MIJARC Europe

Between 4th – 8th September 2018, our member movement APSD-Agenda 21 is hosting a youth exchange on peace and conflict. The project is called “Messages from the future” and it is part of our annual work plan on 2018 “We are the others”. The youth exchange is co-financed by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union. It is organized as an international simulation on four different topics which affect peace and conflict at global level: climate change, migration, gender inequality and extremism.

Our youth exchange has just started and we could not be more excited. Yesterday we have welcomed the delegations here in Buzau and they already started sharing and interacting. The atmosphere was great and they were all eager to get to know each other. Therefore, the first session in the morning got them all together in a big circle in the back yard of our venue where they learnt five ways to greet each other that alien civilizations use (don’t forget that for this youth exchange we traveled forward in time in 2068 where we met aliens of course).

Then we played some self-regulation games to help the group pay attention and get used to the way the facilitators give instructions.

There were a lot of team building games and games to find out more about each other which really helped with building a nice group atmosphere and helped each participant interact with the other 49 people.

Once inside the facilitators introduced the project and what its aim was and helped the participant explore the ERASMUS+ Programme and the opportunities the European Union programmes offer for young people. We did this interactively of course: voting with our feet, watching videos or taking group quizzes.

Next, it was time for everybody to reflect on what had brought them there and what they wanted to get from the experience, so hundreds of quotes about learning were laid out on the floor in order to inspire the participants about what learning meant to them. Each of them chose one or two and shared their reasons in small buzz groups, then set their own learning objectives. They also explored the learning process of the Youth Pass and the key competences for life long learning.

Since they had spent too much time inside, we took them out for a clue-game around the city but not before exploring the exhibition of the town museum and reflecting about the history of peace and the European culture. The clue game was not easy and the participants had to run around the city, discovering interesting place such as an

Back at venue, we got into small reflection groups and together reflected on our vision of the world 50 years from now and what to do in the present in order to have sustainable peace then.

Tomorrow will bring the first simulation of the exchange: the one climate change, which takes place in a secret location (can you imagine where we will take them?).

Our partners from the European Cooperation “La Via Campesina” have published a useful publication on food sovereignty, that can be use by every organisation, group or person interested in rural development and empowering people to take control of the way their food is being produced, delivered and consumed.

In this publication, ECVC delivers a thorough account of the concept of Food Sovereignty, an approach and process developed by the people most threatened by the processes of the consolidation of power in food and agricultural systems: peasant farmers. Instead of being destroyed by the forces of history they are offering a proposal to solve the multiple crises which humanity is facing.

Food Sovereignty offers itself as a process of building social movements and empowering peoples to organise their societies in ways that transcend the neoliberal vision of a world of commodities, markets and selfish economic actors. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the myriad of complex problems we face in today’s world. Instead, Food Sovereignty is a process that adapts to the people and places where it is put in practice. Food Sovereignty means solidarity, not competition, and building a fairer world from the bottom up.

Food Sovereignty emerged as a response and alternative to the model of corporate globalization. As such, it is Internationalist in character, and provides a framework for understanding and transforming international governance around food and agriculture.

You can find the complete publication here.

In 2017 MIJARC Europe has redefined its vision, adopting new strategic objectives and an action plan for the period 2018-2021. With the new strategy, three new thematic focus points were set and in 2018, MIJARC Europe chose to focus on promoting its European vision in an interconnected world in an attempt to answer the challenge of building a peaceful world. Peace is indeed the annual topic chosen by our member organisations (MOs) and in line with our strategic focus, the topic will be pursued with a view to: promote cooperation with our neighbours and to promote and build a peaceful vision towards the others and the world.

On 11th November 2018 the world will celebrate 100 years since the end of the First World War (WW1). As the first major global conflict, the WW1 saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction but also massive social upheaval for women who entered the workforce. The young people in MIJARC Europe what to mark this historical landmark by focusing on peace and using the memory of the war as a warning signal that we should never take peace, stability and security for granted and always work to promote and maintain them. Also, we should not forget that our continent and our world are still affected by conflict or continue to bear the consequences of past hostilities. Peace is far from being reached in many parts of the world and young people are one of the main actors that can rebuild their societies, maintain peace and promote it so that present and future generations do not have to bear the consequences of conflicts.

This is why in 2018 we will work together towards making young people in MIJARC Europe’s network and beyond aware of the important and positive role they play in the maintenance and promotion of international peace and security. Our annual work plan includes one local activity, two international activities backed by follow-up measures and a peace festival hosted by our member movements MRJC-France and KLJB-Germany. The activities work towards one common concrete output – an educational travelling photo exhibition and a booklet with activities.

Our first activity will be a local activity. Under the title – “Peace and conflict” – this local activity invites volunteers from all our MOs to do a research about the situation of migrants and refugees in their countries, write one article about it and make efforts to meet at least two migrants or refugees and find their personal story. With the agreement of the people and following all legal prescriptions they will take a portrait of them and caption it with that person’s personal story of conflict. These portraits will be included in a photo exhibition that will become an educational travelling exhibition in the end.

Our first international activity will be a youth peace camp – “We are the others”. The camp will focus on participants’ personal relation to peace and conflict and on equipping them with intercultural competencies. The conclusions of their discussions and work will materialize in a second section of the exhibition – portraits and stories of conflict – and a booklet with educational activities that can be done around the exhibition.

The call for participants has already been launched. You can find it here. The deadline to apply is 20th May 2018. So, if you are interested to join our youth peace camp, download and send the registration form before the deadline.

The international peace festival “Rendez-vous” will the perfect place for young people to meet and attend workshops, open sessions and moderated discussions on peace and conflict. The event will gather about 5,000 people from all over Europe and people from other continents and it will truly be a festival of friendship and openness.

Our last international activity of the year will be a simulation – “Messages from the future”. An unconventional activity that will make the participants travel through time and join a youth meeting which takes place in 2068.

During the meeting they will have to look at what went wrong in the past and why global peace is still not achieved. They will transform their ideas into meaningful messages and photos creating the third section of the exhibition. The activity will be hosted by APSD-Agenda 21 in Buzau-Romania and it will be co-financed by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union.

As a follow-up measure, the exhibition will travel in 10 different countries with the help of the pax at the two international activities.

Did we manage to make you curios and interested in joining us?

If so, contact your national organization or write to our Secretariat to find out how to join our activities!

MIJARC Europe enriches its administrative structure with three new Work Commissions.

Following the decision taken by MIJARC Europe’s last Orientation General Assembly, which took place in Mainz-Germany, between 21st – 23rd July 2017, three new specialized work commissions were set up. The three commissions will work on the three thematic focus points and will help the European Board to implement the Action Plan and achieve the newly adopted Strategic Objectives.

The three Commissions will work on:

1. A sustainable culture for agriculture and rural youth

2. Our European vision towards an interconnected world

3. Citizenship and youth participation in rural development

Tasks of members of the commissions:
• attend at least one Commission meeting per year
• attend the online meetings
• work on and take decisions about the methods to use and how to deal with the topics that are linked to the Action Plan;
• support the European Team as experts, ensure the external representation of the organization and set up the Think Tank if needed;
• set up and run the European campaigns as written in the Action Plan of MIJARC Europe.

IT’S TIME TO START YOUR MANDATE AS A MEMBER OF ONE OF OUR THREE COMMISSIONS!

Download the document below to find out more about our new commissions and how to become a commissioner.

!Please note that the call is open only for the members of MIJARC Europe and its national member organizations!

Call for members of the MIJARC Europe’s Commissions

Our members from France – MRJC – and Germany – KLJB -decided to organize the local round table together, taking advantage of the annual joint meeting of the French-German Inter-Commission. So, on 25th November 2017, in Becanson-France, they joined forces and brought 45 people working in different commissions in their movements for a nice official dinner to present the results of the seminar and discuss about the current political situation and about what comes to their mind when they think about extremism, discrimination and hate. The organizing team started by explaining why MIJARC decided to deal with the subject of extremism and continued with the presentation of what happened during the study visit and the seminar. Next, they explained the most important points of the position paper “Extremism in Europe”.

As a result of the round table, the participants realized how extremism, hate and discrimination affect our daily life. They are some of the main topics in our newspapers and the reason for terrorism, wars and the #metoo-debate. They concluded that extremist attitudes have increased since a lot of refugees came to Europe. A very important point of the position paper as highlighted by the participants was that we should continue to give young people a sense of democracy by following democratic rules in our events and supporting them in developing citizenship.

Another important point was to support the idea of a shared European project, built on cooperation. The discussion were also very deep and personal and the participants discovered that everyone had been affected more or less by extremism, racism or discrimination. The members of KLJB and MRJC felt strengthened in their planning of the peace-festival “RENDEZVOUS!” in 2018. One hundred years after the end of the First World War, they want to leave a mark for peace and justice and a common European vision.

The round tables are the third and final phase of our work plan “Radically against extremism”. The work plan is supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe, a unique foundation supporting activities developed with, for and by young people.

Our member organization from Romania, Assistance and Programmes for Sustainable Development – Agenda 21 (APSD-Agenda 21) managed to bring to their round table 18 participants representing 15 public institutions and local authorities from all over the country: Bucharest School Inspectorate, Giurgiu County School Inspectorate, National Agency for People with Disabilities, Bucharest 4th district City Hall, National Authority for the Protection of Child Rights and Adoption, Prefecture Institution Giurgiu, Cornu City Hall, National Agency of Civil Servants, General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection 6th district Bucharest, General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection 1st district Bucharest, County Council Prahova , Ploiesti City Hall, Calvini Region City Hall, Ramnicu Sarat City Hall, Teachers Training House Buzau. It was an impressively diverse group of civil servants, local elected decision-makers, teachers, schools inspector, social workers and young people. The young participants who had attended the seminar used a Power Point presentation to present the Position Paper and started a moderated discussion on the points raise.

One of the main conclusions of the meeting was the importance of education, in formal and non-formal contexts, for both victims and authors of extremist acts. The representatives of the school inspectorates who were present at the meetings suggested that the topic could be approached by the Master teachers during the counselling classes. Another conclusion was that it would be very important if there were funds dedicated to organizing proper information/awareness-raising sessions or workshops/seminars with students of all ages.

The representatives of public institutions underlined that in public administration there were a series of documents and codes that comprise the principles of the Position Paper, but nevertheless these codes are not always respected by the letter. So, it would be good to find push-factors that could help in creating a non-discrimination and hate free environment at the level of civil servants.

All participants agreed that social media is a very powerful influencing factor that can easily shape opinions and behaviours, especially of young people. Young people need to learn how to critically analyze a text/post and how to recognize hate speech and discrimination.

On 18th October 2017, our member organization System&Generation from Turkey held two round tables with students and staff of the T.C. Gazi University and with members of their own organisation.

The round tables started with a presentation of MIJARC Europe and the projects it had developed with S&G and it continued with a session in which those attended had the chance to reflect on their own knowledge, attitude and general feelings towards extremism and radicalization. Next, the attendees were involved in a discussion with a professor for Gazi University, trying to find an answer to the question “What can be done in order to prevent or reduce the frequency of these acts?”. The SWOT analysis method was used for the suggested solutions. The entire event enabled the participants to enrich their knowledge on the topic of extremism and to use it in order to bring about a change in attitude in their communities.

Federation of Youth Clubs of Armenia, the biggest youth organization in Armenia, and a full member of MIJARC Europe, held round-table discussions devoted to the fight against extremism and violence. The round tables were organized by the young FYCCA volunteers who attended the international seminar “Open minds, open doors”.

There were two events: the first discussion was held with the members and volunteers of organisation on 16th September 2017, while the second event was held with representatives of local youth NGOs and of the municipality of Yerevan city on 20th September 2017 – a day before the International day of Peace. During the round-table discussions, the following points were targeted: the results of the international seminar devoted to the fight against discrimination and intolerance that was held in Germany, and the position paper created at the end of the seminar.

In addition, discussions on the manifestations of intolerance, spreading of hate speech, and extreme violence in a number of European countries, including Armenia, were conducted and some roleplays were demonstrated. The coordinators also initiated a social media campaign against extremism and hate speech and started a photo competition devoted to peace and solidarity.

The final stage of our annual work plan, the local round tables with local NGOs and public authorities started in September and gave the participants to our international activities the chance to present the result of their work: the Position Paper. With the help of their members movements, the participants contacted public authorities and local NGOs and set a round table, based on the follow-up plan they drafted and assessed together at the end of the seminar. The participants presented the tools developed during the Study Visit and the International Seminar and initiated a discussion from the points raised in the Position Paper. The aim of these round tables is to raise awareness at the local level and to start a discussion on the manner of addressing the issues of radicalisation, extremism and inclusion. Federation of Youth Clubs – Armenia (FYCA), System&Generation – Turkey (S&G) and Assistance and Programmes for Sustainable Development-Agenda 21 – Romania (APSD-Agenda 21) held their round tables and drew interesting conclusion on youth involvement and extremism. More round tables will be held in November and December. Read about them in the “News” category.

In July 2017 all three members of our European Team finished their mandates and new elections were in place during our GA. Fortunately, four new enthusiastic and also experienced young people decided to put their resources to use for the MIJARC Europe network for the next three years.

Arman, Cristiana, Claire and Daniela will form our European Team for the next three years. They are all well acquainted with MIJARC Europe and motivated to help our organisation grow even stronger as they declared themselves in our new issue of Info Europe. Read about them and their motivation in the interviews section.