INFO-PACK

Title of the project: ECO RURAL REUNION DEVELOPMENT

Type of the activity: Erasmus+ KA 1 - Youth Exchange Programme Countries

Venue: LES RESIDENCES DU LAGON (Kitoko Location) Bungalows - Saline les Bains, Reunion Island, France

Dates of effective implementation: 20 - 30 July 2019 (with 20 July being Arrival Day and 30 of July being Departure Day)

Working methods used: Non-formal education (getting to know each other, team building, team work, playing games, work in small groups and in big group, ICL games, etc)

Countries involved: Romania, France, Estonia, Poland, Spain

Participants: Each partner country will send 5 participants + 1 group leader. The participants age has to be between 18 and 30 years old and the group leaders have no upper age limit.

'Escales Latines' Association is organising this project with the grant received through the Erasmus+ Program from the European Union.

ECO RURAL REUNION DEVELOPMENT is a multilateral Erasmus+ Key Action 1, Youth Exchange project, that will gather 31 young people (including 6 leaders) from 5 countries (Estonia, Poland, Romania, Spain and of course France), during 20 - 30 July 2019, in LES RESIDENCES DU LAGON (Kitoko Location) Bungalows - Saline les Bains, Reunion Island, France.

Through the spirit of the active European Citizenship, "ECO RURAL REUNION DEVELOPMENT" aims to underline the importance of the environmental awareness practices in rural areas, by the young participants, through creative campaigns conducted using methods of non-formal education and through concrete actions, to reduce the negative impact caused by man, on the natural environment.

'Escales Latines' Association is a young french organisation that has the following objectives:

- consolidation of the French-Reunionnaise relationships in the cultural, social, educational, environmental and economic fields through bilateral projects ;

- encouragement of volunteerism during the activities of the projects and

meeting with other organizations ;

- enhancement of European cooperation in what regards the participation within international organizations, but also regarding bilateral or multilateral relations with certain countries (or regions) ;

- enhancement of the number of cultural exchange programs between the two countries ;

- achievement of projects of Erasmus+, youth exchange, TC, EVS, VET, Erasmus+ Sport, Creative Europe and their implementation.

Reunion Island is an oversea region of France (in french language: Région d'outre-mer) .

If you wish to spend more time on Reunion Island, on your own, and you want to find out everything that there is to know about it, before departure from your home, we recommend you to check the following links :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9union

https://en.reunion.fr/

https://wikitravel.org/en/Reunion

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/reunion

http://www.traveller.com.au/reunion-island-travel-guide-12-reasons-to-be-impressed-by-this-recordbreaking-indian-ocean-island-gxhdup

Do NOT forget your necessary documents to enter in Reunion Island !

Try to have with you everything that’s relevant for YOU to enter !

In general, the citizens of Italy, Poland, Romania and Spain, can enter in Reunion Island only with the ID Card (National Card) BUT it's the responsibility of each participant to check, recheck and double check its own travel condition(s) to Reunion Island, from the starting departure point all the way to the final arrival destination - Reunion Island !

Maximum careful when you'll be picking your flight(s) because if you will have to change the plane in some airports (depending on the country and on the airport) there might be required a Passport (even though it's just for transit) ! So please triple check.

Although we can’t reimburse you the cost of health insurances, we strongly recommend you to have a health insurance during the time of this project.

It should not be expensive and it takes just little time to make one.

Take into consideration that you will be in a foreign country, on an island, with strangers and in case something’s going to go wrong, you will need it !

Reunion Island benefits from a tropical climate softened by the breezes of the Indian Ocean. The sun shines down all year round, especially in the north, west and south of the island. The wide variety of microclimates in Reunion means that one can be soaking up the sunshine by the sea in the morning and be up taking in the cool mountain air in the afternoon, and all this without having to travel far to do so.

Here, on these links, please check the climate in Reunion : https://en.reunion.fr/practical/reunion-island/geography-and-climate/climate

&

https://www.climatestotravel.com/climate/reunion

Click on this link and check the weather again just BEFORE PACKING AND TRAVELLING TO REUNION: https://www.accuweather.com/en/re/cilaos/275407/weather-forecast/275407

Bring good shoes and proper clothes for outdoors (comfortable hiking/trekking shoes) !

The Reunion mountains are really amazing, so we will organize hiking/trekking trip(s) with the entire group and it is mandatory to have proper hiking equipment if you wish to take part. More details about that will come in the weeks before the exchange.

FOR THE INDOOR ACCOMMODATION

Bring with you slippers for indoor and slippers for the shower !

Also, we will try as much as possible to do all the most important activities outside so it’s good to have light clothes and sport clothes for this .

FOR THE BEACH SIDE

We will have some days at the beach side as well so please bring with you all the relevant things for the beach side: sun cream, swimwear, towels, beach slippers, loose fitting clothing, light shirts and pants of natural fibres (cotton, linen), light sweatshirt for the evening, light raincoat or umbrella.

You will most probably land on Sainte-Denis Roland Garros Airport: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Garros_Airport

We will try to arrange local transport for the entire group, on 20 of July, from the Airport to the destination -LES RESIDENCES DU LAGON (Kitoko Location)

. Also for the return on 30 of July.

But more info and details regarding this, will follow in the upcoming period.

Transport will be covered by a private bus.

We will stay in touch on the Facebook Group of this project that we will create.

EURO is the currency used in Reunion Island. ATM's are available only in major towns and credit cards are widely accepted except in chambres d'hôtes (B&Bs) and mountain lodges.

At the following link you can see what type of socket (plug in) is being used in Reunion : https://www.power-plugs-sockets.com/reunion/

VERY IMPORTANT :

Please use the cheapest ways of transportation possible - Second class ! If you will use as well, the train and/or the bus, please use the second class, this is very important !

You can travel 3-4 day(s) before the project starts and 3-4 day(s) after the project ends but not more than these days !

Please DO NOT lose your boarding passes, train tickets and/or bus tickets ! We will not be able to reimburse you anymore, if you lose them !

Mandatory, send us by email or bring with you:

-Booking confirmation/E-ticket

-Proof of payment/Invoice

-Extras account if you paid with your card

-Boarding Pass(es) if you travel by plane

We strongly encourage you to buy flights that have the possibility to do online check-in and in this way you will be able to give us the return boarding passes as well, without sending them to us by post when you return home !

If for your airline is not possible, you still need to send us the boarding passes by post after the project. It is very important to have all your travel and financial documents with you for each person, otherwise the reimbursement will not be possible !

Reimbursement will be done by bank transfer ONLY in the account of your sending organization, according to the rules of Erasmus+.

We will make an effort and we will try to do all the reimbursements for all the national groups within 3 months after the end of the project, BUT only if we will get on time all the necessary required documents from every participant, and the proof of dissemination activities.

The project is not a party or a trip to the island, we are giving a lot of importance to the activities. We will establish together a dissemination plan which will have to be followed.

DISSEMINATION IS VERY IMPORTANT AND NEEDS TO BE DONE.

We will NOT reimburse:

- the expenses of renewal of passport

- the expenses of insurance

- the charges of change of flight ticket

- the travelling expenses outside of itinerary form your country to Reunion Island

- the travelling expenses outside of project time

- the price difference between the granted amount and the real price of your trip

- taxi or private car transport costs !

Working language of this youth exchange is English.

Your English doesn’t need to be perfect, neither is ours ! Better a little English then no any language communication at all.

It’s important to respect and understand each other !

Please be prepared to present your organisation during the meeting.

Bring some information materials about your organisation and other things which will help you to present your organisation.

It's good to know that we do the presentation only by talking/dancing/singing/playing games...

…So leave your power points home.

During the international evening you will have the pleasure to promote traditional food, drinks, music, flags, games, dance in a creative way (please try to do it without using power points). It should not be expensive, but something specific to your country and which would allow you to give us an idea about your culture.

Of course, if you would like, there is the possibility for your national group to cook something traditional (from your country) for all the participants of this project (@lunch and/or @dinner) using the kitchen of the establishment.

BUT anyway we recommend you to bring something that doesn't require long time preparation, that doesn't get spoiled quickly or never - like for example cans - and that can be easily presented on the spot, anywhere at any time, in any conditions.

Remember: You can bring typical costumes, ornaments, leaflets, posters, flyers, food, sweets, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks… and so on !

Also, you can show videos, photos, sing music, present national legends and dance traditional dances from your countries! We are counting on you to make the evening as interesting as possible and promise to help you in any way that we can!!!

Unfortunately we don’t have budget to reimburse you the expenses made for the things that you are bringing, but try to be creative and funny !

We hardly wait for your national delicious food and drinks…

Please don’t forget to tell us before coming here if you want to receive a YOUTHPASS Certificate.

More about the Youthpass Certificate you can find at: https://www.youthpass.eu/en/

Because our budget is really small compared with the prices on Reunion Island, we will have to cook for ourselves. So we will create a Cooking system: we will form daily cooking teams (of 3-4-5 people) that will rotate and cook for all the rest of the participants.

We've done this before and it turned out really well so we are absolutely sure it will work nicely this time too.

We, the organizing team, will be buying the products from the supermarket and the daily cooking teams are going to use the kitchen and the facilities of the accommodation(s), to cook everyday.

At the accommodation at the beach side, the participants in each Bungalow will have to cook for their own Bungalow. Each Bungalow has some kind of a small kitchen that can be used.

We're hardly waiting to see your cooking skills in action... or not ! :-))

The internet connection at the accommodation places will be really poor. We will do our best, until the start of the mobility, depending on the costs, on our available budget and as well depending on the understanding of the owners of the accommodations, to establish decent internet connection at the accommodation places.

But anyway please bare in mind there are chances for the internet not to work well. Expect and be prepared to be mostly offline during this project. Taking into consideration also the topic of this project, we consider it actually as a positive thing.

Your mobile phone internet: Please check with your phone operator what and how much internet traffic you have included in your phone subscription, that can be used in Reunion Island ! Normally, now, in the EU, there is no more roaming but please check with your phone operator about the internet traffic on the Reunion Island !

We will send you the detailed DAILY PROGRAMME with couple of weeks before the start of the Mobility ! Until then we will keep in touch on Email and Facebook Group.

We will create a Facebook Group with all the participants and all the organisation team.

With the help of this Facebook Group we will be able to communicate faster and better with you, before coming to Reunion Island for our project. So this is why is very important for you to share with us your Facebook account so that we can add you on the Facebook Group.

We will let you know when the time is right about the name and address of this Facebook Group.