The project „Privilege – yes or no?“ was held from 28.11. untill 1.12. 2011 and it was sponsored by the National Agency Youth in Action. You may view some photos taken during the project seminar.

Experiences of Slezská diakonie in international voluntarism made so far

Since 2004 Slezská diakonie has been a coordinating organization with regard to the programme International Voluntary Service. Up to now it has hosted 50 international volunteers from 11 countries and sent out five Czech volunteers into five different countries. At the same time Slezská diakonie is a member of the working group International Voluntary Service and Cooperation Development established at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports within the European Year of Volunteering 2011. Experiences acquired in this particular field of action and and the contacts made with crucial stakeholders gives Slezská diakonie the space for best practice dissemination as well as sharing challenges and problems that it has met so far.

 The project activities within the implementation period aimed at support of international voluntarism, equal chances and mobility of young people and definition of measures towards elimination of barriers which reduce chances of young people above all from eastern and southeastern Europe to participate in international voluntary service.

 Besides this, the project

• considered and strengthened the role of voluntarism and mobility in the process of building the local civil society
• defined challenges which both the coordinating organizations and the volunteers themselves face
• strived to look for solutions and to find ways to remove barriers for future volunteer’s generations.

 The four-day seminar culminated by a panel discussion between the project participants and the experts – Ms. Karolina Wysocka from the Youth and Non-Governmental Organizations Department, Poland, Mr. Josef Boček from the International Cooperation Dpt. within the National Institute of Children and Youth and Mr. Petr Zenker from the Azylum and Migration Policy within the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Czech Republic.

 The project participants gave rise to a Statement the text of which you can read here. The Statement will be sent to the key national and international institutions as well as to non-profit organizations that coordinate international voluntary service.

• National coordinators of the International Voluntary Service and  former international volunteers representing Italy, Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Rumania, Serbia, Ukraine, Belorussia, United States and Palestinian territories
• Experts