The European Union is formed by 15 Member States with 11 different languages,
plus is preparing for the accession of 13 eastern and southern European
countries with different languages and cultures. In order to bring unity and
harmony, it is necessary that all the different societies start to learn more
about their neighbors traditions, values and language, and, on the other hand,
try to avoid any racist feeling, prejudices or even topics. The aim of this
purpose is to have a more united European Community, ready to participate
actively in the new coming United Europe. In order to achieve these goals it is
necessary to prepare the society for multiculturalism. Offering more language
courses is one solution, but still it doesn't cover all the other aspects
concerning communication and cultural understanding. Our exchange, Intercultural
Communication will focus on these potential problems and the group will work to
find solutions to them.
When? Where? : Spain: Madrid-Sevilla-Barcelona - 3 weeks: One week in each city
Who can apply ? : We are looking for motivated, concerned, creative and communicative
youngsters. Only youngsters of the following countries list can apply to this
seminar: Spain Holland Ireland Romania Austria Czech Republic Italy Denmark
Germany Hungary Sweden Belgium Greece Poland Finland Luxembourg France England
Portugal Slovakia
Requirements: Youngsters aged between 18-25, working or volunteering at an NGO or youth
organization. Youngsters with less experience in international seminars will be
taken first into consideration. As another aim of this youth exchange is to
improve the communication skills of the participants, candidates with less
foreign language knowledge will also be first on the list. There's a maximum of
60 participants (3 from each country) to attend
the seminar.
How to apply ? : If you are interested in participating in this exchange, you can fill out
the on-line application form that you ca find in our web site
www.eyenetwork.org . Make sure you fill
all the information details. Applications with important data missing won't be
taken into consideration.
Deadline: 17th of February 2003
Travel costs : A 50% of your travel costs will be reimbursed to you once the seminar has
finished. Only the cheapest travel expenses will be reimbursed: youth tickets,
tourist class, etc. The participants living in Portugal can only take the train
to arrive at Madrid. For France participants if they want to come by plane it
will need to be proven that the plane ticket costs less than to travel by train.
Accommodation : Food and accommodation will be free of charge as EYE Network will be
responsible to book and provide food and accommodation for you.
Visa costs: Only participants from Romania will need to prepare a visa
with at least 4 weeks in advance to reduce costs. The total amount of the visa
will be reimbursed to them in the seminar.
Participation fees : In order to cut administrational costs there will be a participation fee
charge to every participant. We charged different amounts to the participant
countries depending the travel expenses, balancing a similar amount to all
participants.
100 EURO 70 EURO 40 EURO
If you have a special economical situation you can ask for assistance,
explaining your case in a separate document and EYE Network will study your
case.
Activity program : In order to achieve our goals of providing cultural
understanding, cultural knowledge, cultural exchange and communication skills,
we prepared the following activities:
a) Workshops: The workshops will use many theatre techniques adapted to
work with the communication and cultural understanding activities.
b) Theatre play: The participants will write, with the help of the
trainers and workshops, a multilingual theatre play that they will represent
during the last nights of the seminar.
c) Discussions: Discussions take place after some workshops or cultural
visits, where the participants can give their impressions or discover new
perspectives.
d) Cultural visits: This project is designed to offer as many cultural
differences and similarities as possible. In order to achieve this goal cultural
visits are also a major activity of our program.
e) Cultural understanding final case study: This activity will be the
last exercise on intercultural communication for the participants. It will be a
case study they will need to work on in groups and try to find a solution to it.
Each group will have a different role-play and they will need to find a solution
with the other groups. Each group will have some cultural characteristics that
will make harder or easier the communication with the other participants.
f) Forum on Multiculturalism: A forum on multiculturalism will take place
in one of the state universities at Barcelona. It will act as a direct medium of
information to the Spanish students and youngsters. We will have the cooperation
of an expert to explain what multiculturalism is and its situation in Spain.
