Preparations for the 10th Volunteer Summer Summit are well underway. Applications closed yesterday and more than 100 volunteers will meet in August in Hellishólar. Support team and Trainers have been selected and now it’s time for participants to book their flights and start planning their trip to Iceland.
Keep an eye out for the publication of the third Herald, the VSS newsletter, where we will introduce the programme, the tracks and the workshops.This year again, workshops will be divided in tracks each exploring one aspect of the main theme.
The Theme
This year’s VSS will focus on the topic of equal opportunities: “equal opportunities refer to absence of discrimination based on personal, and largely involuntary, traits including gender, sex, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, religious background, disability, age, and socioeconomic status. Equal opportunities stipulate open access to offices, admissions, and participation in the society in general for all its individuals. Nonetheless legal and structural barriers still persist that hamper individuals and groups from enjoying a fairplaying environment in which everyone gets the same chance to achieve. And what do we in AFS mean when we speak of equal opportunities? What concept of equality underlies our discussions? How are we ensuring equal opportunities within and outside of the organisation? How inclusive are we?
[…] In all our work, we aim to challenge people’s view of the world and help them transition to a different perspective, one that would ultimately foster change in behaviour towards more open-mindedness, tolerance with regards to ambiguity and inclusiveness. This year’s VSS will have participants reflect precisely on this.” You can read more about the theme in the Herald #1 and the upcoming Herald #3
The VSS Crowdfunding!
To overcome the challenges of this year’s costs EFIL and the VSS Team have worked hard to find funding opportunities. Through the VSS Crowdfunding everyone can join in this effort and contribute to the success of the VSS 2017!
Ranging from a small donation all the way to becoming one of this year’s “VSS SUPER SAIYAN”, you can also contribute to make this project real. With your help, we will be able to afford materials for the workshops and for the participants, t-shirts and much more.
What do donors get out of this? Easy: eternal gratefulness, glory and the feeling of doing something meaningful. And super cool amazing prizes!
For more information or to make a donation go on the Crowdfunding page: http://go.afs.org/fundvss17
See you this summer in Hellishólar,
the prep team
For more info: valentina.milanese@afs.org
Website: http://efilsummersummit.org/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/EFILVSS/?fref=ts
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/efilvss/