Preparatory Team

M. Hazar Yildirim AFS Turkey Project Coordinator	Izabela Jurczik EFIL Secretariat	Karin Bitterli AFS Switzerland
Markus Wilthaner AFS Austria	Anna Maria Hass AFS Germany	Cemre Ak'in AFS Turkey
Eva Vitkova AFS Czech Republic	Rasmus Poulsen AFS Denmark

Trainers Team

Max Reichel, GER Yves Gheysen, BFR Lucia Metzbauer, AUT Gabi Mándy, HUN Jana Holla, EGY Vincent Willekens, BFL André Lopes Galvão, POR Kai Böttner, GER Csilla Fodor, HUN

 

European Federation For Intercultural Learning

EFIL, the European federation for Intercultural Learning, is the umbrella organisation of the European AFS Organisations in Europe. AFS (formerly American Field Service) is a non-profit volunteer based educational organization offering exchanges for students, young adults and teachers in over 50 countries around the world.

The Members of EFIL are voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organisations providing intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world. EFIL Member Organisations participate in a network of partner organisations with operations covering 56 countries worldwide.

Turk Kultur Vakfi - TKV

Turkish Cultural Foundation (TKV) was established in 1974 by a group of people who benefited from AFS Intercultural Programs or who supported the ideals of AFS. Its aim is to implement intercultural education programs in Turkey. In addition to AFS programs, the foundation also started other projects that shared similar aims with AFS programs. TKV is also the founding member of EFIL (European Federation for Intercultural Learning) together with other AFS partner countries.

AFS Gonulluleri Dernegi

AFS Volunteer Association (AFS Gonulluleri Dernegi) is a non-governmental organization (NGO), which was founded in 1999 and serves to improve the consciousness and understanding of volunteering. The aim of AFSGD is to create projects building upon intercultural understanding and tolerance, notions held by AFSGD as a NGO. Apart from running the AFS programs in Turkey in co-operation with the Turkish Cultural Foundation, AFSGD provides training opportunities for volunteers, takes active part in projects pioneered by AFS and EFIL. AFS Volunteers Association is also taking part in several national and international projects to promote intercultural learning and to improve the understanding of volunteerism.

Council of Europe

The EFIL Volunteer Summer Summit is taking place with the support of European Youth Foundation of the Council Of Europe.

Origins and mission of the Council Of Europe

Founded in 1949, the Council of Europe seeks to develop throughout Europe common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals.

Member States The Council of Europe has a genuine pan-European dimension: - 47 member countries - 1 applicant country: Belarus; Belarus ' special guest status has been suspended due to its lack of respect for human rights and democratic principles.

Observers 5 observer countries: the Holy See, the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico. Aims - to protect human rights, pluralist democracy and the rule of law; - to promote awareness and encourage the development of Europe's cultural identity and diversity - to find common solutions to the challenges facing European society: such as discrimination against minorities, xenophobia, intolerance, bioethics and cloning, terrorism, trafficking in human beings, organised crime and corruption, cybercrime, violence against children; - to consolidate democratic stability in Europe by backing political, legislative and constitutional reform. The current Council of Europe's political mandate was defined by the third Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in Warsaw in May 2005.

The European Youth Foundation (EYF) is a fund established in 1972 by the Council of Europe to provide financial support for European youth activities. It has an annual budget of approximately 3 million Euros. Since 1972, more than 300 000 young people, aged between 15 and 30 and mostly from member states, have benefited directly from EYF-supported activities. In 2007 the EYF supported some 300 projects involving more than 15 000 young people.

Youth In Action

Youth in Action is the EU Programme for young people aged 15-28 (in some cases 13-30). It aims to inspire a sense of active citizenship, solidarity and tolerance among young Europeans and to involve them in shaping the Union's future.

The Youth in Action Programme aims to achieve the following general objectives:

• promote young people’s active citizenship in general and their European citizenship in particular;
• develop solidarity and promote tolerance among young people, in particular in order to foster social cohesion in the European Union;
• foster mutual understanding between young people in different countries;
• contribute to developing the quality of support systems for youth activities and the capabilities of civil society organisations in the youth field;
• promote European cooperation in the youth field.

Bu proje T.C. Basbakanlik DPT AB Egitim ve Gençlik Programlari Merkezi Baskanligi (http://www.ua.gov.tr) Gençlik Programi kapsaminda ve Avrupa Komisyonu'ndan saglanan hibeyle gerçeklestirilmistir. Ancak burada yer alan görüslerden AB Egitim ve Gençlik Programlari Merkezi Baskanligi veya Avrupa Komisyonu sorumlu tutulamaz.