On 28 September the 10th edition of the Intercultural Dialogue Day (IDD) took place all around Europe. On this day volunteers organise events in their local communities to promote intercultural dialogue and to show what AFS is and what we stand for. The theme of this year’s IDD was “Inclusive intercultural learning: exchange organisations contributing to equal opportunities for young people”.
This year, as before, the IDD Photo and Video Contest took place. Volunteers could upload their photos or videos to the IDD Facebook page and then the entry with the most “likes” won. The prize for the winners in each category was 1 free registration to the EFIL Volunteer Summer Summit in Norway next summer. In additions, the 1st, 21nd and 3rdplaces for both photos and videos will be featured in the IDD Toolkit 2017 which will be produced in cooperation with the winners and published on the EFIL website later this year.
Volunteers really did an amazing job this year of promoting their entries in the contest. The winner of this year’s Video Contest with 166 likes is AFS Serbia, Bečej Chapter. The winner of the Photo Contest with 950 likes is Intercultura (AFS Italy), Roman Local Chapter. All winning entries can be seen on the Intercultural Dialogue Day Facebook Page.
This year EFIL worked closely with the staff of AFS Intercultural Programs in New York to create visuals that could be translated and posted by our members. We look forward to continuing this cooperation next year.
EFIL will be contributing to IDD with the annual Intercultural Dialogue Day Quiz on 26 October. The quiz is a fundraising event to raise money for scholarships to the EFIL Volunteer Summer Summit in Norway next summer. The scholarships will go to volunteers of small and new AFS organisations in the EFIL network. We look forward to supporting at least two volunteers with the funds raised that evening. The quiz will gather participants from all walks of life in Brussels: different European institutions, other youth NGOs, current and former AFS programme participants and volunteers and more. It will be a fun an energetic night!