Youth Portal for the Latin America and the Caribbean - This year is the 60th Anniversary of the ICYE Federation

We will try to mix the history you can read on the icye.org website with the present picture.
Everything started in 1949. The world was recovering from the effects of World War II, four years after it ended - there was civil war in Greece - 12 nations came together to form NATO - the state of Israel was one year old, India two years old - Indonesia, the People's Republic of China and the German Democratic Republic became new states. America's isolation had been shattered forever by the war, the "third world" hadn't been discovered, but America discovered the world as a playground, for pleasure, for study and for politics - thousands of Americans were discovering Europe.

ICYE's origins were like this, in experiences of Reconciliation.

Today Icye is involving 34 countries all around the world and many organizations from different countries still claim to join the Federation.

The core action promoted by the Icye is a long term exchange program lasting from 6 to 12 months, which offers young people worldwide an experience based on a non-formal learning approach. The emphasis of this experience is on promoting international voluntary service as meaningful alternative to addressing social and educational needs of today's youth. It also aims to heighten young people's sensitivity towards social and cultural differences, their self-confidence and problem solving abilities.

At the same time the Federation is promoting the development of a short term program for individuals. Some members organize various types of short-term exchange activities for interested individuals and groups. Such activities include group study visits, work camp projects organized together with local community partners in the field of cultural heritage, environment and health education, as well as language courses and cultural studies.

The Federation elects a Board of Mangers every 2 years, and its International Office is based in Germany (Berlin), in each one of the 34 countries there is only one organization representing the Federation.
AFSAI is the Italian National Committee.
There are also some regional groups representing the National Committees based in the same continent or geographical area: the Pan American, the African and Asian regions. In Europe the situation is more complicated since there is not a unique body representing all the European National Committees anymore.

The Icye Federation's dedication to young peoples' personal development and its commitment to social cohesion thorough a solidarity approach remain the most relevant goals of this movement and represent the shared aim of all the organizations belonging from all the 34 countries.
www.icye.org

2011 as the European Year of Volunteering

On the 18th of February DG EAC's services (The Directorate- General for Education and Culture) met an "Alliance" of 18 NGOs to discuss issues related to their initiative to declare 2011 as the European Year of Volunteering.

Announcing 2011 as the European Year of Volunteering is a common initiative presented by international NGOs' and their networks actively engaged in volunteering with large support by the European Parliament. The European Commission intends to make a formal proposal during the first half of 2009 in order to make this grassroots' initiative possible.

Some of the following NGOs compose the so-called "Alliance":
European Volunteer Centre, Caritas Europa, Red Cross/EU Office, the World Scouts Movement, the European Youth Forum, Johanniter International, Volonteurope, ENGAGE, the European Non-Governmental Sports Organization, Youth Action for Peace and Euclid Network of third sector leaders.

EuroMed Announcements

New EuroMed Platform

The Euro-Med Youth Platform has re-launched its website in February 2009. This updated website now features a 'News Section' in which members of the EuroMed Youth Platform can submit any information they wish to share; also this new website provides a basis for networking between different youth organisations and allows finding new partners for projects.
For more information visit www.euromedp. org

Salto EuroMed Activities

1) International Seminar on EuroMediterranean Voluntary Work
2nd - 6th of December 2009 - France
This seminar aims to introduce the EuroMediterranean Voluntary service and its impacts as well as encouraging new initiatives in the Euromed Region.
Target groups: promoters, members of NGO's, representative of institutes and public bodies who are already experienced in the voluntary work and/or EVS and wishing to share their experiences and to exchange practises on the EuroMediterranean voluntary work.
For more information and application please visit http://www.salto- youth.net/ euromedevsfrance /

2) Training Course for Building Quality in EuroMed Youth Exchanges
2nd - 7th of June 2009 - Mariehamn - Finland
The training course aims for capacity building of youth workers / leaders in enhancing the quality of EuroMed youth exchanges.
Safety and protection in exchanges, Youthpass and cultural aspects will be incorporated within this course.
Target groups: Youth workers and youth leaders who are already experienced in youth exchange projects with the desire to enhance their competencies and the quality's projects with Mediterranean partners.
For more information and your application visit http://www.salto- youth.net/ euromedYEtc/

Social and Responsible Tourism
Projects and Proposal

AFSAI is opening to the Social and Responsible Tourism for young people. Responsible tourism is about tourists making environmentally friendly, sustainable, ethical and respectful choices when travelling and minimising the negative impact of tourism.
Tourists can make a big difference by only supporting the type of tourism that is not harmful to the environment and is supportive of local communities working to gain or maintain sustainable livelihoods.
This is the reason why we are supporting these initiatives and this the reason we do ask our partner to send us all initiatives you are currently running and any ideas you would like to develop.
If you are interested write to: steps@afsai. it.

EVS - European Voluntary Service

Partners' search for EVS projects abroad. Afsai is looking for European partners for future collaboration within EVS programme. We ask all organizations, interested in establishing fruitful partnership with us on the theme of social inclusion and intercultural dialogue.
For further information please send CV of your organization to the following address: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

AFSAI: Disability and Immigration: One step further towards inclusion
In the week of the 16th - 22nd of March 2009 the international seminar of "Socio-lingual inclusion" was hold in Brescia, Italy, in collaboration with the "Cooperativa Futura"

The seminar, which has been financed by the EU program "Youth in Action", represented an opportunity of encounter for organizations and persons who are dealing with disability and immigration. This seminar provided the basis for an exchange of best practices, methodologies and courses of action and can in future increase the insertion of immigrants who also live in conditions of disability .
The objective of this seminar has been to enhance the exchange of information between experts and workers in the given field who came from Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, Latvia, Turkey, Sweden, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom and Italy.
The comparison and discussion of problems that the participants already have experienced during their day-to-day work with immigrants and disabled persons gave new impulses to find alternative solutions and new working methods.

The participants not only had the possibility to learn through the reciprocal exchange of information concerning new techniques, but further had the possibility to listen to speeches of experts. Also the participants had the opportunity to build up new international relationships with the associations that have been on-site so that a fruitful collaboration for future projects could be established.
We hope that our project represented a starting point for other initiatives that are addressed to upgrading the quality of life of many young people who are living in inconvenient situations due to their conditions of being immigrants and disabled.

GOOD BYE, BABYDOLL
Gdansk, 3rd - 10th of March 2009

From the 3rd until 10th of March the seminar "Goodbye, babydoll" was held in Gdanks (Poland), arranged by the organization Gdanski Archipelag Kultury in collaboration with the group for studies about genders of the University of Gdanks faculty for sociology.
The seminar dealt with the situation of the woman, using art as a device for reflection and exchange.

In the past the woman used to be seen as a figure at the margins within the visual arts. Also, for a long time this figure was accompanied by the custom of seeing the woman as an "object" within the artistic presentation - for others the woman has not even been hold in respect to be addressed to. From the female passivity of the 19th century we move towards a major penetration of the woman on the art scene of the 20th century, even if still claiming male contribution to this.
Within the last 50 years, together with the social emancipation, the woman learned how to acquire her active role within art. After having analyzed the past and current situation, the idea came up to create a "practical" and "visible" test case using forms of art (the murals) to push the participants towards a reflection about the revolution of genders in relation to the current society. All this took place with involving the celebrations of the 8th of March, the day of the woman's feast.

The activities were divided into meetings and discussions with professors and representatives of different local female organizations. The topics covered within these activities dealt with the woman within the actual society and included practical aspects with the creation of murals, inspired by the pieces of work of Roy Lichtenstein. Subsequent, those murals were exposed at the 8th of March along one of the most central streets of Gdansk.

UBUNTU – International Youth Voluntary Service Award 2009

The Ubuntu International Youth Voluntary Service Award 2009 is an exciting new initiative designed to champion the value of volunteering by young people from African and European countries. Ubuntu, literally meaning "humanness" is a traditional African concept and its essence is captured in the principles of interdependence, communality of purpose and mutual respect.
The UBUNTU Award is the first award of its kind giving recognition to sending and hosting organisations across Africa and Europe highlighting good practice in the field of international voluntary service.
For more information and to apply, please visit the AVSO website where you can download the appropriate application form. You can also sign up to our Ubuntu info-list.
The closing date for applications is the 1st of June 2009.

Applicants will be judged by a jury of ten young people from African and European countries. Winning projects will be selected on the basis of assessment criteria including co-operation and joint decision-making, coherence, sustainability, impact, youth empowerment, innovation/original ity.
The overall aims of the award are to:
· Champion the value of international voluntary service.
· Highlight good and best practice in the field of international voluntary service.
· Increase networking opportunities and improve co-operation between European and African organisations active in the field of international voluntary service.
This project is part-funded by the European Commission under action 3.2 of the Youth In Action Programme: Youth in the World - Cooperation with countries other than the neighbouring countries of the European Union. It is managed by the Association of Voluntary Service Organisations (AVSO) in Brussels, in partnership with nine other organisations as for example The Swedish Centre for International Youth Exchange (Sweden), The Volunteer Centre Cape Town (South Africa) or Experiment in Intercultural Living (Eireland)
For more information contact ubuntu@avso. org, or phone +32-(0)2-230 68 13.