Requirements for participation is a high degree of initiative, adaptability and tolerance to the living conditions in the target country. Upon request, the German participants can apply for the “Certificate of Competence International” for their activities in the camp.

Project topic iiCamp 2013

Cookbook with recipes from the Cambodian cuisine in two versions:  Printed and smartphone app 

In Buddhist Cambodia the iiCamp will take place again in Sierm Reap close to Angkor Wat. Because of Angkor Wat, Siem Reap has established itself in the recent years more and more to a focal point for tourists. But many many people still live in poverty, because it is difficult to find a job, even after you finished University.

Recovering form the reign of the Khmer Rouge terror regime is going slowly. The goal for the iiCamp in 2013 will be to bring our marketable products from the last development back on the way to enable young people to spot an income. Above all, the basic idea is to track down ways to get out of the dependency of having to find a job and leads to entrepreneurial thinking. The iiCamp 2013 will run in the timeframe of 24 July to 21 October, with a possibility of three, six, nine or twelve weeks. (The recognition as internship is possible) Interested persons can find all the information about the Intercultural Innovation Camp on our website under www.iicamp.org. Even more information you can get via info@youcan-trust.org.

Main topic of the conference was to highlight the four different dimensions for the recognition of non-formal learning. In their presentations Claudius Siebel (Youth for Europe) clarified the political recognition, Dr. Eberhard Funk (German Association) the formal recognition, Daniel Grein (German Federal Youth) the social recognition and Prof. em. Dr. Alexander Thomas (SALTO) the personal recognition process.

After a very short time everyone got aware that a unified consensus for validation will be anything than easy, because the opinions were too different. Sabine Seidel (University of Hannover) promoted a structural model of competence in the international youth work. She also drew attention to the increasing need of formal recognition of non-formal learning, especially in terms of employment.

At this point Daniel Grein (German Federal Youth Council) asks the participants to consider the potential risk of the formal recognition of non-formal learning content in the international youth work which might lead to make young people just only fit for the economy. Secondly it may also change the focus of attention because a different approach would be adopted.

Paul Kloosterman (SALTO) stated that according to his observations organizations would reflect more and above all, would keep the benefits for the young people more in the center of their projects, which could certainly contribute to quality improvement in the international youth work.

As different as the opinions were, one thing became clear: the recognition of non-formal learning progresses increasingly stepping forward. This shows also the initiative Pathways 2.0: New working paper of the EU-CoE youth partnership on validation and recognition of education, training & learning in the youth field by the European Commission and the Europe Council.

Overall, we followed the conference with excitement and we feel encouraged to go ahead with the application of the “Certificate of Competence International” as part of our Intercultural Innovation Camp. We did the right decision according to Sabine Seidel (University of Hannover) because the “Certificate of Competence International” is based on the actual -structural competence model- of the European Commission for international youth work.

Even the Cambodians could not always agree under each other how certain words or phrases are pronounced. Finally this part was done, and it was time to collect the matching images. But can we pictorially represent a phrase like "How are you?"? Finally this has been resolved and we are looking forward to when the app will be ready this fall. On our project pages Visit Angkor and iiCamp on Facebook you can see regularly reports on the current status. Through collaboration and team work on the project, we had the opportunity to understand the people, the culture, the country better than normal and to promote the intercultural dialogue. But we didn’t work only on the project. Trips to the famous temples of Angkor and invitations for dinner in Cambodian families were on the program.

And later the German participants could take home a Certificate of Competence International for their personal curriculum vitae. Read more about this summcamp in our article Review Intercultural Innovation Camp 2012 our project blog Visit Angkor. 

The iiCamp 2013

Anybody who is interested to participate in an iiCamp can find initial information on our website including first information about new camp projects. As an new destination in addition to Cambodia we will also have this time an iicamp in Indonesia.

Read more on our website www.iicamp.org

For details find the project page of Focus (available in German language). A very big thank you to the judge Dipl. Ing. Axel Dietrich. He has contributed significantly to this success for our team at the Focus competition.

After the presentations the jury will decide which projects will receive one of the seven prizes. Last year, our team was not able to take any of the prices back home, but now the preparations are in full swing to make it this year. Anyway to make it to the finals is a great achievement.

Every year more than 100 schools are participating in the competition. The motto this year is: Join the networks,ready go!. We will see if our team can impress the Jury on the 19th of June 2012 with the language application Learn A Language Khmer.. Keep your fingers crossed :)

The e-U21Club was called in and it seemed that any increasing stage fright was suffocated when our young people went on stage. The boys presented their project confidently and with charm and were subsequently interviewed by members of the jury on their subject. The interest of the judges was great and so the scheduled presentation time exceeded. At this point  all possible uncertainties had been gone and we watched in the audience with pride as the team has all questions answered professionally and refute counterarguments.
After the lecture we went directly to the photo session where our professional team has been set in scene. Even after this experience it was clear: nobody of our team wanted to be a Top Model.

The next day the ceremony was the main item on the program. The jury did not take the decision lightly; after all, most of the finalists developed projects that also impressed us.
Although we have not made it in the end to win the Focus Competition, even though all team members can be proud of their work.

Even if we did not win with our project, we are still happy to have made ​​it this far. This experience has motivated everyone in the team greatly, strengthened the confidence and awakened the ambition to shape the future with more innovative ideas.

• E-U21CLUB
• Do IT Yourself
• Travel & Help

We are very pleased and grateful with this recognition of our work!

For thousands of years, we humans have been looking for possibilities to improve ourselves. We believe that technological progress, new technologies or economic growth make our lives more comfortable and simpler. Just in the last 100 years, mankind has experienced therefore an ever increasing dynamic of global changes. But has this resulted in an improved quality of life? Or is it not rather that we have moved into a dead end street, which necessitates an urgent and radical rethinking of our activities? Never before have so many people lived in poverty and misery as today. The extent of the destruction of Nature and the exploitation of our own planet have undreamed of impacts and consequences.

But not only do the economic and social structures on our Earth need a new order. Also our consciousness needs to be adjusted to the changing circumstances if mankind wants to experience a golden age – and this is already happening: More and more people perceive that the biggest change is still in front of us. What was a small movement a few decades ago has become in the meantime a mass phenomenon. A collective consciousness is paving its way and is awakening more and more sleeping individuals who explore unimagined possibilities to resolve the causes of our problems. The novel Malkuth is about visionary people that want to unite mankind in a way that has never been done before in order to lead us into a golden age. More information and pre-orders at: www.nepa-verlag.de YouCan Trust is grateful to the two authors for this great support!

Formal exercises are deliberately kept to a minimum in order to leave room for the ideas to generate and develop. In this exchange, the students from Germany and Cambodia will submit their ideas on the website and with this simple activity, mutual interests will develop. Nevertheless, a project of this nature needs to be led and for this purpose there are mentors available in both Germany and Cambodia that will monitor the exchanges and intervene when necessary in individual situations.

The Cambodian young people meet in the facilities of the Guesthouse Sun Sothy. Here YouCan Trust has established a small Internet Café which is available for the students to use free of charge for the web-based activities. Link to the web-page at: www.hun-sen-siem-reap-highschool.info

We are very grateful for the wonderful support from lawyer Dirk Langner of Mayer Brown LLP. This reputable and global legal firm did the work for YouCan Trust Germany for free.

Picture, from left: Dirk Langner – lawyer from Mayer Brown LLP Dr Juergen Kallrath – notary Wilfried Ifland – director Inga Palme – director