SCI Austria and the Pool of Trainers and Facilitators (TP) will host the seminar in Vienna, Austria, between November 14 and 21, 2015. The topic of the seminar will be the sharing and reflecting of how European volunteering organisations select and prepare their volunteers, when sending them to the Global South for short-term and long-term exchanges.

The seminar will consist of six working days, in which methods, knowledge, approaches and ideas will be shared and the overall concept of a North South exchange will be reflected on.  We wish to give the space to exchange. Furthermore we wish to address the question whether the representation of the Global South in the trainings for and the promotion of the camp creates or enforces clichéd pictures of the South. Concerning this we will discuss also the motivation of the volunteers and the power in the definition/representation of the South, which continues in the way the volunteers later relate their experiences. The categorization in North and South as well has its impacts on motivation for and understanding of volunteering and shall therefore be reflected on critically.

In total we will be 28 participants from Austria, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine, Slovenia, France, the UK, Catalunya and the Czech Republic.

Outcome:
We hope for a collection of best practice and a method and knowledge collection for pre-departure trainings, which we afterwards want to publish in the form of an online booklet. The seminar will also include an evening with a public discussion debate about North-South volunteering exchanges.

Costs:
There will be no participation fee. All costs for accomodation and food as well as visa costs and up to 100% of the travel costs are covered by Erasmus+.

If you are interested send this application form to suds@sci-cat.org