Saturday, September 11, 2010

Partner descriptions

Kuusankosken Retkeilijat ry., Finland, started in Kuusankoski (nowadays a part of the town of Kouvola), a town in south-eastern Finland, in 1979. The town of Kouvola is wide in area and mostly rural, e.g. a large Nature Park is situated there. The town is situated in a disadvantaged area because many work places in factories have been lost and the population is decreasing.

The club is a member of the Union of Workers’ Travel and Hiking Clubs in Finland, which in its turn is a member of the worldwide Naturfreunde Internationale (NFI). The club aims at encouraging people to take part in activities in our natural environment with regard to ecological viewpoints. Today the club has some 450 members. Many of the members are older people. Members of the club help groups of old or disabled people to enable them to take part in various activities. The club has taken active part in various social happenings arranged by Kuusankoski town and other organizations. Participation in the activities is based on volunteering.

The program of the club includes instructing people interested in outdoor activities e.g. in ecology and history and traditions of the places visited, excursions both in our own town Kouvola with its surroundings and in Lapland, cultural excursions, various outdoor activities travelling abroad at moderate expense, planning and organizing programs for visitors in Finland by using voluntary team work. These activities include project work and at the same time offer multiple transnational learning possibilities to the participants.

In 2006-2008 the club acted as a partner in a EU project “Travel Agents 55 + without frontiers”. A network of groups working for similar causes in ten European countries was created during the project. The themes of the project were mobility, voluntary work, lifelong learning and active ageing. After the EU project the club has continued similar activities. Our core group of active members is growing all the time – during the EU project there were some twenty active people, now they number more than thirty - which is a sign that our goals are good and well accepted. We have a 55+ group meeting every month. In a non-formal study circle we learn about environmental issues, other European countries, EU issues and other interesting topics which people like to study.

Palamuse Rahvamaja, Estonia, celebrates its 100-year anniversary this year. Officially it was registered in 2000. The main goal of our organization is preserving and developing traditional arts. There are seven folk-dance groups from the age of 7 to 70, a mixed choir, male and female ensembles, senior club, amateur theatre, children’s drama club, art studio, two line-dance groups, handicraft studio, guitar club and youth band in our house.

We organize different events and celebrate national and international holidays by organizing concerts, plays, tours, etc. Five of our groups participate in the national Song and Dance Festival program. There is a dance group for elderly, which mostly practices Estonian folk dances.

In Palamuse we organize four bigger events, known all over Estonia:
- this year we had, for the twelfth time, the biggest open-air fair in Estonia- Paunvere Country Fair
- every year we give out a humor award for the best humor writer in Estonia
- every year we have an amateur film festival
- every second year we have a land-art festival with famous Estonian artists, lasting a week

We organize meetings for elderly people once a month. We also cooperate with Palamuse Ale society (deals with cooperation with Swedish counterparts) and Palamuse Women’s Association (deals with handicraft and field trips for senior citizens). During the past few years we have organized many special events and courses for senior citizens.

In the last two years we have activated our international activities and contacts. Last year we established contacts with a folk-dance group Sadancis from Latvia and so far we have organized four joint events with them. Last year we participated in a BECC program, organized by European Network of Cultural Centres (ENCC). During the program the contact person had a chance to spend a week in Brussels community centre De Zeyp, where I helped to organize Baltic Festival. With Belgian and other partners we have applied for a joint project under the program Grundtvig.

This year we got accredited to the organization of European Voluntary Service. At the present we have a volunteer from Romania. Last May we had a joint project with our British counterpart and seven people were in Norfolk, GB, for anti-racism youth exchange.

Meram Halk Egitim Merkezi Ve Aso Mudurlugu, Turkey. Most of the learners in our organization are between 25-60 taking education to help in their jobs and attending training courses for special jobs. We currently work with our learners through projects and activities and manual, cultural and re-creative courses.

Our aims are:
- to promote European partnership, offer our learners and staff facts and experiences in different countries and intercultural dialogue.
- to help adult learners develop awareness of the importance of lifelong learning,
- to involve them in cultural and educational activities with foreign partners,
- to become active European citizens,
- to be open to other cultures and to live without prejudice
- to increase the use of ICT among adults.

 

Bem Me Quero, Portugal, is a company founded in 2008 by five young professionals, and acts mainly in the villages of Oeiras and Cascais (20 minutes from Lisbon). We aim to promote the personal development of individuals in their emotional, cognitive and educational aspects, through the enhancement and enrichment of capabilities and personal skills.

In order to provide the necessary skills to achieve a successful life, we offer services such as psychology, speech therapy, pedagogical activities and vocational education and training.

Being attentive to current real needs, we are aware of our part of social responsibility, promoting and developing nonprofit projects on behalf of “Bem Me Quero Solidarity”.

The changes that the social relations and the professional world have been suffering from push the new considerations that arise in the context of education. It is necessary to promote and develop core competences so that individuals can respond to the demands of daily life and have a better adaptation to the modern world, both within and outside work life.

This year, for the first time, Bem Me Quero - Educational Clinic is applying for a Lifelong Learning Project.


Stowarzyszenie Wolontariatu Miedzypokoleniowego, Poland, Center of Intergenerational Voluntary Work started in 2001 in Bialystok. The members of the society are from different generations helping one another. Our aim is to organize that kind of assistance which would benefit the younger generation and older people and create attachment between them.

It requires a change in attitudes to voluntary work and towards older people and to the way they get help from the younger generation. It leads to relations between the generations, where age, education and the state of health cease to matter. Such activities of our society contribute to a better civil coexistence. This "intergenerational" character is very important to our society.

The problem our city is facing is common to all EU - a gradual and permanent growth of the number of older people. We see the problems of the older generation – people over 55, who are retired, lonely and have lost sense of their lives, who feel worse because they don’t know IT or foreign languages. Thanks to activities organized by our society seniors can feel better, can feel needed.

 

Luetec: Libera Università Europea della Terza Età Campania, Italy, established in 2000, is a cultural institution belonging to the non-formal education system operating in the adult learning field. Our main aim is to meet life-long educational needs for personal development and to improve work-related skills, as well as supporting the needs for social networking and general well-being.                                                   We carry out studies and researches about life-long learning and adult vocational training. We organize adult and senior citizens oriented formative paths working at local and international level with private or public bodies.

In addition we offer a great variety of courses, lab activities and workshops on practical crafts, creative arts, music, health and fitness, languages, and general subjects: Archaeology, Biology, Communication, Diction, Egyptology, English, Spanish, French, German, Graphology, History of Architecture, History of Art, History of Music, Italian Literature, Journalism, Neapolitan Culture and Language, Psychology, Creative recovery, Painting, Soft gym, Ceramics, Creative writing.

All these courses are finalized at improving the attractiveness of the access to adult education and teaching and learning in later life.

 

Kinisi Ethelonton Service Civil International Hellas (SCI-Hellas), Greece, is a nongovernmental organization based in Athens. It is the Greek branch of Service Civil International, an international voluntary movement that aims to promote peace, solidarity and intercultural understanding through organizing international volunteer projects, campaigns and seminars.

Through its actions, SCI tries to enhance the peaceful cooperation of people from different cultural and social backgrounds as well as to encourage the direct participation of citizens in the solution of social problems. It is a founder member of the Greek Antipoverty Network.

Main activities:
1. International work camps in Greece
2. Sending Greek volunteers to work camps in other countries
3. Hosting and sending volunteers in the frame of EVS (2007-GR-49)
4. Coordinating hosting EVS projects (2007-GR-30)
5. Raising awareness activities for the promotion of volunteering in Greece
6. Close cooperation with organizations from Mediterranean countries (youth exchange, training and seminars)
7. Member of the international working groups of SCI (W.G. on developing cooperation with NGOs in Mediterranean countries, W.G. on Youth and Unemployment)
8. Activities in secondary schools and universities on Human Rights (creation of a table game, seminars on Human Rights, open air activities during the antiracism week every March, seminars on conflict resolution), Turkey, is a non-profit and public association established in Konya -Turkey in 1962, active in the continuing education field. It is a lifelong learning centre for everyone, particularly women, children and senior citizens, as well as socially disadvantaged people such as unemployed, from rural areas, economically disadvantaged group, prisoners, legally restricted, illiterate, retired and immigrants.

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