Search for European Projects

YOUTH & BODY (Gençlik ve Beden)
Start date: Aug 1, 2014, End date: Jul 31, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

This is a youth Exchange Project that will take place in Balikesir with the participation of 37 young people from 7 program countries (Turkey, UK, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Poland). Because the main theme of the Project (youth and body image) concerns almost all youth the target group of the Project is young people but especially those who experience serious body dissatisfaction problems. The participants will be selected and balanced according to the criterion of their age, gender, cultural diversity and interest in the topic. The personnel of our organization - who have been running, since 2005, tens of projects in the fields of inclusion, vocational training, intercultural learning, European Voluntary Service, and European awareness - have recently searched and found very interesting finding on body dissatisfaction and body modification, a problem that is frequently observed especially among young people. According to the literature, western notion of ideal body causes serious and longstanding stress effects especially among young people and women. This often leads to body dissatisfaction and even hate from their own bodies. This fact that doctors call “body dissatisfaction disorder” usually brings up some behaviors (like hard diet, fasting, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa) that harm physical and psychological health. It also forces young people to various kinds of operations and consumptions of beauty products, exercises of getting thin or muscle development, etc. Many researches highlight the seriousness of this problem. A survey conducted in the UK with 2000 young girls, for example, found out that %70 of them do not like their faces and that only %8 are happy with their bodies. Similarly, another research found out that %53 of 13-year old young American girls are dissatisfied with their bodies and that %78 of 17-year old young American girls are dissatisfied with their bodies. the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health on the other hand found out that %72 of 18-22 old Australian young women wish to loose wight and that only %25 of women in this age group is happy with their body. Similar tendencies are seen among young people of nonwestern countries as well. In turkey, for example, a research conducted in Ankara with high-school students practices of dieting and desires of having a thin belly is more common among Turkish youth than western youth. Taking all those shortly summarized info into consideration, this project aims the followings: 1) creating awareness on common problems of body image and dissatisfaction and on common practices and their effects on young people. 2) By relying on youth perspectives, producing and sharing solutions to overcome the problems of body image and dissatisfaction. 3) Establishing an international network to fight against the problems of body image and dissatisfaction. 4) Contributing to intercultural learning and personal development of young people. In order to reach at those aims, this project will organize several workshops, drama, exhibition, presentations and group discussions on the main theme of youth, body image, body dissatisfaction, body modification practices as well as the effect of those practices on the physical and psychological health and social relationships of young people. All those activities will be realized with the very active participation of the young people and they will all be based on experiential learning methods. We expect that the Project’s impact on the participants will be the followings: 1) developing an appropriate understanding of the concepts of body image ad dissatisfaction, of causes and effects of body modification practices. 2) getting insights on the links between the notion of beauty and culture. 3) Getting intellectual skills of interpreting the links among the notion of ideal body/beauty, beauty industry and media. 4) Developing skills of resistance against propaganda of ideal beauty and improving the skills of making one’s own choices. 5) improving the skills of media-literacy 6) Improving skills of self expression and team-work. Additionally, the project will produce insights, materials and solution claims that will be helpful for young people to have a healthier and better quality life style. Finally the project also will contribute to the increase of awareness at the European and international levels on practices threatening health of young people and alternatives to overcome such problem.
Up2Europe Ads

Coordinator

Details

6 Partners Participants