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Dear Friends,
A belated but warm welcome to the seventh issue of "Worlds of
Experience", dedicated to theme "Youth and the Homeless".
Volunteers Voices features testimonials of young volunteers,
who have been involved in a variety of projects working with
and for the homeless in France, Germany and Mexico. It is very
encouraging to see how young people from different cultural
backgrounds are able to overcome linguistic and cultural
barriers and provide meaningful material, but most of all,
personal and emotional support to people, whose basic need
for decent housing and living conditions are not met by the
society at large. Since .homelessness is one the most serious
manifestation of exclusion. (as stated by the European
Federation of National Organizations Working with the
Homeless - FEANTSA), the following statement of a Kenyan
volunteer in France is an act of faith in human solidarity as a life
changing experience: "I came to Emmaus hoping to touch at
least one life, to make an influence, any sort of influence. Now I
find that it is my life that has been touched".
This issue also includes news about Tsunami relief and
reconstruction efforts carried out by ICYE in Thailand and India,
with the support and donations received by other member
organisations, local and foreign volunteers.
News from International Organisations, namely about the World
Bank site .YouThink., and the UNESCO Newsletter on Culture
and of the International Juvenile Justice Observatory, are
followed by NGOs news about initiatives promoting and
advocating youth volunteering, and ICYE Brazil report on the V
World Social Forum.
ICYE programme news includes the launching of the ICYE
Federation.s Trainers Pool, and of the ICYE Cultural &
Volunteering Immersion Programme, as well as briefings on
European Commission supported activities, such as training
seminars for youth organisations in South East Europe and in
Eastern European and Caucasus.
In line with the Quality Assessment and Assurance Process the
ICYE Federation is currently engaged in, please note that the
theme of the next issue will be "Best Practice of International
Volunteering", as seen from the perspective of the volunteers
themselves.
Looking forward to receiving your contributions, please send
theme related articles and pictures to icye@icye.org, by the
31st of May 2005. Enjoy the reading!
Warmest regards!
ICYE International Office
"Worlds of Experience" can be viewed and downloaded as a
PDF
file.
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