We had the great opportunity to attend the first Youth conference on NCDs (Non-Communicable Diseases) that took place from the 5th until the 9th of December in Portoroz, Slovenia and it was organised by the International Youth Health Organisation. For us it was an amazing opportunity since we had the chance to meet new people from all around Europe with similar interests with us, exchange ideas, discuss different aspects of NCDs, participate in different workshops and enhance our skills on advocacy, leadership and communication.
We have attended presentations of different healthcare related organisations that are doing amazing work in Europe and Internationally and we have gained a lot of new information for not just NCDs but Public Health in general. We participated in several discussions on mental health, tobacco usage and alcohol consumption among others and we have attended workshops on essential skills necessary to advocate for Public Health matters. All of the experiences gave us not just the skills but also the motivation to further work on Public Health matters such as this one to promote new practices here in Cyprus and raise awareness about the different aspects that every person should know and that doesn’t only include healthcare professionals or other people related to the field as everyone should advocate for Public health matters!
It was definitely worth it and we truly suggest to more people to take the opportunity and attend Erasmus + projects of their interests because they are indeed life-changing experiences where you step out from your comfort zone and get to experience new, very rewarding emotions!
