About 60 participants from Northrhine-Westphalia are meeting on Saturday, 10th of November, to relate their experiences with the ewoca³ programme during the summer of 2012. At the ZAKK in Düsseldorf the youths are exchanging the „tops and flops“ of their encounters with peers from, in each case, two different countries and the Mercator foundation presents their campaign „I want Europe“ to them. Ewoca³ is a unique spport programme for youth work organisations in Northrhine-Westphalia. The project by IBB Dortmund, funded by the Federal State of Northrhine-Westphalia and the Mercator foundation, connected about 300 young people from a total of 14 countries in twelve European work camps this summer. Minister-President Hannelore Kraft is the official patron of the project.
In Bosnia and Herzegowina and in Belarus, in the Ukraine and in eight towns in Northrhine-Westphalia youths from three countries cooperatively realised projects relating to climate protection and sustainability. A solar oven in Walberberg, a ropes course in Westerkappeln, a BBQ place and a facility for using rain water in Hagen are just some of the examples.
In Belarus, youths from Italy, Germany and Belarus cooperated in an intergenerational project with seniors to build a healthcare facility for people resettled from Chernobyl. In Westerkappeln, the three-country-team cooperated closely with children from a daycare centre. In the Ukraine, the French-German-Ukrainian team inclusively involved young people with disabilities into their project.
In Oberhausen the international group of the youth centre ParkHaus got to know the spontaneous generosity of the Ruhr Area: The owner of a snack bar spontaneously donated Currywurst and French fries to the about 30 hard-working young people. „The youths made lots of great experiences like this and are very proud of what they achieved in such a short time“, Katharina Teiting, project officer at the IBB in Dortmund, knows. Five members of the state parliament of Northrhine-Westphalia took time to visit one of the camps.
The networking meeting commences on Saturday, 10th of November 2012, at 11.00 AM at the Centre for Action, Culture and Communication (ZAKK), Fichtenstraße 40, in 40233 Dusseldorf.