Gozdowo – this small village next to for 10 days Sierpc became the center of various activities. For many students it was the first time to get some animation experience. Some of them after this experience decided to continue this adventure. In Gozdowo both experienced animators and students at the same time created their own project. The open formula allowed everyone to participate in sombody’s else project. Our proposition was photo workshops for children and young people from Gozdowo. At our workshop photo cameras became a tool, that helped young people to tell stories about the places they live.

From the very beginning the group of 30 young photographers got the digital cameras. The aim wasn’t only to get to know how to make „good“ picture. The most important aim was to look for their own way of  expresions and openess to different people. In a very intensive way they were taking pictures of: important places, their families, people at work, beautifull and ugly places, their friends, pets, school. Everyday we organised evening photo trips – to catch the most beautifull light. Every trip ended with showing the pictures on the screen and long, long discussion why some pictures were good, why they moves us. Thanks to the fact, that workshops lasted for a long time, the group could experience the whole process: from interest, through the experience of  self-expression and self-development. Some of them for the first time found Gozdowo as intresting or even beautifull place. Photo camera helped them to develop feeling of belonging.  There were many active young people attending the photo workshop. For this group together with students we preapared the activation workshop. During the workshop we were thinknig about the activities young people from Gozdowo would be intrested in. We gave them the basic tools to create the project by themselves. At the same time we worked with local community to find people from the village, who could support young peolple. One of them was sołtys, the owner of free space in the center of Gozdowo – ready to invite young people to use it for their future projects. For the young people from Gozdowo it was the first experience of this kind. So they needed more support from students.At the final event photo group organised exhibiton in the park, „mobile photo point“– where everyone could take a pictiure of his/her own. Selected photos created the photo show, that was presented to parents and friends. Participants from photo group also asked their mums to make some cakes for the event.
The very important output for us was to find a group of students, who liked the way we worked. Thanks to this experience we started to cooperate with 4 of them in our projects, what we find very rewarding.