ADVIT Moldova experience report by: Ingrid van der Heijden, The Netherlands

“Bine at venit!” echoed though the Charity Centre for Refugees in Chisinau on the 8th of May 2010. The sign to start the day was given and “Ziua copiilor” (Children’s Day) had officially started. After a short presentation of the day, given by Alf and Chris, two international volunteers, the 141 exited children could start to discover what was waiting for them. Some of them knew immediately were they wanted to go to, while others looked doubtfully around for a few minutes before they made a decision where to start.

Only a little later all the children managed to make a decision between activities such as football, making bracelets, twister, limbo dancing, face painting, making windmills, origami, dance workshops, juggling and the big bouncy castle. Between all these activities there was special guest “Clown Jozef” walking around, ready to make the most amazing figures out of balloons for the children. “Ziua Copiilor” was initiated and organized by four EVS volunteers hosted by ADVIT Moldova. The activities were prepared and carried out by the 25 of ADVIT’s international volunteers. Read the rest of this entry »

How would it be,
a place to feel free?

Where energy flows, in the middle of nature,
so humankind grows, to finally be mature..

There is a place on earth, that is looking like that.
I want to create it, it’s all in my head.

First thing we need, is a steady organization,
where young people go, and find inspiration.

(Idea 1.a inspiration factory) http://www.youthnetworks.eu/Members/IdeaComments.aspx?IdeaID=93

When this is launched, we can talk one on one,
then we start to get serious things done.

Let’s get back to that place where we feel free to live,
to experience, to learn to create and to give.

(Idea1.b. sustainable energy park) http://www.youthnetworks.eu/Members/IdeaComments.aspx?IdeaID=94

A place where we live and invite life to us,
we see how it goes, we experiment, plus…

we create an environment to get us on top,
on top of the world, the future nonstop.

How is the future? No person knows,
the future is us, the youth is who knows.

I have NoBorders, and together with youth,
we don’t follow orders, we inspire the good.

So let us all unleash our light,
and fight for the things that we think are right.

The Green Shots Award is an international contest for the creation and promotion of bottom-up innovative ideas on sustainable consumption. The contest is open to everyone interested in making the world more sustainable. The challenge is to create a creative idea (in a short story forma of 300 to 500 words) that can inspire people to change their everyday behavior towards sustainability. A jury of environmental experts will select the ten best stories. The winning ideas will be turned into animated videos and the author of the overall best idea will be awarded with a trip to the next Earth Summit Rio+20 in 2012. Stories should be submitted to greenshotsaward@cprac.org by 31 July 2010. Find out more.

27 nationalities, 1 message: end poverty! Something still needs to be done to fight poverty worldwide. If you are an EU citizen between 15 and 25 years old, join the fight against poverty and get your message out. The challenge is to create a song of maximum 5 minutes, which contains a message on the fight against poverty or development cooperation. This year there are two different prizes: one chosen by a jury of professionals and the other through online voting by Internet users. Participants can vote once every day until 31 October 2010. Winners will get a professional studio recording of their song and will be invited to perform in Brussels during the European Development Days in December 2010. Online submission deadline: 30 September 2010. More details about the contest’s terms and conditions, please visit the I Fight Poverty web site.

In September, the European Commission will adopt ‘Youth on the Move’, an initiative that aims to promote the mobility of students and trainees and to improve the employment situation of young people. ‘Youth on the Move’ will encourage EU countries to work together to give young people in Europe better opportunities to make the best of their skills. The Commission’s upcoming proposal is a contribution to Europe 2020, the EU’s reform strategy for the coming decade to develop an economy that is based on knowledge and innovation. Young people have an important role to play in this but they need more support in order to unleash their full potential. ‘Youth on the Move’ provides this support by contributing to better education, training and access to labour market.

Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou will hold a press conference dedicated to ‘Youth on the Move’ on September 15. She is also keen to have an open dialogue about these important matters with the main people concerned. Their interest, opinions, experiences and participation is of course key to the success of the initiative and to achieving the Europe 2020 goals. She will therefore host a webstreamed debate with European youth on September 17. During this debate, the Commissioner will answer questions from a live audience, as well as from remote participants who choose to send in questions, either beforehand or in real time. More details about this event will soon be available on Commissioner Vassiliou’s website.

Derry (UK), Maribor (Slovenia), Goes (Netherlands) and Karlstad (Sweden) are the 4 shortisted cities for the title of European Youth Capital 2013. The four shortlisted cities will have until October the possibility to provide additional information to convince the jury to select them and to award them the title. More details about the programme, planned activities, events and policy development will complement the applications and will lead to the final selection of the European Youth Capital 2013.

The award ceremony will take place during the YFJ General Assembly in Kiev, on November 18-20. The European Youth Capital is an initiative facilitated by the European Youth Forum and will arrived at its 5th edition. Since the first European Youth Capital 2009, Rotterdam (The Netherlands) it has been growing in attention and outreach ever since. In the past years, the European Youth Forum has awarded the title EYC 2010 to Torino (Italy), 2011 to Antwerp (Belgium) and recently 2012 to Braga (Portugal).

Check our the brand new website of European Youth Capital

This seminar aims to collect and develop tools and methods to support the Youthpass process in all Actions of the Youth in Action programme. The seminar will be held from 22 to 28 November 2010 in Berlin, Germany. Are you interested? Please submit the online application form before the deadline of 10 September 2010. More information can be found on Salto Youth net.

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Maxie Riemenschneider, Germany.

I started my EVS in Chisinau, Moldova in September 2009. At this time, my only hosting project was an “Animation Centre for Children and Youth”. The first month there were ok, not always easy (as I had to get used to the mentality at first), but always interesting. After a while the feeling that I also want to do something else as just working with children grow in me. At the same time, I got more and more concerned about the Moldovan stray dog problem. A dead dog is lying on the sidewalk for more than 2 weeks and nobody cleans it, on a walk to home at night dogs are following me with the hope to get some food or just some minutes of affection, while another dog is dying just right in front of me on a poisoned peace of food.

Reasons enough to search for an organization which work with dogs, and try to help these, in my eyes, wonderful animals. With the support of Marina, one of the ADVIT-angels, I found the dog shelter “Casa Katharina”, situated outside of Chisinau, based on and financed from a German organization. Already on my first visit there, I completely fell in love with this place. You enter the gate and immediately 120 dogs start to bark, run to you, jump up on you and try to catch your attention. Right away it was clear: This is meant to be my second EVS Project! Read the rest of this entry »

On12 August, the 3 Belgian Youth councils will organize a giant sustainable picnic in the Royal Parc in Brussels, to celebrate the International Youth Day. With the support of the Belgian EU Presidency Youth we invite all young people to share the lunch during ‘Picnic Eurotastic’ in the Royal Parc in Brussels. Everybody is welcome between 12 and 4 pm to enjoy sustainable drinks, music and youthful energy. Because the 12th of August 2010 is also the start of the International Year of Youth, as declared by the United Nations, they invite all youth councils and youth platforms to organize similar youth minded picnics in their (capital) cities.

The Party of European Socialists Group in the Committee of the Regions invites young Europeans between the age of 18 and 30 years old to participate in the photo competition ‘In Search of Solidarity’. The challenge is tot shape the concept of solidarity and present concrete solutions to fight poverty. Photo documentaries (3-6 photos), which illustrate local initiatives helping the most deprived groups, can be submitted before the deadline of 30 September 2010. In addition to high value prizes such as semi-professional photographic kits, the winners will be invited to Brussels to attend a seminar on combating poverty in Europe and their photos will be displayed in an exhibition.