Hard-working in Messologgi

Here we are, some active AEGEE members from quite a lot of locals and countries, gathered all around the SuFu Project (Sustaining our Future if you don't know it yet) to make this project successful in its most important year, 2009.

During next year we will be busy almost every month with different events and activities. In February we will have the EBM; in March we have the innovative Think Tank near Brussels; in April and May we have Agora in Magusa, and the SCANdinavia Study Trip. June is the month of the European Day of Environment; and so on... Next entries of the blog will explain these actions in detail, come back to get more information.

During these days we are really enjoying Greek hospitality, indulging ourselves in copious and delicious meals, stealing a glance at the sea from the window of the room while we work, discovering the surprising nighlife of a small city. We are taking advantage of this opportunity to develop our team, knowing each other better and learning to work together in a coordinated way.

Being part of a European Project is an enriching experience; even if it consumes a considerable amount of time, it pays back well!

Looking forward to meet in Greece

I am really happy that once that I have gone through some days of family, mountains of food and several kilometers and means of transport, I will be one more year able to spend my New Year Eve (and surrounding days) working for AEGEE and more specially, the Environmental side of AEGEE.

In 2006 I was there when the EnWG seed was planted. In 2007 we developed the basics of the Flagship Project into a program that is able to generate movement inside our network.

Once again, here I am ready to meet old friends, make new ones, discover how they spend these days in Greece, what their traditions are, and some surprises that always await around the corner when you travel abroad.

Some people say, concerned, that Greece is not a safe place to visit in these days; but I am one of that people thinking that the best way to regain normality is acting normally. I will act carefully but I will not allow some vandals to ruin my visit to one country that has always been in my list "to come back" since I visited it when I was 11.

Barcelona congress - networking, and more networking

So what did me and Miguel actually do in Barcelona besides breathing all the possible info connected to sustainable development?

Our big day was October 7th – this is when we had our knowledge cafe named „Sustaining our Future – shaping the role of youth in Europe“. It was 1,5 h long session in a big room (with around 10 similar sessions at the same time). It’s actually unbelievable, that we applied to hold this event more than a year ago – in July 2007. Finally we were there, and we could see that the effort had been worth it – all the interested people couldn’t fit behind the table and had to take extra chairs. Everyone was listening to us carefully and asking a lot of questions; not only about SuFu, but also generally about AEGEE – how we communicate in such a big organisation, what activities do we have, how do we get our new members etc. Also, of course, we were congratulated by the initiative of trying to tackle sustainable development. Young people are big interest for the nature conservation sector – that showed also from many other sessions that we attended. For example, International Institute for Sustainable Development was rather interested in cooperation with Youth NGO’s, especially in trainings, as they put big emphasis on empowering future sustainability leaders.

The congress organisers also made an effort to target youth especially: there was a specific section in the congress webpage, and also they arranged a nice gathering on a boat in Barcelona harbour. It was a nice opportunity to meet people who organised sessions for youth during the congress. It was quite charming to meet by the sea, under evening sun, sip some wine, eat chocolate and chat with people from World Business Council for Sustainable Development for example. This organisation was btw, one the biggest congress partners. Besides having big pavillion with a lot of information, and sevaral sessions on concrete topics, they also organised Business Night Schools, where business and nature conservation representatives could meet and learn how they can cooperate together. It was there where we had the chance to talk a bit with representatives of some quite known companies. Who knows, we just might become partners as well - you will hear more about it then ;)

Of course, I also had small meeting with the representative of Countdown 2010 initiative, with whom AEGEE is an official partner since June 2008 – it’s a global action to stop the loss of biodiversity. We had nice evening chat about concrete ways to cooperate – I can just say that future European Day of Environment organisers can be happy ;)

All in all, the congress was just a perfect place to connect ourselves into the world of sustainable development and make ourselves seen. If you are interested to know more, read our congress report and/or summary of the knowledge cafe or just contact me or Miguel by mail. And please leave a comment here on the blog to INTERACT!!!

SuFu in IUCN congress in Barcelona

From 5th to 9th of October, me and Miguel spent in 4th World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. The main organiser was IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), who is also SuFu's partner. Just like IUCN is one of the oldest and most important conservation networks in the world, is the congress one of the most important gathering in nature conservation and sustainability issues. It is held in every 4 years and offers the place for people from NGOs, businesses, academia from all the continents to network, share ideas, build partnerships, learn new things, etc.
The event was simply huge! 5 days, 7800 participants, over 800 different events - how many agorae would that make :P? And the diversity among these participants, types of events, tackled topics was also huge. I had the chance for example to meet with people from Costa Rica, India, South Africa, Japan - and they were all very interested in AEGEE as well actually :P I attended sessions about urban biodiversity, business tools for ecosystem assessment, the state of world's languages, youth's role in building sustainable future etc.
More info what contacts we made for SuFu and AEGEE, will follow soon. But here's few pictures from the event, as appetiser :)

The first words of SuFuBlog

Hello all

This is the first post in the blog for the Flagship Project of AEGEE 2008-09.

We are a motivated group of members of AEGEE. AEGEE is the biggest multidisciplinar student association in Europe. Some months ago we started a big project called Sustaining Our Future. We want to make information on Sustainable Development available to European Youth, for them to be able to take responsible decissions. We are aware that there is lack of knowledge on the field even though the topic is on everyday news, on political agendas and in discussions among friends.