European University Sports Association (EUSA) and the EUSA Institute were once again part of the LUPA festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia on September 14.

The aim of the event, coordinated by Slovenian Centre for information service, co-operation, and development of NGOs (CNVOS), is to raise awareness of non-governmental organizations, promote their activities, highlight the topics they work in, increase cooperation among various groups, and strengthen cooperation between NGOs and open dialogue on local, national, and international level.

This year, around 70 organizations managed to present themselves and their work at the festival, which was held on Prešern Square in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana.

EUSA stand was prepared and managed by EUSA staff representatives, Ms Hristina Hristova, Mr Salvatore Sisca and Ms Aleksandra Andreeva.  

They were supported with visits from other staff members of EUSA, throughout the the day.

At the festival, we had the chance to present multiple areas of our work to the people that visited our stand. From presenting our successful European Universities Championships summer part of the season and our upcoming European Universities Winter Championships and European Universities Games 2024, to the soon to be celebrated events: the International Day of University Sport - #LetsIDUS (September 20) and European Week of Sport - #BeActive 2022 (September 23-30).

Besides the sport events and initiatives, we shared ideas and missions regarding the active and healthy way of living, as well as our international exchange opportunities and multiple active and EU Funded projects, such as Inclusion in Sport (iSport), Youth Integrity Ambassadors Program (YIAP), ESOM, iFlipp, BRAVA and the European Solidarity Corps program. Particular discussions and brainstorming for ideas and possible future collaborations were made in the field of sustainability and green future, through which we managed to share the outcomes and results from one of our projects, Green Sport Hub Europe (GSHE).

On our stand, visitors got the opportunity to challenge themselves with a mini basketball game, as well as with a memory game, through which they also got the chance to be awarded with different EUSA gadgets. 

The event was unfortunately ended before the time planed, due to bad weather. However, this did not stop us to use the time on the stand to best promote our values, ideas and the work we and the other non-governmental organisations do, to show all this diversity to the people, to give them information and chance to get to know us, as well as to give other organisations the chance to meet us and plan future collaborations in multiple working areas.

We are thankful to CNVOS for organising this festival and giving us the chance and proof that if we work together, we work better.