London: city of the Big Ben, Buckingham’s palace and since recently… AEGEE! London is one of the youngest contacts within our network. Youngest in its current form that is, because AEGEE-London actually existed before; it was already founded in 1995 but unfortunately died a silent death. Luckily, Eszter Bango (President and Project Management Director)  and Maarten Veldmans (Foreign Relations and European Questions Director ) revived it! AEGEE London is back and stronger than ever, promoting multiculturalism in one of the liveliest cities in Europe.

The AEGEEan: How was the Contact in London initiated?

Eszter: I was looking for an AEGEE local in London when I came to live in London, but to my surprise it didn’t exist. I sent e-mails to other AEGEE-contacts asking why. I met with network commissioner Wieke van der Kroef and AEGEE-Sheffield to get more information about establishing an AEGEE-Contact. Things really started to get rolling when I met with Stefan Nikolic (Vice President, Secretary and Human Resources Director) and Maarten. They helped me get a support letter from the local University, which I could not do myself because I am not a student (I work in London).

Maarten: I am Dutch but I study in London. When I came here in September 2012 I got the same idea as Eszter: starting an antenna here. I checked out the conditions, made a plan and e-mailed the CD. Luis brought me into contact with Wieke, who in turn connected me to Eszter, making the circle round again. We had some difficulties, like the University not granting us the needed support letter. Luckily, my school (London school of economics) did express their support so we could start working. Stefan van Hult helped us get enough board members and from then on we really made progress. We have a great team with a common goal: esthablishing a great antenna and keeping it alive and kicking. The biggest challenge for us is to find Brits in their bachelor studies willing to contribute.

Eszter: indeed, there are not too many British people in London: according to the latest researches only 40% of the london population actually is British. But what does ‘’British’’ means exactly? Coming from a British father and mother? British grandma and grandpa? What about bbc (British born Chinese)? Are they British? We are talking about London her: one of the most international cities in Europe. Perhaps in the whole world as well…

Where do you guys stand at the moment?

Eszter: we are a Contact, we need to sign the statue at Agora in Mannheim and then we are in!

What are your future goals and plans?

Eszter: we really want to get the right people on board. Also, in autumn we are doing a project called Euro scepticism. This is a project that deals with scepticism people might have about Europe and multiculturalism. We will organize discussions, offer a platform for exchange of opinions and host a training course to raise awareness on active European citizenship. We dicuss for example what kind of scepticism there is (hard versus soft, policitical versus economical etc). We also look at the influence of media, economic insecurity, cultural treat and much more.

Maarten: We would love to organize events on the European level in the near future, but for now we focus on mobilising people on the local level. We are still in the start-up phase of course but we are optimistic about the future of the Contact in London. After all: we live in a beautiful, lively, diverse and geographically ideal city.

What makes AEGEE London different from any other AEGEE local?

Eszter: London’s universities have a very diverse student body. This gives us a unique opportunity to not only connect the different London students but also connect London’s student with the rest of Europe.

Stefan: What also makes us different is that we work together with human rights organisations from the Hult business school. We have a great balance between an professional and educational character on the one hand and an informal and fun character on the other hand.

Anything else we absolutely must know about the new AEGEE-Europe Contact in London?

Eszter: The AEGEE-Europe contact in London has an extraordinary strong multicultural character which gives us a unique position in Europe. And London is the heart of Europe and economically flourishing so everybody comes here: “the capitalism  really can live and raise in London”, giving our Contact a great chance of being a strong local!

Maarten: and… we wil most likely organize an introduction party soon, so keep an eye out for that!

Written bij Maartje Natrop, AEGEE-Utrecht

Featured image source: London SNAP

When you are fighting for human rights, you sometimes tend to see only the things in the world that need a change, and you give them a lot of attention.
Not today! Today I want to share something amazing with you.
About a month ago has ended the most famous sports event for people with disabilities. I am saying most famous, because I cannot name any other sports event with such great impact as the Paralympics. I think no one will disagree with me when I say it is an amazing opportunity, and an amazing way of showing us that if you really want something, nothing can stop you.

What’s in a name?
Paralympics. We all know the Olympic Games, and also that it is named after the Greek city Olympia, where the first Olympic Games in Ancient Greece were held. But the origin of the word ‘paralympic’ is probably (and maybe not even) only known by the Greek. ‘Para’ means ‘alongside’, which means that it are games organised in parallel to the Olympic Games. ¹

How did it start?
The only down-side I am going to mention today, is that it did not start with the Ancient Greek. The first humble move on the road to the Paralympic Games as we know them today, was made in 1948 in Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, England. It was Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, a German neurologist who fled to England right before the Second World War and worked at the spinal unit of the hospital, who came up with the idea of having a sports event for his patients. The first sports they played was wheelchair polo, but soon it was replaced by wheelchair basketball. ² He used it as a treatment, he thought sports (or at least being more active) would help his patients to recover, or at least offer them a new motivation to live. His dream was to organise one day an international sports event for people with disabilities. ³
From 1952 on the athletes from other countries started to join his games, and in 1960 the number of international participants had grown to 400 people from 23 different countries. It was amazing, but still not perfect: you could only join if you were in a wheelchair. It took another twelve years for people with other disabilities to be able to join. The first official Paralympics were held in Rome in 1976.

Paralympics today 
Today we know the Paralympic Winter- and the Paralympic Summer Games. They are organised in parallel to the Olympic Games, and there are around 4000 athletes from 146 different countries competing against each other in 20 different sports.  ⁴ Twenty very different kinds of sport, like archery, para-triathlon, swimming, alpine skiing, and wheelchair dancing. There are five major classifications of athletes, which are people with visual disabilities, people with physical disabilities, amputee athletes, persons with cerebral palsy, people with spinal cord injuries, and also there is a group called “les autres”, to which the athletes with other kinds of disabilities belong.³

At the beginning I said I was going to tell you something amazing. I think I did, but if I have not convinced you yet, I am going to tell you this:

The Paralympic Games are the largest multi-sports event in the world, after the Olympic Games!

Written by Maria Arends, AEGEE-Groningen

Featured image licence free: ‘Sundesigns’: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/soundings

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¹ About the Paralympic Games: http://getset.london2012.com/en/the-games/about-the-olympic-and-paralympic-games/about-the-paralympic-games requested on 15-09-2012.

² Sir Ludwig Guttmann and his legacy: http://www.mandevillelegacy.org.uk/category_id__19_path__0p4p.aspx requested on 15-09-2012

³ History of the Paralympics: http://www.paralympiceducation.ca/Content/History/11%20History%20of%20the%20Paralympics.asp?langid=1 requested on 15-09-2012

⁴ The IPC: What do we do? :
http://www.paralympic.org/TheIPC/WWD/ParalympicGames requested on 15-09-2012