them with others. 

The sixth day of the project we spent in the city of Fundão, visiting the local startup incubator “Fablab Aldeias do Xisto”, communicating with a local entrepreneur, and listening to his story of becoming an entrepreneur, his fears, difficulties, motivation and successes. Inspired, we continued to explore the Fundão city and its surroundings.

On the next day, organisers prepared a stock market simulation game. It was structured in such a way that each “game day” the participants received a certain amount of money and they had to choose a strategy - save, invest, take out a loan from a bank to purchase real estate, etc. Just like in real life, different situations happened in the game - inflation, salary increases, payments for food and rent, loss of investments, robberies and even money frauds. After the game finished, we discussed the results. Some participants choose a really good strategy that has helped them build a very valuable portfolio of real estate and other assets. Some participants ended up completely bankrupt and in debt. Simulation games are a powerful tool for testing different strategies, trying out different roles and developing skills in a risk-free environment.

The goal of the last days of the project was to record short videos about financial literacy on certain topics, put them on a public playlist and share them with young people all around the world.

During the project, we received a lot of learning moments in financial literacy, public speaking, mental health literacy, self-expression in English, and cultural awareness.

Thanks to Selfmade NGO for an unforgettable youth exchange!

Estonian Team 
Gregor, Hiie, Stella, Laura, Marina, Jelizaveta

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