Holland 2004 - Steves Report

16-24 July 2004

Description of the activities

	Many of the activities were to help us gain European awareness. The best example of this was the World Trade Centre game, which made the greatest contribution to intercultural learning. It looked like the most difficult game in the world and required a whole room for its set up, but once everyone got the idea behind the game, you could have kept us there all day bargaining with each other! For a rough idea of how the game worked, please visit www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/world_trade.html.
	There were many debates and discussions throughout the week which gave everyone a chance to think about the world at large and issues affecting Europe and our own Countries in particular. A highlight of this was a debate about the War in Iraq, which really opened our eyes up to the full situation and its global implications, following an excellent Powerpoint presentation from Mieke and Desiree.
	The sports day was an immense amount of fun to take part in (especially as my team won!) The colourful evening and Karaoke for me was another highlight, as they took place on the final night, to which all host parents and everyone involved in the project were invited and a good time was had by all!

The preparation

Preparation for this exchange should have been far easier than last year because our group were going abroad this time, and didn’t need to create the programme of activities or raise as much money as last year.

There was no need for any of our leaders to go to Holland for an advance planning meeting, as one of the leaders (Gary Worrall) had led an exchange trip approx 10yrs previous to De Weere and was able to show us photographs and tell us all about what to expect when we were across there. As well as this, we had regular e-mails and communication with all the Dutch participants via e-mail and phone.

Getting a team of young people together who were all willing to take part in this exchange and do the hard work necessary to raise funds was extremely difficult. Every one of the team from last year would have liked to come this year, but several people had to drop out due to personal reasons. The team took ages to build up. There was a distinct lack of enthusiasm from many of the team in doing any fundraising activities. We had hoped after the success of last year, the youth would have been prepared to do a bit more work, but on the whole, the work fell to the leaders and a few willing participants until much nearer the actual deadline when more involvement took place.

Chasing participants up for their reports at the end of the exchange has so far not resulted in any results yet, which shows that now the event is over, particpants are unwilling to do anything more for the exchange as it is “now in the past”.

Fundraising Activities

I raised some money by letting 2 of the youth run a juggling stall at a local event, with all profits going to the exchange. I also did 4hrs of busking and donated all of the proceeds. I also printed off all the promotional flyers for all the disco’s and pub quiz etc that were to take place.

DISCO: Went very well and raised several hundred pounds.
BAND NIGHT: Organised by the youth, and didn’t make a lot of money but now they have an idea of how best to organise such an event if they need to raise money in future! In other words, it showed their participation and a steep learning curve!

Meetings

The first meeting took place in Pizza Hut as a chance to get together over food and discuss our plans. Subsequent meetings happened every Tuesday night at Stirling Boys Club, which was the headquarters of the exchange last year. If there was time left after the meetings, we were able to practice juggling also, which was a good way to improve on skills learned last year.

Not everyone could make the meetings, but we regularly got between 3-10 participants at a meeting, and so decisions could be made as a group for everything instead of being fully peer-led.

The practical organisation

Transportation was a large issue with one of the leaders unwilling to travel by Air, and one of the Youth having a phobia of flying. 2 Participants (myself included) were to go on from the exchange straight to France for the European Juggling Convention, and so it was decided that 4 of us would travel by Ferry, and the others would all travel by plane.

Accommodation was to be with Host Parents, which is something that we couldn’t have provided our guests with last year due to many of our participants having housing problems. The host families were very warm and welcoming, and we were all made to feel at home the whole time we were there.

The Dutch all spoke really good English, and that was the common language spoke throughout the exchange. I only managed to learn a handful of Dutch words such as:

• please • thank you • good morning • goodbye • cheers!

Improvements

FREE TIME: I would have liked a bit more free time from activities, as the week was fairly jam packed, but I enjoyed all the activities, so I am not sure what I would have left out had I been in charge of coming up with an activities programme!

FUNDRAISING: There were times when we as leaders would have pulled the plug on the whole exchange as there was a distinct lack of effort from many of the participants. Not sure how this could be improved though.

The Dutch participants couldn’t have done anything more to make us feel welcome, and the programme was exceptionally well organised, and was carried out successfully by all the Dutch Participants. Activities were all enjoyable and informative and the social times together were always fun also!

The involvement of the young people

Participants were largely selected from the pool of young people involved in the previous years exchange. Several of last years group couldn’t take part this year due to other commitments, so the youth were asked if they had any other friends who may be interested.

Regular meetings in the build up to the exchange kept everyone informed as to what was happening, and gave a chance for everyone to be involved and have their say.

Because of the exchange taking place in Holland, the expectations of some people were that they would be allowed to take drugs, and that the would be readily available in the village that they were staying in. It was explained to these participants that they were not permitted to take any such substances during the exchange, and also that De Weere was a tiny village with no “coffee shops”, and also a very conservative community, so the drugs wouldn’t be as readily available as they imagined. Participants also had to sign a form stating that they would abide by the rules of the exchange. Which forbade the use of drugs.

The achievements

Our basic objectives were for everyone to enjoy themselves and increase their European Awareness. Some of the participants had never been outside the UK before this trip and so we wanted to make sure their first trip abroad would be a pleasant experience!

This objective was easily met as the participants and leaders from the Dutch side made sure we were all welcome, and the host families looked after us well also.

Publicity and products

Presscuttings connected with the exchange can be found on the presscuttings page of this website (including the Scribblers Picnic presscutting which is where I did my 4hr busk to raise money). The poster on the left is an advertising flyer for the band night that was in Holland.

This website section has been set up to help everyone remember what happened over the past 2 years of the project, and to let others know what is involved in such a project.

A DVD is currently in production by the Dutch participants. The logo for the exchange was made into a T-shirt and used on promotional flyers for various fund-raising events.

Conclusion

An excellent exchange trip to Holland. Our hosts were fantastic, and the events were all well organised. A fantastic week that I will personally treasure forever. It was an honour to be co-leading this exchange and getting to know a bit more about our gang and the Dutch participants, whom I look forward to seeing again someday. Many of our gang are already planning on heading back to Holland to meet up again with the Dutch participants, so this proves that good (and hopefully long lasting) international friendships were made throughout the week.