International humanist youth training

Four organisations from four different countries exchanged this summer in the heart of the European Union: Brussels. They couldn’t have chosen a more symbolic place. Around 20 young people came together, from Belgium, Norway, Finland and Poland.

The training was initiated and coordinated by the Belgian Humanist Youth, who realise the importance of making youth work not only a local and national affair, but an international matter as well. We live in a globalizing world and that is something that especially young people experience. E-mailing with a friend in India, traveling or studying in Spain, learning English through television, listening to Finnish rock music; these are just some of the examples that show that show how what we experience can go beyond our local and national boundaries.

The training aimed at enhancing the knowledge and skill of working with children and youngsters, especially for those working on humanist principles. The programme was divers with many workshops, like on the use of theatre, games, groupdynamics, humanism, conflict resolution and intercultural methods. The participants not only learned on these topics, but experienced the very nature of what they were learning by actually doing youth work in a humanist and intercultural setting.

Personal impression

Chimen Darbandi was one of the participants; The 22 years old Norwegian tells:

It was my first time as a participant in an international conference and my first stay in Brussels, therefore I was very excited. I met very interesting people from different countries during the seminar and I got to know many of them. I thought that we wouldn’t be so different from each other since we all were European, but I was wrong. I think it was nice that we were so ‘unlike’ because I learned a lot about different cultures during our 10 days in Brussels. And I’m sure that I am going to use this information later in other contexts.

We had training on humanist games, group dynamics, conflict resolution; etc. and of course a lot of fun. There were some late nights, early mornings and days full of interesting lectures and presentations. Though some things were known to us, others were totally new.

In my opinion our stay in Brussels was a useful experience to carry into the future. I will recommend these kinds of international conferences to others youngsters.

Radio-report

What brings youth to humanism as life stance? How is it to share interculturally? You can listen to an interesting radio-interview with some of the participants at the international humanist youth seminar that took place this summer in Belgium online as part of the HNN-podcast number 10.

The segment appears at the end of the one-hour show at 47 mins. You can hear the latest HNN podcast at the following places:

http://ihs.libsyn.com
http://humaniststudies.org/podcast
http://myspace.com/humaniststudies

When you are behind your computer, check it out! It will inspire you.

International humanist youth training

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