Meeting in EYE 2018 the winning bloggers of the first edition of #Faces2Hearts

Any young person living in any member country of the European Union and between 18 and 30 years old, could participate in this contest. It was necessary to upload a photograph taken by you, that illustrated Faces2Hearts, share why that moment had touched your heart. In addition you had to add the hashtags #EYE2018 and #Faces2Hearts and tag in the image to @ep_eye and @Europeaid.

The prize of this photography competition that selected 3 winners, was the trip to Strasbourg to meet during EYE 2018 the bloggers of Faces2Hearts and participate in their activities. The 3 winners were 3 girls: Victoria from Belgium, Elena and servant from Spain. It was a pleasure to meet them. I recommend their profiles on Instagram. @elenaamoros and @toyaclrk You can see that they love photography. I admire them. Elena takes all her images with an analog camera. ALL. Incredible but true.

Faces2Hearts is a contest in which I participated last year, that came out for the first time, but finally I was not one of the winners. They were looking for 4 bloggers, multimedia content creators, to travel during 5 months through Africa, South America and Asia. They chose 4 young participants, between 18 and 30 years old from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. I was very excited to participate in something like that. Although I was not one of the lucky ones, I followed the selected bloggers through social networks and the truth is that, although they gave me envy with all their adventures, I must admit that they did an incredible job that I admire. After meeting them in person at EYE, they conquered me.

Ellie, Lauren, Ariel and Jean, the 4 bloggers are amazing people. Ellie is from Italy, specifically from the heart of Rome. She traveled to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Madagascar. Lauren traveled through Asia, specifically: Laos, Fiji, Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Uzbekistan. Jean is from Rwanda and traveled around Africa. He was in: Côte d'Ivoire, Sénégal, Guinée-Bissau, Cameroun and Bénin. Ariel is from the Dominican Republic, he travelled through Latin America, specifically for: Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru and Ecuador.

I recommend following them on Instagram. They share images and stories to reflect on, that touch feelings. The Europe AID team made a great selection because are 4 people with a big smile and the best, a big heart. Although during EYE they were very busy, from one place to another, attending media, preparing the activities, we had time to talk, go outside and even go dancing. They told us anecdotes off the record. I can tell that this adventure with Faces2Hearts has enjoyed them a lot, they have learned and it has enlarged their hearts.

There was a photo exhibition of Faces2Hearts in EYE 2018 with the images that bloggers had taken on their respective trips. An exhibition that after EYE has been in more events such as EDD, European Development Days, in Brussels, among others. In addition to the exhibition, the bloggers shared their experience, the stories that touched their hearts, the projects they visited and received help from EuropeAID, as well as their knowledge about content creation, giving tips to tell stories in an attractive way.

The most important thing is the meaning of the story, what you want to tell. As Ariel said: "share stories that people need to hear, that you think the world needs to know. "Ellie, who had visited projects for women, said: "As a woman, it is important to empower women but also educate men because if we do not educate young kids, nothing is going to change. "Lauren insisted that the creative process requires time and prior preparation. And Jean made a presentation with his personal selection of photographs entitled "The colors of 5 months". Four points of view. Four looks. Four people with whom I hope to coincide again.