On the 13th of July 2014, a Youth Council was established in Turkey, giving almost 30 different youth organizations the chance to cooperate between them. Among them, there is also AEGEE, represented for now by AEGEE-Ankara. The AEGEEan spoke to Turgut Tosun and Oğuz Tosun, member of the coordination group and boardmember of AEGEE-Ankara, to find out more.

On the 13th of January this year, fifteen youth organizations got together to discuss the proposition that was released by the government about setting a National Youth Council in Turkey. “According to the proposition, it was supposed to be established within the Ministry of Youth and Sport”, Turgut says. “However, the problem is that it would be controlled by the ministry and they would have the final word in case of a disagreement. This was a totally unacceptable case for youth organizations, so a group of five people made an arrangement with the ministry to discuss the current situation”. However, an agreement could not be reached, so the organizations kept working as a civil initiative with the aim of creating a civil youth council which would represent as many youth organizations in Turkey as possible.

Turkey’s youth has to deal with a lot of problems with the government, of which the arrest of several young people after the Gezi Park protests is just one example. “We were in contact and tried to share any outcomes of our meetings with the ministry, but after the Gezi Park movement and the policies of the government towards the young people of Turkey, we decided to temporarily suspend our relation with the government”, Turgut explains. “This council is an initiative to save youth from the fire in Turkey”, Oğuz adds. “If we implement this council properly, the youth can start to know themselves. We want to give the youth the chance to understand themselves, so they can change the world”.

AEGEE-Ankara got involved in the process of establishing the Council from the beginning, attending the first meeting in January and all the meetings taking place afterwards. Some representatives from other Turkish-speaking AEGEE locals also attended a few meetings, but so far AEGEE-Ankara is the only local involved in the Youth Council. However, there will probably be a Network Meeting organized to see how the Turkish-speaking AEGEE locals can get involved in the Youth Council, since AEGEE does not have a national level.

Moreover, the Youth Council cannot officially be called National Youth Council, because the use of the words ‘national, council, Turkey, initiative or platform’ is officially banned after the Gezi Park movement, but this does not mean the organizations have given up. “To use the word ‘national’ we need permission from the Council of Ministers of Turkey, which I don’t think we will have in the next fifteen years. Thus, we decided to call ourselves Gençlik Örgütleri Forumu – GÖF or Youth Organizations’ Forum”, Turgut explains.

The expectations for the work that can be done with the Youth Organization Forum are high. “I think the youth in Turkey has a great chance to act in many fields, from democracy to environment”, Oğuz says. “I believe this is the best thing for young people. Before we start to change things on a local level, we want to observe as much as possible different examples all over the world. The youth in Turkey can bring the local and international actions together to change the system in Turkey. Wish us luck and power!”

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen & Raluca Radu, AEGEE-Cluj Napoca

]]> ../../../2013/07/31/marcos-dosantos-from-the-spanish-youth-council-to-the-cd-house-in-brussels/ Wed, 31 Jul 2013 09:18:16 +0000 ../../../?p=18401 It has not been such a long time since The AEGEEan introduced Madalena Souza who works in the CD house. Now it is time to let the Network get to know Marcos Dosantos the new intern at the house, who came a little bit better.    What is your background? What made you interested in volunteering? I am originally from… Read more →

The work of a Policy Officer involves a lot of reading — lengthy study and survey reports, lofty European Commission publications, and repetitive online discussions — but every now and then something more exciting comes along as well. One of those moments was the first lobbying meeting of the Dutch Youth Council on Education for sustainability, followed the next day by a busy policy debate at the European Parliament on Entrepreneurship skills. A brief account of 24h in the life of a Policy Officer…

For the second year the Dutch Youth Council (NJR) is trying to focus the bulk of its lobbying efforts towards a single aim. Last year, their board member for advocacy, Gabe worked on study financing, and this year his successor, Felix got the task to work on Education for sustainability. This topic was proposed some months ago by the Dutch AEGEE locals who, following AEGEE’s Strategic Plan, recently became an NJR member.

Of course ‘Education for sustainability’ is a hopelessly broad field, so the aim of the meeting at the NJR headquarters in Utrecht is to help Felix narrowing this down to a workable lobby point. Felix and Gabe and some of their colleagues had prepared four possible scenarios to bring sustainability into the Dutch education system, going from working on the learning outcomes to creating sustainability for university students.

Two rounds of discussion with board members and representatives of member organisations direct the topic towards developing sustainability projects within the vocational education system. A challenge since many member organisations — including AEGEE — have fewer links with this part of the student population, but also a huge opportunity, as sustainability has long been considered as something elitist.

Early next morning, I’m on my way to the European Parliament in Brussels for a policy debate organised by EUCIS-LLL, the European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning. Together with CD-member Beata Matuszka, I’m presenting AEGEE’s experience with entrepreneurship education, drawing lessons from Europe on Track’s discussions with young people and the previous editions of the European School on Entrepreneurship.

The meeting is hosted by the Austrian MEP Heinz Becker (EPP), who immediately frames the debate by referring to the European Commission’s Social Business Initiative: “The main objective of social business is to generate a significant impact on society, the environment and the local community.” After interesting presentations from EfVET (on teaching young people entrepreneurship skills through their regular teachers) and YFJ (on the results of their study into the impact of non-formal education on youth employability), and a testimony from a former participant of the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme, we are up.

Other contributions before the floor is opened to questions include people from DG Education and Culture (“The methodologies needed to teach entrepreneurship skills are very much based in non-formal education”) and DG Enterprise and Industry (“Entrepreneurship is a key competence for everybody, it’s not just how to start a business”), as well as a rapporteur from the EESC refocusing the discussion on the main goal of education: to create free citizens with a critical mind who can function fully in the society.

Strong comments were made by SYNTRA, pointing to the fact that we are fighting — and are thus risking to lose — a war on two fronts (namely by using a confusing terminology and by frightening teachers with new topics to teach), by EFIL on extending the debate to entrepreneurial knowledge and attitudes, and OBESSU stressing the danger of focusing the education system too strongly on following the job market — a concern also heard in Zagreb during Europe on Track.

MEP Becker’s closing question whether students know about social entrepreneurship offered the opportunity to put in a quick point on Education for sustainability as well: “Students don’t know about these valuable types of entrepreneurship, just like they know little about social or sustainability issues. To change this, a deeper reform of education is needed, beyond the contents of entrepreneurship education.” Now let’s hope that  he will take all of our comments with him!

Written by By Mathieu Soete, Policy Officer on Sustainability

Pictures credit of:

Hans Kreutzer

EUCIS-LLL

The Dutch locals are one of the most numerous in AEGEE. While some countries only have one local, the Netherlands can be proud of a whole eleven. The time has come for them to unite and join the Dutch Youth Council (NJR), where nine out of eleven AEGEE locals in the Netherlands are represented.  This does sound very nice and impressive, but what does it actually mean?

Wieke van der Kroef, Speaker of the Network Commission Agora-Enschede – Agora-Budapest, kindly explains the situation. After all, she was the one who initiated the idea and took the first step to making it a reality.

Wieke: “Becoming a member means a few things. First of all, we will be able to vote on their assemblies, so all our members will be represented in their policy now. This means the following things:

1. We are closely connected to other youth associations who are members, and that makes it easier to start collaborations;

2. Being a member of the official Youth Council means that we have an official way to get to talk to (national) politicians and advise on policies;

3. The NJR has a good cooperation and connections to funding organisations, like the company distributing the Youth in Action funds in the Netherlands;

4. The NJR is not just for students though, it’s also for high school students, so it can give us opportunities to already start our PR before people go to university;

5. As the NJR is also a member of the European Youth Forum (YFJ), AEGEE now has an extra influence on their work apart from the vote that AEGEE-Europe has.”

But how were all off these opportunities opened? It was a step-by-step process. The Dutch Youth Council first rejected AEGEE for a lack of national level. Good thing that this did not stop Wieke. After a close look through their statutes, she was able to prove that AEGEE is legible for a membership just like any other organisation. The next step was to find a representative who would present AEGEE to the board of the NJR and convince them just how successful our cooperation can be. This is where Paul Smits, one of Wieke’s subcommies, comes in. He was the one who did the trip to their general assembly.

Paul: “The General Assembly of the NJR was a fantastic experience. All these young motivated people who are actively participating in the society in different ways, brought together in one umbrella organisation, the NJR. It was an energetic meeting with a good meal before and a social drink afterwards, during which I spoke with several people who already inspired me.”

It was here that Paul represented and defended AEGEE for its right to become an official member of the NJR. After a small battle, he succeeded.

Paul: “Representing the participating Dutch locals is wonderful. I am now in close contact with the NJR board and all the other member organisations which are potential partners for my locals.”

Now, is the time for the Dutch locals to get more active than ever. With all these new opportunities and possibilities at hand it would be a shame to let them go to waste. So get to it!

Written by Olga Volovyk, AEGEE-Kyiv