*Belgia* * **Organizaţie gazdă:* *Jeugdwerking Eldorado Winterslag*
* ** * *Tipul proiectului:* *Drepturile minoritatilor * * **Durata proiectului:* *max 12 luni * * **Detalii:* Project environment Belgium. Belgium has 10 provinces : 5 Flemish en 5 Walloon. The 5 Flemisch provinces are : Brabant, Limburg, Antwerpen, Oost Vlaanderen en West Vlaanderen. There are 589 municipalities. One of them thats situated in Limburg is Genk. Genk is divided in differend villages : Winterslag, Waterschei, .... History Genk: Our organisation is situated in Winterslag, one of the villages of Genk. Genk (now about 63.000 inhabitants) was only a small country village hundred years from now with no more then 2.000 inhabitants. Until André Dumont discovered the black gold of the 20th century: coal. This resulted in a new industry which changed this part of Belgium forever. No less then 6 coal mines were built in the middle of Limburg of which 3 in Genk (Winterslag, Waterschei and Zwartberg). It changed Genk from a rural area into an important industrial town. With a lot of problems: first, the coal mines needed a lot of employees. But working in the mine was hard labour and very unhealthy. Belgian people were not font of working 'down under'. So the Coal Mines had to look for people in other parts of Belgium and even Europe. Before World War II they were found in the Eastern part of Europe: Poland, East Germany, Russia, ... Later, the Belgian government made a deal with Italy, Spain and Greece. There were a lot of poor people without a job in these countries and they got a lot of benefits if they were willing to come to Belgium to work in the mines. From 1968 to 1975 the same was done with Turkey and Morocco. This resulted in an enormous population of 'strangers' in Genk. As long as the mines were open, this was no problem because under the ground, everybody was 'black'. Above the ground, this 'fellowship' continued. Until 1985-1987: all mines were closed at this moment and suddenly there was no future for a lot of families in Genk. Living together suddenly seemed more difficult than before because everything till then was organised by the mine company: chops, café's, cinema, theatre, fanfare, school, ... it was all controlled by the coal mines. But now, this was all history. And because of the unemployment which was a result of this, problems accumulated. But more, now it became clear that no one had ever done any effort to integrate the people from the other country's because in the mines there was no need to. Now however, the differences between the cultures became very clear. Even children in these families, born in Belgium, didn't speak Dutch and had a lot of problems at school ... Information Genk : " 63.000 inhabitants " 89 nationalities, multicultural environment " Close by the Netherlands (Maastricht), Germany (Aachen) " Train station en very good public transport connecting it to the main city's in Belgium " Shopping Centres, cinema, cultural activities like musea and ... " Grand National Limburgs Nature parc " Close to university Hasselt Motivation organisation : Our organisation has made an enormous step forward the past five years: not only did it develop a lot, it also became more professional. Add to that that our team of professional workers has years of experience in working with and support of youngsters. And because of the fact that we work for years now with volunteers and trainees, we thought it to be interesting to work with a long term international volunteer. We think that it would be an enormous surplus for our youngsters. Motivation and EVS experience In the past we have been host to several EVS volunteers. Up until now we always hosted summer tandem EVS volunteers (between two weeks and three months). The volunteers we worked with were usually socially deprived young people. As a result of some changes in our policy however we haven't been able to host any EVS volunteers for a number of years (2006 was the last year we were host for an EVS volunteer). We would like to give this project a fresh start and host an EVS volunteer again this year. We would like to do so because we are sure of the surplus value an EVS volunteer would give to our organisation. For our youngsters it would be a chance to get in touch with someone with another social and cultural background. Also we would like to give or youth a chance to get acquainted with international exchange projects. We hope it will motivate them to take part in an international exchange themselves. Description of the organisation As a youth work organisation for socially deprived children (we often call it 'youth welfare work') we are open for all children and youngsters between the age of 3,5 and 25 years. We make no difference between gender, religion, colour, race or origin. We believe that every person is 'different but equal' and we try to treat everyone starting from this principle. Our first objective is to offer pleasant and adjust activities in the spare time of children and youngsters. This means that they have a lot of participation in creating the program. But beside that, we want to guide them in their process to fill in this spare time as appropriate as possible. At last we try to put some education in our activities by playing educational games with the children or by inviting someone who can tell from his own life experience to youngsters (e.g. about drug abuse; how to deal with unemployment, ...). We work in three divisions active: children, teenagers, youngsters The 'kinderwerking' (children): . For children from 3,5 and 10 years . Mixed groups, boys and girls together . During the school term: minimum twice a week ( Tuesday till Saturday) . During the holidays: every afternoon (Monday - Friday) The objectives are: . Learning to work together . Improving social skills . Stimulating the use of the Dutch language . Working in a playful manner . Teaching new ways of expressing oneself in a playful manner The 'tienerwerking' (teenager) .For youngsters age 11 to 15 .divided group: a group for boys and a group for girls .Our aim is useful leisure activities .Regularly we incorporate educational activities . One of our major aims is teaching youngsters to function in a group .As is learning to accept each other and having respect But they remain teenagers so... we see to lots of action, lots of sports, music and a place to meet each other. During the school term we provide activities for teenagers every Tuesday to Saturday (after school). During the holidays daily from 2 to 5 pm. The 'jongerenwerking' ( youth ): . Starting from age 15 .Divided into two groups: a group for boys and a group for girls .Our major aim is to make the youth more competitive .We want to be a guide in their efforts to integrate in the society .We provide in a meeting place .Educational and leisure activities .Room for extra projects .Yearly exchanges .Every evening open youth centre alternated with several activities. Beside these groups we work on several projects. The main project being WTS TV. This is a project in which our participants learn to work with moviemaking and film technology. The group comes together every Wednesday between 2 and 5 pm. and every Saturday between 2 and 5 pm. Wednesday is for our youngsters between 14 and 18 years old, Saturday for our teenagers, boys and girls. In our organisation we employ 8 employees. Each responsible for their group. On top of our employees we attract a number of volunteers. They are mostly boys, 16 years of age and older that participate in our activities. * Detalii inscriere; Daca sunteti interesat/a de parcurgerea unui stagiu de voluntariat, trimiteti CV-ul dumneavoastra si o scrisoare de intentie in limba engleza pe adresa **projectinfo.m...@gmail .com* Scrieţi la subiectul mesajului , "*pentru voluntariat"*. În cazul în care nu aveţi confirmarea recepţiei aplicaţiei vă rog să o retrimiteţi sau să ne contactaţi la numărul de telefon *0733 684 808*. Alte detalii suplimentare se pot obţine de la *0733 684 808*, Galea Mircea. Mai multe informatii despre noi puteti gasi pe site-ul *www.millennium ** center.org** si pe **www.clusters.evsromania.ro*
