Dear friends,
27th of September...the end of Zapping Poverty... but a begining for ASIMST and for our team!...and this begining - thanks to you, our 30 friends, with whom we spent a wonderful week in Romania!!!
For us, it was a great experience - it was our first Youth in Action project and with ups and downs, we learnt a lot... and we learnt because you guided us through our learning... not just about youth unemployment and about the opportunities that you have or you don't have, in your countries...we learnt that this setting,an intercultural one, helped us to develop ourselves...and helped us to realize that we want to do more and to count on your help, whenever we'd need it!... and it's the same for you!...
The begining started in the NGO Fair and we just prepared its development - thus so happy to announce our next initiatives!...this is why we are really looking forward to see you back in Romania, in 2011...
Thank you for your feedback, for your patience waiting that we'd correct our mistakes while trying to be helpful... thank you for not being affraid of the homeless dogs till the end of the week..Thank you for everything that meant to be friendship, this week!....
ASIMST and Zapping Poverty Team
Youth in Action - Action 1.1 Youth Exchange September 20-27 2010, Bucharest ROMANIA Hosting Association: AS IMST Bucharest Participant countries: Latvia, Estonia, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Turkey and Romania
luni, 11 octombrie 2010
International youth exhanges are always a good experinence - Estonian group's article
International youth exchanges are always a good experience to practice our language skills, to improve our tolerance and to meet new friends from all over the Europe. So, taking part of this exchange has been a very good experience. We think that we all have learned something out of it, and possibly have some use from that also in the future.
As in Estonian team there are also two 17-year old girls, it was their first time taking part of this kind of project. The most important experience they got from “Zapping Poverty” was getting to know international diversity. Also, it was exciting to practice our skills in English while having discussions with different people and compare the general things with experiences of other countries. It was interesting to get to know, how the situation is in different states, and to hear what do people with different social and cultural background think about their life.
While attending to the project “Zapping Poverty” in Bucharest it was also important for all the Estonian participants to discover the city and to get to know a bit of Romanian culture. In our point of view, the project was well organized and motivating to take an action to improve the situation of unemployment and poverty around us. While having a lot of discussions, our understanding of unemployment problems in Poland, Latvia, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Turkey have became better.
In conclusion, we are really happy about the experience and relationships we gained during this week in Bucharest and we hope to meet all the participants again, to see how have the current situation changed. We really enjoyed our being here, and hope that everyone else did the same.
Breaking Stereotypes - Latvian group's article
People usually have some views about nations surrounding and such an exchange is breaking of prejudices. So we decided to list some of our stereotypes:
Romanians are different of Roma people, actually they are nice people. Not all of the youth want to go to live abroad.
Estonians – not so slow as in Latvian jokes
Italians have broken stereotype that they don’t speak English and they are never tall. Approved stereotypes about gestures, coffee and pasta
Bulgarians – approved view that Bulgarians even by stove have make-up and high heels
Polish – approved stereotype about drinking zubrovka
Turkish – were supposed to feel cold, but seems like they are enough hot inside. Belly dance is not a stereotype
Latvians – we just got to know that we have six toughs in believe of Estonians
Maybe we made some new ones:
- Latvians mostly are blondes (almost true)
- Latvians mostly are vegetarians (not true)
- In Latvia live more women than men (true)
- Coming from the club in Romania you need a bodyguard (Thanks Tibi:)
- Bulgarians never split
- Italians sometimes come on time
And some facts
- Surprisingly it turned out that Estonians like singing as much as Latvians, despite that Romanians sang the most
- Bella ciao is a communist song
- Romanian student’s songs are perverse
Then we go home and start to tell all those things others and make new stereotypes…
FINISHED - Italian article :)
At the end of this amazing adventure all the youngsters, who has taken part to the Zapping Poverty project, will leave Bucharest with a new cultural and personal experience to talk about.
Nobody of them will easily forget the helpfulness of the hosting team, whose Romanian members have done their best in order to create a familiar, secure, open atmosphere.
And when everybody will be at home, he will surely happen to remember Cristina, the sweet Romanian girl, who has been stressed by a terrible toothache all over the week. Thanks god, she discovered Buscofen, helping her to be punctual and present for the all week long. Unluckilly, she also discovered that, in the lack of Buscofen, she could even cure the toothache with vodka. Actually, that didn't help to be punctual.
And what about Doru, the Big Boss of ASIMST, always going back and forth with his FIAT car to satisfy our needs, which were actually the most wide variety: when the wine is running out, when the dinner is ready and needs to be taken from the rectorat to the hostel, when the participants are arriving at the airpot or whenever someone is late for the club, Doru is there ready to give you a lift. We really appreciated the sacrifice, considering that due to this lack of phisical activity caused by this car issue, his belly was growing bigger day by day.
Hyperactivity almost costed a stress breackdown to the nervous Irina, a real perfectionist who could never find a moment to rest, even during the games meant to build up the team and to relax people.
And what about the circles under the eyes of the beautiful Livia, who had to spend half an hour of her precious sleeping time trying to cover them with make up since the second day.
Thanks to the two computer experts, than, we could really be quiet under any informatic aspect: Andrei and Tiberius, Syso and Tiby for the volk, were ready to solve any kind of issue related to technology; even if it was about picking up the technological camera that the Turkish boys forgot in the working class in the middle of the night. Well, fully excused then for falling asleep in the middle of some daily activity!
The last guy that no-one will forget is named Silviu, and he was particularly worried for the well being of a bulgarian participant, so worried that he couldn't avoid to stay with her for the whole evenings long.
But who was the cruel tyrant behind all of this troopers, the one who forced them to do energizers in the morning, the one who tried to harness the conflict between participants proposing trade union simulations, the one who always complaned about delays and whose only aim was to modify the program of the day, forcing everyone to unbearable working sessions? Someone is talking about an old lady named Adina, living in room 108 submerged with papers and documents, but noone really had a chance to meet this person who seems to come from the most scarying fairy tales ever.
When all the participants will get home, will they forget any of them? Not for sure!
Romania- where the magic lives (article Bulgarian group)
Robert Kennedy once said : “ This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease”. Here in Romania we met such young people- determined, full of ideas and electrifying desire to develop themselves, ready to fight for their views. We experienced what diversity really means- a diversity not only of cultures, but also of ideas, opinions, characters. We found out that youth unemployment and poverty are serious problems, which affect all of us and demand our united efforts, not our ignorance. Young and innovative people like the ones, taking part in the “ Zapping poverty” project , is what Europe really needs.
Last, but not least, we spent a wonderful time in Bucharest and really enjoyed the joy . We had the opportunity to cooperate with great people and work together in pleasant atmosphere. We also realized that Romanian history appears to be particularly interesting and challenging. That is what our Visit to the Parliament building, the old part of the city centre and The Peasants’ Museum prove. You find yourself speechless, totally amazed by the impressive parliamentary building that is a bridge between the Communistic period and Present Democracy. Looking at the old houses and cottages in the museum you can see how hope and despair, poverty and happiness used to live together. Past, present and future were always following us along the way.
On Monday we are going back to Bulgaria filled with good experience and unforgettable memories that would definitely bring us here again. See you soon, Romania
Action Plan Zapping Poverty
Action Plan “Zapping Poverty”
Bucharest – 26th September 2010
Introduction
Today we are experiencing a complicated situation in Europe - the unemployment rates are extremely high everywhere and the expected economic growth at the same time very slow. During “Zappying Poverty” – Action 1.1. Youth in Action bringing together 35 youngsters from 7 countries, we have been debating over youth unemployment in participant countries and we came to the idea that the effects of the global financial crisis are increasing the vulnerability of the group we are representing. In the EU the youth unemployment rate is over 21%, even though the new Europe 2020, the Renewed Social Agenda and Lisbon strategy should definetly make the situation better. However, the new Youth European Strategy launched in 2009 was considering youth as a resource, but the practical measures have been inacted.
In this Action Plan we are analyzing the inefficiencies and problems connected to youth employment in Europe and accordingly giving solutions and proposals to make the situation better. While implementing this work, we take into account different stakeholders' interests: European Union, local and national authorities, employers' and employees', education institutions and also youngsters'.
General problems what we have to deal with when talking about youth unemployment:
• Inefficient qualifications and experience in the labor market.
• Instability of the labour market.
• Unawareness and uncertainty about future economic situation.
• Taking advantage of the employees.
• Inequality in salaries of public and private sector.
• Black economy.
• Lack of general enthusiasm and motivation.
European Union stakeholders
European Union has already undertaken a variety of measures to reduce unemployment among young people, however we are proposing new ideas to deal with the situation.
Proposals:
• Identical European scholarship for excellent marks in all EU countries. The scholarships nowadays granted only in certain European Countries for excellent academic performance should be equally distributed to all member-states’ students.
• Offering EU training in EU institutions. One of the best internships provided by the EU so far has been the training programme in its own institutions. – European Comission, EU Parliament, Council etc. Unfortunately, this practice is no more available. We insist on its restart.
• Organizing free language and practical courses for young people.
• Giving more support to NGOs – covering daily expenses to encourage more creativity. Members of NGO are those youngsters who profoundly involve themselves in the problematical issues of the society. Apart from the fact that they are doing volunteery job, we think that it would be good if EU supports their daily actions financially by covering the expenses that they face in their ordinary work.
• Support the states to create some social jobs for unqualified people or people from the minorities, such as subsidize “Clean Europe” long-term project. Our idea is to launch an eco-friendly long-term project that is called “Clean Europe”. It involves actions like cleaning the streets, gardening, rennovation of parks etc. that would both benefit the local society and provide people with jobs. The workforce has to be preferably recruited among discriminated people.
• Advertise more international offer database such as EURES.
Local and national stakeholders
Local and national authorities have a strong knowledge of current situation and can deeply manage both problems and solution. Also they can manage the interaction of other players and guide them to a good integration with the local background.
Proposals:
• Help for starting a company:
• lower taxes for start-up company makes easier to cope with initial expense,
• lower cost of money for start-up to be able to buy all the equipment they need,
• strong statistical data about local market and local trends,
• trainings to entrepreneurs to get knowledge about the start-up process,
• supervisors to guide the start-up company in a correct path,
• easy registration,
• networking between start-ups,
• promotion both locally and nationwide to allow a new company to reach enougth customers,
• a start-up company can get better taxes if later will teach to other younger how to start-up a company.
• Help for finding a job:
• courses to build up and improve skills,
• social jobs to cover some critical period or region,
• internship to allow a wise integration between the business world and the post-educational world,
• skills conversion to migrate unneeded skills towards similar skill that have a wider market,
• managing a global CV database between different region to best match local needing with external skills and facilitate skill exchange between regions.
• Creating economical zones (the zones have a very special economical treatment and are used to kick-start a virtuos cycle for fixing the economical situation of a region):
• agreement between government and company for factory building,
• starting governative activities in depressed zones.
• Fighting against black economy by making the tax systems more efficient – will provide more financial resources for government – more possibilities to support entrepreneurship and creation of new jobs.
Employers
This section will solve the problems from an employers' but also employees' perspective. It will be pointing out how to solve unemployment according to this particular stakeholders' environment.
Proposals:
• Training programs and promoting vocational training – important in order to retrain.
employees for the jobs that are needed to be done in the new economic situation.
• Agencies to protect employees’ rights – more efficient control to provide more confidence to employees life-expectations.
• Reforming public policies – more equality in salaries in public and private sector.
• State provided free informative conferences for employers about business environment and opportunities.
• National projects about practical placements during and after university studies – will provide more working experience and opportunities for young people to get a job in the future.
Education
When talking about youth unemployment, we can't forget that a central role is played by the educational system, which has to provide youngsters with the best background to face the challenges of tomorrow.
Proposals:
• The creation of Job Offices in the high schools helps the scholars to meet the demand of employers, who will be able to consult teachers. Orientators and psychologists will guarantee the best matching between the parts.
• Regular internships are made compulsory. The internship fields vary a lot, involving the most humble works. Beside all the educational aspects, with this measure we try to beat the lack of enthusiasm which transforms the most of the students into passive subjects.
• A diary of these internship experiences is created, and made compulsory for each student. The diary enumerates the skills learnt by the student, and helps him/her to create and update his complete CV.
• The creation of a subject named “Career debates” stimulates every student to discuss about the experiences made during the internships. The teacher acts as a facilitator, helping to point out common aspects and problems related to the work world.
• Intensification of the internships by the universities enables a better career cooperation Proposal.
Youngsters
Often young educated people do unqualified job because of the lack of interest or experience in their own profession. In this paragraph we are giving proposals from yourngsters’ point of view in order to make their situation better.
Proposals:
• Investing more money in creating new training courses and provide places for internship – in order to have the chance of practising skills.
• Promoting themselves better and making more contacts for the future.
• Providing young unemployed people a small amout of money.
• Orientation during high school - using the services of conciliation centres.
• “Shadow jobs” - following professionals in their working hours in order to understand the real nature of their work (a week or a month depending on the profession).
• Being a member of non-profit organisations - gaining work, social and cultural experience.
• Improving skills in every step - learning foreign languages and volunteering in international groups.
Conclusion
After considering all the proposals we are coming out with, it is our truth belief that when taking into account the measures described, the situation of youth employment could be improved.
Bucharest – 26th September 2010
Introduction
Today we are experiencing a complicated situation in Europe - the unemployment rates are extremely high everywhere and the expected economic growth at the same time very slow. During “Zappying Poverty” – Action 1.1. Youth in Action bringing together 35 youngsters from 7 countries, we have been debating over youth unemployment in participant countries and we came to the idea that the effects of the global financial crisis are increasing the vulnerability of the group we are representing. In the EU the youth unemployment rate is over 21%, even though the new Europe 2020, the Renewed Social Agenda and Lisbon strategy should definetly make the situation better. However, the new Youth European Strategy launched in 2009 was considering youth as a resource, but the practical measures have been inacted.
In this Action Plan we are analyzing the inefficiencies and problems connected to youth employment in Europe and accordingly giving solutions and proposals to make the situation better. While implementing this work, we take into account different stakeholders' interests: European Union, local and national authorities, employers' and employees', education institutions and also youngsters'.
General problems what we have to deal with when talking about youth unemployment:
• Inefficient qualifications and experience in the labor market.
• Instability of the labour market.
• Unawareness and uncertainty about future economic situation.
• Taking advantage of the employees.
• Inequality in salaries of public and private sector.
• Black economy.
• Lack of general enthusiasm and motivation.
European Union stakeholders
European Union has already undertaken a variety of measures to reduce unemployment among young people, however we are proposing new ideas to deal with the situation.
Proposals:
• Identical European scholarship for excellent marks in all EU countries. The scholarships nowadays granted only in certain European Countries for excellent academic performance should be equally distributed to all member-states’ students.
• Offering EU training in EU institutions. One of the best internships provided by the EU so far has been the training programme in its own institutions. – European Comission, EU Parliament, Council etc. Unfortunately, this practice is no more available. We insist on its restart.
• Organizing free language and practical courses for young people.
• Giving more support to NGOs – covering daily expenses to encourage more creativity. Members of NGO are those youngsters who profoundly involve themselves in the problematical issues of the society. Apart from the fact that they are doing volunteery job, we think that it would be good if EU supports their daily actions financially by covering the expenses that they face in their ordinary work.
• Support the states to create some social jobs for unqualified people or people from the minorities, such as subsidize “Clean Europe” long-term project. Our idea is to launch an eco-friendly long-term project that is called “Clean Europe”. It involves actions like cleaning the streets, gardening, rennovation of parks etc. that would both benefit the local society and provide people with jobs. The workforce has to be preferably recruited among discriminated people.
• Advertise more international offer database such as EURES.
Local and national stakeholders
Local and national authorities have a strong knowledge of current situation and can deeply manage both problems and solution. Also they can manage the interaction of other players and guide them to a good integration with the local background.
Proposals:
• Help for starting a company:
• lower taxes for start-up company makes easier to cope with initial expense,
• lower cost of money for start-up to be able to buy all the equipment they need,
• strong statistical data about local market and local trends,
• trainings to entrepreneurs to get knowledge about the start-up process,
• supervisors to guide the start-up company in a correct path,
• easy registration,
• networking between start-ups,
• promotion both locally and nationwide to allow a new company to reach enougth customers,
• a start-up company can get better taxes if later will teach to other younger how to start-up a company.
• Help for finding a job:
• courses to build up and improve skills,
• social jobs to cover some critical period or region,
• internship to allow a wise integration between the business world and the post-educational world,
• skills conversion to migrate unneeded skills towards similar skill that have a wider market,
• managing a global CV database between different region to best match local needing with external skills and facilitate skill exchange between regions.
• Creating economical zones (the zones have a very special economical treatment and are used to kick-start a virtuos cycle for fixing the economical situation of a region):
• agreement between government and company for factory building,
• starting governative activities in depressed zones.
• Fighting against black economy by making the tax systems more efficient – will provide more financial resources for government – more possibilities to support entrepreneurship and creation of new jobs.
Employers
This section will solve the problems from an employers' but also employees' perspective. It will be pointing out how to solve unemployment according to this particular stakeholders' environment.
Proposals:
• Training programs and promoting vocational training – important in order to retrain.
employees for the jobs that are needed to be done in the new economic situation.
• Agencies to protect employees’ rights – more efficient control to provide more confidence to employees life-expectations.
• Reforming public policies – more equality in salaries in public and private sector.
• State provided free informative conferences for employers about business environment and opportunities.
• National projects about practical placements during and after university studies – will provide more working experience and opportunities for young people to get a job in the future.
Education
When talking about youth unemployment, we can't forget that a central role is played by the educational system, which has to provide youngsters with the best background to face the challenges of tomorrow.
Proposals:
• The creation of Job Offices in the high schools helps the scholars to meet the demand of employers, who will be able to consult teachers. Orientators and psychologists will guarantee the best matching between the parts.
• Regular internships are made compulsory. The internship fields vary a lot, involving the most humble works. Beside all the educational aspects, with this measure we try to beat the lack of enthusiasm which transforms the most of the students into passive subjects.
• A diary of these internship experiences is created, and made compulsory for each student. The diary enumerates the skills learnt by the student, and helps him/her to create and update his complete CV.
• The creation of a subject named “Career debates” stimulates every student to discuss about the experiences made during the internships. The teacher acts as a facilitator, helping to point out common aspects and problems related to the work world.
• Intensification of the internships by the universities enables a better career cooperation Proposal.
Youngsters
Often young educated people do unqualified job because of the lack of interest or experience in their own profession. In this paragraph we are giving proposals from yourngsters’ point of view in order to make their situation better.
Proposals:
• Investing more money in creating new training courses and provide places for internship – in order to have the chance of practising skills.
• Promoting themselves better and making more contacts for the future.
• Providing young unemployed people a small amout of money.
• Orientation during high school - using the services of conciliation centres.
• “Shadow jobs” - following professionals in their working hours in order to understand the real nature of their work (a week or a month depending on the profession).
• Being a member of non-profit organisations - gaining work, social and cultural experience.
• Improving skills in every step - learning foreign languages and volunteering in international groups.
Conclusion
After considering all the proposals we are coming out with, it is our truth belief that when taking into account the measures described, the situation of youth employment could be improved.
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