Sexpression

The project was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

"Sexpression" was an Erasmus+ Youth Exchange about self-expression, inclusion, relationships, and sex education. The main activity happened between 13-21 May 2024 in Hajdúböszörmény, Hungary. 30 people (mainly aged 18-28) came together from Portugal, Lithuania, Italy, Romania and Hungary to take part in a non-formal educational experience.

What were the reasons behind creating this project?

Delivering sexual education programs to young people positively impacts societal issues like gender equality and physical and mental well-being. However, comprehensive sexual education is not universally available in Europe. Our project aimed to address this gap by creating a youth exchange program that provides high-quality learning experiences with the help of professionals & experts and by sharing our experiences together as a group. The program created a safe place for young people to ask questions about safe sex, relationships, gender, and sexual behaviors without fear. Emphasizing the importance of relationships, the program focused on teaching the participants about healthy relationships, self-awareness, and the importance of consent and boundaries.

The program also highlighted inclusion & diversity by making the participants understand the genderbread model and, educating them on fostering an inclusive approach with others and by raising awareness on respecting each and every individual as they are. We believe by this we contribute to the establishment of inclusive communities where everyone feels safe and valued. 

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Daily blog

Day 1

"The venue welcomed us on the first day of our youth exchange. The facilitators from 21 Days NGOs were nice, friendly, and respectful.

We started the day with a name game to get acquainted with everyone. There are still struggles, but it was a challenge getting to know each other! 

In the morning we did a blind date: sitting down in couples with a question to discuss and a set time. It was fun, challenging, and a unique way of getting to know people you have never met without seeing them, focusing on each other’s voices to get out of our comfort zone.

Next we did a nice walk around the city of Hajdúböszörmény, getting to know the surroundings of the town, friendly and nature-connected while we talked to each other.

At the beginning of the afternoon, we set up our ground agreement for the week to come, our promises, challenges, what did we bring and what would we like to get out of this project, and of course, we proposed some activities for the nights. 

Then we set up our families for the week, choosing a name for each family, a motto, and a song using our creativity to fit all our names into the song lyrics, we also found out that some of the participants are very good singers!!!

On the outside, we played a game where we had to get through a rope in the least time possible, which made us connect and work together as a team. We were trying our best to be cooperative and collaborative with each other and bring out the best in each of us.

Then just after dinner, we had our first intercultural night, where it was interesting learning about the cultures of the country we’re being hosted in, as well as the Portuguese (with the Brazilians). We found some similarities between different countries and saw some presentations and some of the national teams got very competitive.

It made some of us feel proud to present our different customs and foods to other people who were interested in learning! We tried Hungarian, Portuguese, and Brazilian foods: what to say if not amazing?

To sum up our first day, we had a good time settling in a good place and meeting people from different cultures and backgrounds, with whom we will spend the next seven days. Everyone had fun, and we can’t wait to see what’s next!"

Day 2

"The second day of our Youth Experience in Hungary started with some dancing energizers, a very groovy way to bond with everyone! 

Then we had an essential group discussion about consent and boundaries, it was a meaningful and deep conversation that helped us understand each other better and create a safe space to share more about ourselves with one another. We shared what “consent” meant to each one of us, which sparked an interesting conversation about different perspectives and experiences. 

We also did a very interesting brainstorming exercise about terms like “femininity”, “masculinity”, “gender neutrality”, and “typical gender roles”.

Lunch was delicious, except for the Hungarian strawberry soup! 

We spent our afternoon putting to practice what we learned about consent, doing exercises like saying “yes”, “maybe, I’m not sure” and “no” to people asking us for a hug! It was a very productive way to understand how it can sometimes be hard to say “no” and to be assertive about boundaries.

We finished our session with a very relaxing meditation session. 

After dinner, we had another intercultural night, where we learned about the Lithuanian and Romanian cultures, learning different dances, swear words and expressions, and music!"

Day 3

"The third day of our Youth Experience in Hungary started with musical chairs; it was very competitive and fun!

Then we had a lecture about genders, using the “Genderbread” model, we learned the difference between assigned sex, gender identity, gender expression, and attraction. We also debated these topics with each other, asking questions and becoming more open-minded. Then we drew pictures expressing our genders; it helped a lot with self-knowledge. We also made a secret friend, so we could send gifts or cute messages anonymously to the person we picked.

Lunch was very good!! Finally, the starter wasn’t some fruit soup🫢 (with all due respect to Hungarian cuisine).

After lunch, we planned our 4th day and continued to talk about genders. We opened a space for people to ask questions about things they didn’t know, and we helped each other to answer them so we could understand specific things even better.

After dinner, we had another intercultural night and learned Indian dances. We had so much fun trying to follow along; Indians are very spirited! We also learned Italian hand gestures; it was chef's kiss👨🏻‍🍳 🤌🏻."

Day 4

"The 4th day of our Youth Experience in Hungary started a little earlier than usual; we had breakfast at 7 am and we had to leave the venue at 7:40!!

The reason why we had to leave so early was a pretty great one tho; we had a field trip to the city of Debrecen, the second biggest town in Hungary. 

Our day started at a technical school where we met with local teenagers to teach them about our different countries and cultures. Each country was made into a team and had to make some games with the local kids, and their feedback was amazing, they said they had a wonderful time with us and loved to learn about our countries.

Right after that we had a little walk around the city, and we went to pay a visit to the beautiful University of Debrecen, a staple of gothic architecture in the city, we took a lot of amazing pictures together there, it was really cute. 

Then we headed for lunch, the organizing team, Renata, Abris and Tibi offered us pizza at a local pizzeria and oh my god it was good pizza.

In the afternoon it rained for quite a while but that didn’t stop us from exploring the city and just wandering around town, we had free time from 13:30 to 17:30 which gave us a lot of possibilities. Some of us went to the local mall, others to the local sauna, and others went to the marvelous Déri Museum which is really worth paying a visit to.

At 18h we were reunited at the bus station and we came back to the venue where we had an interesting dinner, a kind of lasagna with a Hungarian twist, it was really tasty.

We closed the day with some team roleplay games, made possible by our dear game master, amazing photographer and friend, Tibi.

It was a beautiful day, one to remember for sure."

Day 5

"The 5th day of our Youth Experience in Hungary started with “the pizza man” energizer. It was very loud and fun!

Then we had a lecture about relationships, talking about the love triangle theory, and we debated relationship topics with each other, answering questions about how to start a relationship as a young adult; the types of relationships (mono, poli, open, long-distance, etc.); when and how to and a relationship and how to build and sustain a relationship, and sharing experiences. 

The lunch was amazing!!! It was chicken with cornflakes and rice. After that, we talked about the five love languages. It was very interactive because everyone could find out their main love language and we made a theater presentation for each one of them, for the rest of the group. 

We also divided ourselves into smaller groups and shared intimate experiences in relationships (romantic or friendship-related) and then we said words of affirmation to comfort each other. We created a safe and comfy environment where people could open up, be honest with their doubts, and feel comfortable. 

So we finished our day by going to the activity room, playing some games, talking about our personal life and experiences with our closer friends, dancing and having lots of fun!! "

Day 6

"The 6th day of our Youth Experience in Hungary started with some energizers that really woke everyone up!

After that, we had a presentation from one of the participants about contraception and their importance. Everyone was really interested in the topic and we all learned something new!

Then we had to team up and research some questions related to sex, expanding our knowledge in some of those areas and sharing our findings within our small groups.

The lunch was really good!!! It was chicken with cheese and tomato, we really enjoyed it! The afternoon activity was a workshop with 4 sections with different questions regarding sex. At the different stations, we could discuss with other participants what sex means to us, and share funny or awkward situations connected to sex to break the taboos, perfectionism from movies and the embarrassment circles. We laughed a lot and also learned some valuable insights and perspectives about sexual relations from every participant, covering the topic of how to cause pleasure.

In the last session of the day, we talked about self-exploration, shared good online sex educational materials with each other. Part of this workshop was dedicated to talking about kinks/fetish, sensual art and nude photography since these are all parts of a holistic sex education. 

This day was really insightful and went with ease in our safe environment even when the topics were a bit heavier. We learned a lot from each other and understood better the different aspects of sex education."

Day 7

"Our 7th and (sadly) last day at our Sexpression Youth Exchange in Hungary was overall a very meaningful and emotional one. 

But before all the sappy crying and hugging, it began with a very energising cleaning and tidying of the training room where we spent the whole week, while we listened to some show tunes and Disney songs. 

In the morning, we recap what happened with us throughout the week, then worked in our country groups to come up with very interesting ideas about disseminating the learnings from the youth exchange. Can't wait to share these experiences with the others back in our countries. 

After lunch, it was time to reflect on the experience, and share it with everyone. We went around and told everyone “What is alive in us”. Some talked about love, connection and friendship, others talked about having created good memories and learned new things. 

The exercise after that was the heaviest one, emotionally. We created a “love tunnel”, where everyone walked through, one at a time, and got to hear sweet things about them from everyone else! Not one person didn’t feel emotional because of it. 

Our last dinner started off with some dancing, and ended the same way! Everyone used the last night to dance, sing, and say our last goodbyes. We started off as strangers, and ended up as a family."

Extra materials