During the project, we learnt about a lot of things, such as about the forced labour during Nazi Germany but also about digital photography as each participant worked on their own project to document traces of forced labour in their home country, either today or in the past. We could choose the subject theme. While the project is generally photography-based, there are some accompanying text to the story we want to tell.

The results of our photography exhibition are yet to be released to the public. Hopefully the results will be shown soon as it was really interesting and informative.

It was great fun to work with such a multicultural group together on a project, to learn so much about one another’s cultures and  stories.

The group dynamic was relaxed and everybody had an opportunity to participate and contribute. The organizers put a lot of effort to keep the atmosphere positive and fun. They included lots of activities that enabled us to communicate better with one another and to get to know one another on a more personal level, even though the whole project took place on ZOOM.

The project gave everybody a great platform to showcase their individual project. The journey was very enjoyable, exiciting, informative, fun, empowering, interesting and inspiring, with a multicultural backdrop.

For me it was a great experience and I believe the others felt the same, including the organizers which also enjoyed the whole project experience. It felt all very exclusive with an inclusive mindset. After the project was finished, it felt strange to start the week without all the other participants from the project. It was an experience that I can only recommend to others. A digital project gives opportunities that would otherwise not be so readily available; it was such a transformative and international experience.

During the two-week project Yvonne and the other participants created their our own photo exhibition that portrays how they explored the topic of forced and unfree labour in their home countries and what these explorations and encounters meant for them. You can see their digital exhibition here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d16e9429c3f14d55bec490375b7915a7