Mobility, especially youth mobility, is critical for members of AEGEE due to its many events all over Europe. It therefore comes as no surprise that there is something like the Youth Mobility Working Group (YMWG). What is surprising is that the main task of this working group is often not facilitating mobility, but raising awareness about the possibilities of youth mobility. Here to present the new team of the Youth Mobility Working Group and its goals is Elena Efremova, PR Coordinator of YMWG.
Elena Efremova
The AEGEEan: Could you introduce the team of the Youth Mobility Working Group?
Elena: The new team of Youth Mobility Working Group consists of ten people: seven official members, two assistants and… one advisor! Daniel Llamazares is our lovely Coordinator, I am the PR Coordinator (İlayda Berberoğlu is the PR Assistant), Maria Smirnova is the Policy Officer, Kristina Reshetova is the Project Manager, and Maribel Martin Herrero is the Fundraising Responsible. For the main objectives we have three people: Berfu Ozer – objective 1 (establish a group of supporters), Asier Rodríguez – objective 2 (train 100 members) and Klaudia Chlopas – objective 3 (establish 5 long-term agreements providing mobility service). Moreover, some weeks ago, Maryana Semenyak joined our team as an advisor, and Joanna Pankowska is our appointed CD member.
Read the full activity plan, here.
Why is youth mobility so important to your team?
In the XXI century, it is impossible to imagine living in one place; tickets for buses, trains or planes are so cheap, and movement has become an inseparable part of our daily life. To be in AEGEE means to travel a lot. There are a lot of possibilities, but not many people know where to find this information and how to use it. The main goal of the Youth Mobility Working Group is to help people inside and outside AEGEE to travel and develop.
Every member had their own reasons to join the team. Someone was convinced by Daniel (it’s impossible to say “no” to him when he smiles), someone wanted to teach other AEGEE members how to get visas and show that it is not hard (yes, our girls from Russia and Turkey have requested many visas during their life and didn’t die). But all of us want AEGEEans to travel more, it doesn’t matter whether they want to go to events or study abroad.
Daniel Llamazares
What, specifically, are you going to do this year to try to reach your aim of easing the mobility of youth and students in Europe?
We have a lot of plans! You can read them, in detail, in our activity plan for the upcoming year [she smiles]. We plan to organise some activities connected to Youth Mobility, for example the Mobility day, create guidelines about visa and grants processes, reativate some online AEGEE platforms for sharing mobility information. We don’t want to be passive, not only will we make boring, but useful, materials “what to do in your local in order to …”, but we plan to motivate locals and people to organise something!
As PR coordinator, I wish to increase visibility of the Youth Mobility Working Group. We need more likes on our Facebook page! So, I kindly ask you to like our Facebook page and invite your friends to do the same. We will have a new logo (we’re already working on it with the Public Relations Comitee) and you will read a lot about us! Our big wish is to see that the Action Agenda of the Youth Mobility Focus Area will be fully implemented in one year.
Do you, and how do you, think that conferences or other events about mobility, like ‘Borderless Europe: Blessing or Burden?’, hosted by AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca earlier this year, helps further your cause?
Conferences like that are very important not only for AEGEE. It means that twenty or more people who care about mobility talk about existing problems and try to find solutions. These conferences bring politicians and youth together, and we hope that in the future we will have more events like it.
Maria Smirnova
What do you think are the biggest obstacles to youth mobility?
You expect me to say visas or money? No. Is visa a real problem? In three years, I have made five visas! And believe me it’s not so hard! You only need to know which documents you need and follow instructions. Yes, it takes time and money, you are not totally free. It’s a field where AEGEE can make policy and advocacy, it could be the biggest challenge for AEGEE-Europe.
The main obstacle is the lack of information. People don’t know where to find information, sometimes people don’t know how to use what they know. When AEGEE was established in 1985 border-less Europe (integration and cooperation) even though we can’t compare mobility issues back to that time, as of course we lost already many barriers however young people are still facing many obstacles and unfortunately not many AEGEE members are aware and know how it works when it comes to practical moments.
As the PR-responsible, what will you do to increase awareness about the plans and achievements of the working group, as well as awareness about the working group itself?
The first goal, as I already said, is to increase visibility of the working group. Members of AEGEE should know our team and what do we do exactly, how to contact us and which information we can and should provide for them. Moreover, PR responsible should help members of the team to promote their ideas. PR, Project Manager and Main Objective Responsible people will work together to achieve our goals and implement the Action Agenda.
Is there anything that I did not ask, but that you would like to have included into the interview?
Dear AEGEE community, this working groups exist to help you to implement the Action Agenda. Don’t hesitate to contact us! We are looking for antennae, who already won grants, and people who know how to get visas. Your knowledge about it is of great help for others! Moreover, if you need workshops about mobility issues we are also happy to run them for you!
Written by Willem Laurentzen, AEGEE-Nijmegen