Preparation
My expectations were to know how a youth organization worked and managed itself to find fund, to work and has the sufficient resources to accomplish its goals. I was curious to see what methodologies it used to work with teenagers and kids. Also I was interested in knowing how different NGOs develop the themes of poverty and gender equality in countries as Portugal, very affected by the world crisis.
Finally I expected to interchange ways of working and managing issues and problems that all youth NGOs have in matter of training and becoming professional in what we do.
My main objective was to present my organization and my country, with the idea to show our similarities in the way that we work for the same objective and at the same time the cultural difference that enriches the interchange and the experience
Also I investigate for my visit I investigate a lot about Portugal and Amarante, Catarina sent to me material about Aventura Marao Club as well and Casa da Juventude. I read a lot about their work.
I was in contact with Catarina and she sent to me the schedule, and I asked her which public they worked with and if I would have a teenager audience and what they expected from my visit
We had this problem with the plane ticket, because from OAJNU we didn’t have the total amount to afford the cost of the plane, but we talked to UNOY and together we solved that.
Job Shadowing Week

Miguel and Catarina were to pick me up to the Porto’s airport, then we had a quick lunch and we went to our first policy meeting right away. I met the rest of them in different moments of the day.
I believe that the objectives of the project were presented in my entire visit. We did workshop having in account the Participation of young people. I did have discussions about Cultural diversity. I could learn from other NGOs who worked combating poverty and social exclusion.
Aventura marao club and me exchange our experience and knowledge on how we run our youth organisation, we talked about our experience regarding how to carry out local youth projects (development,implementation and evaluation), and also how developed a joint project between Amarante and oajnu Argentina. In these matters I learned about Youth in action program, and the different areas and projects that it has.
Finally I think this is the best accomplished objective “Cultural diversity: As youth-based peace organisations, all partners in the project promote the importance of respecting and celebrating cultural diversity as well as understanding and dialogue among cultural different groups. Peace is not possible without this”. It was above all an cultural exchange but not only with Portuguese people but with Italian people, Polish people, Georgian people, Spanish people. It was an European exchange and the way they work in this issues.
It was a very positive experience but I find it very short time for the objective of the project. In this time the organization didn’t have a lot of activities already planned, so we observed like an artificial activity of the hosting organization because Aventura marao clube in this case had to planned a lot of non regular activities for my visit. I lost in some point to observe the daily work of the organization.
Another reason is that I think that the better way of learning is doing. The emphasis of the job shadowing experience was placed at the observation of the jobshadower and the policy meetings but not in the helping and working of the jobshadower in the organization itself. It could be an improvement to plan some activities inside a project to do within the hosting organization and the jobshadower as a learning contribution.
All in all it was an amazing experience where there were a lot to learn about the hosting organization and the issues that the job shadowing project emphasized.
General Activity
The first day, June 23rd, I arrived to Porto’s airport and Catarina and Miguel were waiting for me. We went to Amarante, a 40 minutes by car and we arrived to Casa da Juventude, we took a quick lunch in bar do Girassol (vegetaria bar) and we went to the city hall. That was my first policy meeting. There were 3 people in the room and the conversation is described later.
I wanted to clarify that all the interviews were done in Portuguese so it was impossible to me to take notes, so for the report I use the digital and printed material that each organization gave me.
Second day we have this workshop with Amarante`s children. There were 20 kids. There were there for a new project in Casa da Juventude about active citizenship. We did dynamic of presentation, then I did my workshop and finally Catarina explained the project. Then all went to the bar to have lunch. Later that day we went to dinner with Catarina and Miguel to a very typical portugeese restorant where we ate the typical meals of the region.
Third day was Sunday, so nothing of work but a enjoyable cultural trip to Guimaraeh and Porto with Stefi and Sergi, two European volunteers that were living in the Casa da juventude and of course Miguel and Catarina. It was an amazing trip and what I enjoyed the most was “Cor de tangerina” a lovely vegetarian restaurant in Guimaraesh so beautiful in the beginning of the summer where I tasted the best fruits juice.
Fourth day I went to Cercimarante with Miguel. I visited al the location, It`s an amazing place for people with disabilities, the facility has all the comfort. A gym, a pool, different room to develop their capacities, etc
Cercimarante provides services to people not only the municipality of Amarante, but also the county of Felgueiras, Lousada, Marco de Canaveses, Baião, Celorico de Basto, Cinfães and Resende.
It has 4 centers, the one I visited is the Resource Centre for Inclusion / Teaching Centre. The Teaching Centre is one of four centers CERCIMARANTE, which has operated since 1980, and supports children and young people from 6 to 18 years with special educational needs and disabilities.
It has a professional team consisting of a psychologist, a physiotherapist, a professor at the 1st cycle and a teaching assistant. Currently, this strength is attended by five students from the municipality of Amarante and Marco de Bastos Celorico of Canaveses.Given that the school's main aim is to promote personal autonomy of the child / young person so that they reach a level of appropriate behavior and acquisitions, developing the work must be properly structured and planned.
The educational project is a process of interaction with the environment of the school, defines general principles and guidelines based on the characteristics of an educational community and is a process of personal development of players. It has as main goal: to raise awareness of school for the preservation of the environment. In this sense it is intended to appeal to the politics of the four R's: Reduce, collect, recycle and reuse.
Students benefit from the following areas: academic, psychology, physical therapy, sensory stimulation, personal independence, communication / language, socialization, activities of daily living, crafts, physical education, movement and drama.
Fifth day morning we went to primary school to give a workshop about fair trade for children and to attend to a NGO’s fair that the school organized. We sell fair trade products to the children, parents and teachers that visited the fair and after that Miguel gave a very passionate workshop about fair trade. There were 15 kids in the workshop and 100 in the fair.
I tell you a little bit about fair trade: Fair Trade is a trading partnership based on dialogue, transparency and respect that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions and securing the rights of marginalized producers and workers - especially in the South

Fair trade principles are:
1.The respect and concern for people and the environment, putting people above profits ("people before profit")
2. The deployment of resources and opportunities for producers to improve their living conditions and working conditions, including paying a fair price (a price that covers the costs of a reasonable income, environmental protection and economic security
3. Openness and transparency of the structure of organizations and all aspects of its activity, and mutual information between all stakeholders in the marketing chain about their products and marketing methods
4. Participation of producers, volunteers and employees in decisions that affect them
5. The protection of human rights, including women, children and indigenous peoples
Fifth day afternoon we went to nursing home to celebrate with them the feast of St. John We ate the traditional grilled sardines and we enjoy some Fade music. There were about 60 old people living in that home.
Sixth day, we went with Catarina to Porto to meet two very interesting organization. One is CAIS Founded in 1994, is a nonprofit association of social solidarity. It works with homeless people and its present in Lisboan and Porto, one of most popular project is the CAIS magazine. This magazine is selling by homeless people in these cities. It was inspired by the English magazine The Big Issue, the magazine CAIS is the first creation of the Association, and has proven to be an integrated socio / cultural success in the processes of psychosocial and occupational homeless, and others at risk . It is these that sell exclusively on the street.
The CAIS mission is to contribute to the general improvement of the life conditions of the homeless and their family, social and economically vulnerabilities in situations of deprivation, exclusion and risk.
We went to visit the director of CAIS Porto and she showed us the facilities and what they do there. In that moment there was a workshop about recycling for selling, People there was doing a bottle umbrella.
Then we went to visit ARRIMO but in the Street of the historic district of Porto. This organization intends to intervene with individuals, communities and institutions and / or associations for the eradication of poverty, social exclusion, injustice and the promotion of fundamental rights to health, democracy, education, work, culture, influence on the social change in different spheres of activity and exercise of active citizenship .
We were witnesses of one of their project “links”. LINKS Project is implemented through a set of nearby structures (street team, office equipment, mobile support unit and community network) with the aim of health and social support for users of illicit drugs, without the social environment and family. Its goal is to improve the socio-health of those affected, marginalized and excluded from community services, social service and flanges and appropriate therapeutic.
So we went with one of the staff to walk the streets of Porto distributing material for a healthy use of drugs. We passed in front of the drug dealers and then we went to the use points where we delivered metallic paper and plastic paper. This girl explained to us that most of the people that we saw there were homeless people and the use aspirated heroin. There were 10 people there and she told us as well that that was the point of the city for that kind of use. In the other part of the city was the place to injected, that place was more shaking and dangerous.
The seventh and last day was a happy day, we went with the kids involved in Portogaliza project to Santiago de Compostela to meet there this other organization called Itaka. There were 18 kids Claudia a volunteer from Poland, Catarina, Miguel and me
We left Casa da Juventude and its entire goodpeople and began the journey. We arrived to Santiago of Compostela and we met the other organization’s children, about 10 and its staff. That afternoon was to introduce ourselves and to talk about the reason we where there and that Itaka explained the schedule of the week. They had to do the Santiago’s walk and the rehearsed by a played that the have to do for a little town there.
These activities were in the frame of a project called Portogaliza which it was a multimeasures project of the Youth in Action. The objectives of the project were: To promote cultural solidarity and tolerance between young people of Galicia and northern Portugal.
- To Promote the active participation of young people, especially those with less opportunities
-To provide young people the communication tools, verbal and nonverbal (in the non-formal education context)
-To encourage young people for active citizenship
-To provide professional training in Humans Rights, environment, multiculturalism, and so on.
- To promote critical thinking and initiative through contact with good practice in youth entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation.
In that moment we were in the third and last part of the project and that was my last day as a jobshadower.
Policy Meeting
My first policy meeting was with the Amarante Local Council of Social Action. Elisabete Macedo is the responsable of the Social network program. We went with Catarina to the municipality in my first day in Amarante.
This social network is a forum for coordination and assembly of efforts, Through free membership in various public organizations or private nonprofit ones, whose goal are related with social and local development
its objectives are combat extreme poverty and social exclusion and promote social inclusion andcoesión; promote integrated development; promote an integrated and systematic planning, promoting synergies, expertise and resources, contribute to the awareness, support the objectives of the national social action plan; ensure greater efficiency and coverage of responses and local facilities;
The device's features include:
1. Development of diagnostics and action plans for the area
2. Development and implementation of programs and projects
3. Survey information (local assesment and dissemination of statistics)
4. Assess the problems and proposed solutions to them presentandos
5. Promote the progressive articulation of social intervention of local actors
6. Conferences and initiatives to promote better personal and collective consciousness of social problems
7. Direct contact with individuals and families in greatest shortage
We talked about other projects as
● Integrated service attendance: which is the integration of different social services
It is a social response that seeks to support families and the persons in the prevention or repair of generators and problems generated by risk or social exclusion, seated on a reciprocal technical / patient, taking into account the promotion of conditions enabling their insertion through support, development and support of a life project
It is a new form of organization and management of the existing services and level of care and social support, for effective use of resources and coordination between entities diferrentes. A multidimensional approach and territorial problems
● Curriculim Literacia Digital: computer courses for Amarante people
● The commission for the protection of children and youth:it is a legal non-government institute with functional autonomy which has the followingobjectives:
To promote the rights of children and youth; to prevent situations susceptible to affect the safety, health, training, education orintegral desarrllo the child or young
It is intended for persons under 18 years of the town of Amarante that are in a state of neglect, suffer abuse or are victims of sexual abuse, do not receive care appropriate to their age, are obliged to perform work activities or excessive and inappropriate to their age, dignity and status.
The comission acts when parent or legal representatives threatening in any of the above aspects the integrety of the child, or when there is a danger of the act or omission of third parties involved
It was really interesting. I learned a lot about how it is managed the social department in Amarante and I could compare it with our system here in Mendoza. I was impressed by the Integrated service attendance, they had improved the results of their work with this system.
The importance that the city council gived to multiculturalism and the inclusion of immigrants; the integral protection to the children rigths and the joint effort and work between state and civil society
● Project: School program,which seeks to promote the social, economic and academic inclusion of inmigrant families of Amarante
Workshop
The workshop was the main objective of sharing our culture difference and similarities with the end of showing the iporntance that the culture has in the human development.
My expectation were that people could known about oajnu and our work as volunteers, that I can learn about how the lived in Amarante and Portugal.
That we could share our cultures and highlight the importance that these kind of cultural activities has to the develpment.
Finally that the kids knew about Argentina and our culture:
· The culture importance to de human development
· OAJNU and Argentina’s Culture
· Amarante and the portugeese’s culture

The target group was 15 teenagers from 14 to 18, 2 Casa da Juventude’s volonteers and organizatiosn’s staff,
I prepared a powerpoint presentation avc photos and information about OAJNU, Argentina and Mendoza. The workshop resulted well but we have some issues of comunication. The problem was that kids didn’t know nothing of english and I didn’t know Portugeese nether. I didn’t foresee this but Catarina helped translated some things but I didn’t do all my workshop the way I wanted
Children they were interesed but with comunication’s problem. We had a problem to comunicate within us, because I didn’t know Portugeese and they didn’t know nothing of english or spanish, we comunicated between spanish and Portugeese but I felt a little bit frustrated because I didn’t reach them the way I expected and the workshop was shorter than I would had planified
The idea of the activity was in a first place that these kids kown about others organizations in others parts of the world worked to ameliorate the way of life of teenagers and young people. So I showed them OAJNU and th second objective was talked abour the importance of the culture to the deelopment, and iexchange in a diynamic way our different ways of life, and ours similarity too. One trigger was the typical argentinian candies and drinks. So they tasted alfajores and mate. We talked about the habitudes and manners in Argentina and in Portugal.I think that the same number because we had some issues with the language and I’m not sure if the fully understood me
The methodologie was: a power point presentation with many triggers about similarities and difference of Argentina and latinoamerican Culture and the European culture. Another power point presentatio about OAJNU Argentina with many pictures and videos, explanning what we do. Finally A tasted activitie, where kids taste candies and typical drinks of Argentina, and they had to say what the thought about them.
It was very friendly, kids participated a lot and were very interesting. I learned a lot about Amarante, the city, their school, their music, what kind of meals are tipical from the region.
The ulterior objective of the activity was sharing each other culture till de perspective of the need that it has to be present in any politics about development. The message was not so clear because kids couldn’t in some moments understand me and that did the workshop slow, so we change it to an informal talk and that had better results.