Between 17 and 25 October, 2015 26 volunteers from Belgium Flanders, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany and Romania participated in the „Intercultipreneur” Youth Exchange in Székesfehérvár, Hungary.
The project was a long-waited dream of Vica Bedő (AFS Hungary and France) and Orsolya Imre (Hungarian freelance trainer) that came true financed by the Erasmus+ Programme and organised by AFS Hungary.
The organisers were really happy to have diversity in the group not only because of the five participating countries and one Turkish participant from AFS Hungary as well, but also because the Romanian partner organisation was not AFS, but the Asociatia Tinerilor Activi Civic, who took part in the project with students and a teacher of an artistic school of the city of Galati.
The programme included both training elements and leasure activities for the participants. The greatest challenge was to create their own social entreprises. The four working groups, after an introduction presentation, had two days to develop a business idea with a social mission. It was a great success, that the participants, getting freedom in choosing their topics, approached actual issues like personal development of refugees and the communities around them, sustainable development and environment, reintegration to society and sexual harrassement at the workplace. All groups chose a topic that was interesting for them and that they do not deal with on everyday basis as volunteers. All topics had something in common: they could be the basis of a really successful initiative by turning them into a social entreprise.
During the week Henrik Pap, from NESsT also gave a presentation to the group about his and NESsT’s work in supporting Hungarian social entreprises.
The participants also had the chance to visit a successfully functioning, Ashoka supported social entreprise, the „Fecskepalota”, a holiday resort for disadvantaged people and families in the city of Gánt. The owner of the social enterprise, Péter Orbán, did not only present this business but also sensibilised the group through short activities to show the impact of the initiative.
The organisers hope that the Intercultipreneur was not only a once-happened brainstorming, but a project that motivated the participants to realise the social needs in their AFS chapters, communities, schools and give a sustainable responses to them.
For more information: viktoria.bedo@afs.org