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Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 14th issue of the ICYE Federation’s Newsletter,
focusing on ”Youth Active Citizenship”.
Volunteering is one of the most varied and meaningful expression of
active civil society and “Worlds of Experience”would like to illustrate,
with testimonials of ICYE volunteers, how young people engaged in
distinct community projects can internalise the importance of serving
for the common good and thus contribute to building a more just
society world wide.
The personal growth and the acquisition of problem solving abilities, as
well as of organisational skills, is best captured by the experience of an
Austrian volunteer in Mexico. Her work with socially and financially
disadvantaged children gave her sufficient confidence and motivation to
start with a Mexican friend a charity to give orphans access to sociocultural
education. Similarly: a Hindu volunteer in an Orthodox
Monastery in Finland had a life-changing experience; a Dutch volunteer
in Skopje actively participated in activities aiming at overcoming interethnic
conflicts between Albanian and Macedonian youth; a Ugandan
volunteer in Finland working with disabled young people learned about
different ways to enhance social inclusion; and last but not least, a
young Taiwanese in France directly experienced that “education is not
easy and needs lots of patience and attention”.
News from International Organisations features, amongst others: the
4th Annual Youth Assembly at the UN Headquarters; the run up and
the new website of the European Year of Intercultural Year 2008; and
UNICEF Voices of Youth on working together to protect Children in
Armed Conflicts.
NGOs News reports on the: Loesje website and the $100 Laptop
initiative to support campaigns on the MDGs; AVSO seminar on
Mentorship for International Volunteers; Stand Up Campaign Against
Poverty, and the photo competition on what youth think of Governance
by Shoot Nations 2007.
ICYE news reports on: a training seminar on the Italian National Civil
Service; the development of ICYE Over 30s & Intergenerational
Volunteer Programmes; the Asia Europe Training for Trainers on
Intercultural Learning; and the latest EVS pre-departure and final
evaluations meetings involving ICYE member and partner organisations
in EU and East and South East Europe.
In the hope that you will enjoy the reading, please note that the next
issue of “Worlds of Experience”, to be published at the end of October
2007, will focus on “Youth volunteering in rural areas”. Please email
your contributions, in form of articles/pictures, to icye@icye.org
before 30 September 2007.
Warmest regards!
ICYE International Office
"Worlds of Experience" can be viewed and downloaded as a
PDF
file.
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