The youth exchange “MasqUErade” will take part in Tunarica, a small place in Istra region in Croatia from 25th till 31th of August 2014. The partner countries for this exchange are: Croatia, Spain and Lithuania with 21 participants. The main objectives of this project are to raise awareness of cultural diversity, tolerance, anti -discrimination in Europe and to mix and share experience on culture identity, traditions, languages, values, beliefs and mentalities, by involving actively young people from different countries. The name of the project contains also big letters inside it, UE which are symbolic and they mean United Europe and this is what we want to achieve by this exchange, all youngsters to be united and that there aren't any prejudices among them. In our increasingly mobile and global world, understanding individuals and beliefs from many cultures has become a necessity of life. Ethnic origin remains the most widely perceived ground for discrimination in the EU followed by the grounds of sexual orientation, disability, gender identity and religion beliefs. Youth in Europe more and more often meet people of different ethnicities and from different social, religious, political, economic, linguistic, and educational traditions in the workplace, schools, and in the neighborhoods where they live. We would like to bring together youth from Spain – country who has reported high number of emigrants or immigrants, youth from Lithuania – a country who hasn’t a lot of emigrants and youth form Croatia – country who just entered EU to meet and discover the enriching effect of coexistence of cultures in Europe. The methodology will be based on non – formal education. Through various methods including group work (role – plays, brainstorming discussions, quizzes, ice – breaking games and energizers), outdoor activities (field trips and treasure hunt games), interactive lectures and presentations the participants will find out more about the factors that may separate us (like nationality, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, traditions, etc.) and learn how to benefit from this diversity and blend of cultures instead of seeing them as a problem. During 3 national evenings the participants will have the possibility to confront their stereotypes and prejudices and to explore the elements of each other cultures in the areas of music, food, dance, arts and crafts and the customs and traditions while at the end they will have to mix and combine them all together into one blended cultural performance. The main task of all participants is to create a street masquerade performance which will involve local community and raise awareness of diversity, tolerance and anti – discrimination in Europe, foster imagination and creativity of the participants. They will have the freedom to prepare their masks, use bodypainting, plan dance moves and choose music, according to their own ideas. Participants are welcome to invite people from local community to take part in their performance. By getting in touch with the other people, the participants will broaden their horizons and improve mutual understanding and respect within Europe. They will have the chance to discuss and develop new ideas on intercultural dialogue, anti - discrimination and tolerance among youth in Europe. The exchange will improve their social skills such as intercultural communication, teamwork and at the same it will help them to build up their self – esteem and self – image in the international context as they will have the chance to redefine their own identity as European citizens. Moreover, the project will encourage creativity and initiative as they will have to prepare their own project involving local community. Udruga za mlade Alfa Albona će u sklopu razmjene mladih „Maskenbal“ od 25. – 31. kolovoza 2014. ugostiti 21 sudionika iz Hrvatske, Španjolske i Litve u Tunarici, malom mjestu u Istarskoj županiji. Glavni ciljevi ovog projekta su podizanje svijesti o kulturnoj raznolikosti , toleranciji, anti-diskriminaciji u Europi, kultura identiteta , tradicije, jezika , vrijednosti i aktivne participacije među mladima iz različitih zemalja. Metodologija će se temeljiti na neformalnom obrazovanju. Kroz razne metode, uključujući rad u skupinama (igra uloga, brainstorming rasprava, kvizova , icebreakera i enrgizera) , aktivnosti na otvorenom ( izleti i razne igre) , interaktivnih predavanja i prezentacija sudionici će saznati više o faktorima koji mogu utjecati na nas (poput nacionalnosti , seksualne orijentacije , vjerskih uvjerenja , tradicije, itd.) te ih naučiti kako je to zapravo prednost za svih, a ne problem. Glavna zadaća svih sudionika je stvoriti ulični maskenbal u svrhu podizanja svijesti o različitosti, toleranciji i protiv - diskriminacije u Europi . Razmjena će poboljšati kod sudionika socijalne vještine kao što su interkulturne komunikacije, timski rad, samopoštovanje uz priliku da kroz projekt razumiju identitet kao europski građani.