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Euro-African EVS:Crossing experiencesand visions for socialtransformation

Gl o b a lL i n k s

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The idea was to build a link between Africa and Europethrough a project for young volunteers of the two continents.

Tere were eight promoters: associations from Burkina Faso, Portugal, Ken-ya, Spain, France, Senegal, Italy and Botswana, all belonging to the Globa-l-inks network of NGOs working for social transformation.

Te tool we chose was a multilateral European Voluntary Service (EVS) pro- ject, a measure of the Youth in Action Programme of the European Com-mission.

We had three main aims. First, to give eight volunteers the chance of an en-

riching intercultural experience for them and for the people they were incontact with. Second, to share experiences and visions in order to allow theyoung volunteers to work for social transformation in their own commu-nities. And third, to create a cooperation process between the associationswhich were involved in Europe and Africa.

Nexes Association took the initiative to transform the idea into a project inJune 2009. Te project was approved and turned into reality, rst with thepreparation of the volunteers in each country and then with the voluntary

service along the year 2010.

Eight volunteers from Europe and Africa crossed their paths, each of themliving a unique experience of 9 months of voluntary service in anothercountry, in another continent.

Janet, Prudence, Mariana, Maria Cristina, Biel, Matshidiso, Laia and Mod-este, lived in communities, worked in local associations, learnt, gave, re-ceived, exchanged visions and knowledge, changed their perspectives, made

new friends and came back richer.

Tis photo exhibition offers you the photo stories that the volunteers createdfrom their own experiences.

A.B.C.Blanquefort, France

Dunia la VieOuagadougou, Burkina Faso

FesfopLouga, Senegal

K.E.N.G.O .Nairobi, Kenya

NexesBarcelona, Spain

ReachMaun, Botswana

Rota JovemCascais, Portugal

XenaPadova, Italy

Euro-African EVS:Crossing experiences and visions

for social transformation A project to promote the voluntary service between Europe and Africa

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Prudence Vambui Wanja Nairobi, Kenya

22 years

Sending organisation: K.E.N.G.O., Nairobi, Kenya

Hosting organisation : Nexes, Barcelona, Spain

Project : leisure time with young people from different cultural background

The story was told by a group ofyoung immigrants of Barcelona ina documentary ilm titled “bajo elmismo cielo”: the sun rise in thiscity that meant a lot to me duringmy EVS, is the image that joinspeople with different perspectivesof life and different attitudes aboutalmost everything, but living all to-

gether “under the same sky”.

The streets and the multicultura-lism of the Raval district create astark contrast with the previousimage of the modern building. Buteven more shocking is the diffe-rence you can notice in neighbou-rhoods separated only by 15 mi-nutes of metro ride.

Endowed with a population fromall over the world these streets ofRaval were so special for me to me-rit a place in the photo-stories of

my project.

This building was an inte-resting example of archi-tecture to photograph. Ithas been built in an uptownpart of the city near the seaand in an environment thatoozed elegance. The styleof it and the atmosphere ofthe surroundings make itsbeauty stand out exceptio-nally.

Barcelona in rising sun

The streets of Raval

A tall building

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Mariana Araújo Branco Moreira Porto, Portugal

24 years

Sending organisation: Rota Jovem, Cascais, Portugal

Hosting organisation : K.E.N.G.O., Nairobi, Kenya

Project: work on youth participation and democracy

With an extremely rich culturalbackground Kenya is composed byforty three different tribes. Thesepeople in the picture are the Ma-sai Mara, a traditionally nomadcommunity with a diet based onmilk and cow’s blood. As they arenomad it is possible to ind Masaieverywhere. The irst time I sawone of them was in the centre ofNairobi. Nairobi is a big city, withtall buildings and crowds of bu-

siness men and women. So it wasquite interesting to see a man witha huge knife in his waist, dressedin red blankets, with big holes inhis hears, just walking naturallyin his journey together with me.Isn’t that called multiculturalism?I wish I could see this kind of self-expression in my country as well.

This is Nelly, a girl that lived infront of my house in Kinoo whereI stayed for almost ive months.Apart from Nelly’s brother playingwith a small car, I have never seenchildren playing with toys in Ke-nya. The younger are the ones whowork more at home. Every timeI wanted to play with Nelly I hadto wait until she has washed the

dishes, the clothes and the loor.The same happened with Vera, theyounger sister in the house whereI spent my irst weeks in Kibera.It was strange for me to see themdoing all those things, long hoursalone, and to imagine what wouldbe my life today if I had no time tobe a child.

This picture was taken in Naivasha,a region one hour away from Nairobiwhich is full of lakes and mountains.In this place I used to spend someweekends with my friends and enjoya closer contact with nature. One daywe decided to walk instead of takinga matatu (the local equivalent of abus). This child and others walkedwith us for some minutes. Till todayI can not tell the meaning of his look.But I found many eyes like these allover Kenya. From children to grownup people, an intense fragility mixedwith hope and curiosity leading us tothe question: why?

Masai

Childhood

Why?

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Maria Cristina AddisCagliari, Italy

30 years

Sending organisation: Xena, Padova, Italy

Hosting organisation: Dunia la Vie, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Project: support to cultural and leisure activities with kids of the community

This is my irst family in Burkina:the whole staff of Dunia la Vie!They welcomed me as a member oftheir family. They consider the pre-sence of a “stranger” as a chancefor cultural exchange and enrich-ment, not as a problem. I felt as Iwas falling into a sort of Macondo.The children welcomed me withchant, storytelling and dance, andthen I suddenly understood thatthis would have been one of themost special and important expe-riences of my life.

Ouaga is a very active and livelyplace from the cultural point ofview. It is just impossible not tomeet artists and interesting peopleof all kind. I had the chance to meeta few of them. This is for examplean image of the second family thatadopted me in Burkina: the troupeof David Ouedraogo called “Thetheatre of Progress”. I will neverforget the amusement and thestrong friendship I felt with a lot of

them. Some of the emotions I livedwill rest always impressed in me.

This is my troupe of 25 “little artists”, thatwere chosen after a long long casting. I andmy friends Ali, Ouda and Dioss (musicians anddancer) created with them a special musical“Jamuekre”, funny but also educational.

I will not forget the strong feeling and emo-tion that they managed to transmit me withtheir intelligence, curiosity and joy. This is oneof the strongest images that will stay always inmy memories.

The staff of mjca-dunia la vie

The troupe of “the theatre of progress”

The troupe of Ouda, Ali and Cristina

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Biel Martínez Lorca Barcelona, Spain

24 years

Sending organisation: Nexes, Barcelona, Spain

Hosting organisation : Reach, Maun , Botswana

Project: prevention of HIV/AIDS with youth and women

This is Maun, the place where Ilived during nine months. It’s aplace of contrasts between tradi-tion and development. Here youcan ind seven different ethnicgroups with their own language.It’s possible to organize safarisand trips to go to different nationalparks and game reserves to watchthe most amazing wildlife animals.

The most special place of Maun isthe old bridge you see in the pic-

ture. It’s the most relaxing andquiet place of this village whereyou can go ishing or to spend se -veral hours just thinking and loo -king to the wonderful landscape.

Women have so much importancein the society of Botswana, a pa-triarchal country. The woman isnormally the person who cooks forall the family, which is around 8-10people. Many times she is also theone that works and earns moneyfor the family.

Generally meals include differentkind of cereals, rice, beans anda lot of meat (chicken and beef),where they put different spicysauces as heritage of the English

colonialism. You can ind Englishproducts in the supermarkets.

In the lakirk, a metal pot withthree-legged huge cauldrons,women cook typical dishes: forexample samp (mixture of beans)and seswaa (pounded meat).

Botswana has 2 million people and 58%are less than 25 years old. This meansthat the new generations are the future ofthe country. But at the same time it’s thesecond country in the world for the HIV/AIDS rate and only the new generationshave the key to change this situation.

The poverty affects also the new genera-tions of kids and young people, but they areso creative that they produce pieces of artand different kind of toys out of nothing.

The Euro-African EVS it has been a greatexperience to share time with these newgenerations in different kind of environ-ments: going to the church with them,playing together and learning about theschool of life.

Wildlife

Mma (women)

The new generations

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Matshidisho PelotshweuSelebi-Phikwe, Botswana

25 years

Sending organisation: Reach, Maun , Botswana

Hosting organisation : Rota Jovem, Cascais, Portugal

Project : leisure time and youth participation at local level through intercultural projects

Rota Jovem is a youth associationin Cascais. My role was to help toorganize and take part in the acti-vities, helping a little with the ad-ministration. Here I am with mymentor Sara Andrade who wasresponsible for my well being. Shewas helping me to get integratedin the community by organisingcultural activities and languagecourses, making sure I have all Ineed in the lat I live in and givingme my monthly allowance she wasalso taking care of the emotionalside of my experience. Sven Re-tore was my tutor and monitoredmy activities. Basically these twopeople were responsible for myholistic well being in the project.Having them around has been sohelpful and they gave me all the

support needed.

During my EVS I had the opportuni-ty to interact with other volunteerscoming from different cultures andI was even able to live with themin the same house, so at the end Ilearnt so much about them and theircultures. In the picture I am with myhousemates from Italy, Latvia andFrance. We were like a little family,so we had to learn to l ive togetherand accommodate each others’ dif-ferences and cultures, which was abig challenge. But at the same timeit has matured me as a person andopened my mind towards peoplewho is different from me. We metbecause of EVS, we faced many chal-lenges and we were able to supporteach other. It has been such a pri-vilege to know these people.

These moments were ones of thebest of my life because I met othervolunteers from different countriesdoing their EVS in Portugal. Unlikean on-arrival training this was asmall group and it allowed me tomake good friendships. In that mo-ment I was loosing motivation inmy project and listening to the sto -ries of other volunteers helped meto regain motivation and to look atmy project in a different way. Fromthis training I felt refreshed andready to continue with my projectinstead of giving up.

Getting a great kiss from my mentorand tutor in rota jovem

Intercultural housemates et sourires

Mid-term evs trining

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Laia Pibernat Mir Barcelona, Spain

25 years

Sending organisation : Nexes, Barcelona, Spain

Hosting organisation : FESFOP, Louga, Senegal

Project : responsible tourisme and intercultural mediation

Louga is a city of contrasts. City ofsand and asphalt, hand carts andbig cars, street kids and spoiledkids, of ices without fan and of iceswith air conditioning, mud housesand tiled houses.

Euro-African EVS has been anexperience of contrasts. Culturalcontrasts, language contrasts, wea-ther contrasts, habits contrasts…Different ways of living, doing,saying or not saying, communica-

ting, eating, celebrating. Even dif-ferent ways of loving and showinglove.

All these contrasts are just diffe -rences that become evident. Andthe achievement has been to ac-cept them by learning and to learnaccepting them. And not seeingthem any longer as barriers but asvaluable opportunities.

In a place where the economicand material resources are in fewhands, the rest of the populationlive ‘juggling’. It looks like peopleare creating pieces of art out of no-thing. The smiling creativity of thekids surprises at each corner.

Euro-African EVS has been a beau-tiful experience full of surprises.While adapting to an environment

different from our own, we allowourselves to soak by this creativitywhich reconnect with ours. Sha-ring smiles, playing and creatingtogether. An ongoing learning anda pleasure of life.

Senegal is a country where more than 15 dif-ferent ethnic groups coexist. Over 90 % of thepopulation is Muslim and the rest is Christianor Animist. Here the diversity is evident andpeople are cooperating gratefully within it.Sharing different practises and believes is oneof the highlights of the country. Tolerance isnot the only achievement, sometimes we gobeyond by learning from the other.

Euro-African EVS means adaptation to a dif-ferent environment, respecting local cul turesas well as your own culture and your ownway, believes and ideology. Not easy, a realchallenge! If we are aware of that and we arepatient enough, without any doubt Senegal isa country that helps you to make this reality.

Contrast

Adaptation, creativityand smiles

Learning, beyond tolerance

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Modeste Goumbani Koudougou, Burkina Faso

26 years

Sending organisation: Dunia la Vie, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Hosting organisation : A.B.C., Blanquefort, France

Project : youth participation at local level through intercultural projects

I worked also with other localassociations. They have been anadditional support during my EVSproject and we managed to createnew partnership links with Bur-kina Faso. In my free time I was intouch with associations working inpartnership projects with BurkinaFaso. With the local associationswe organised for the French Natio-nal Agency a Seminar with all theEuropean volunteers.

We are in France, where I stayedduring 9 months of my EVS. Pyla’s

Dune, the highest of Europe, is lo-cated in the south west of Francein Aquitaine, the department of Gi-ronde. Since I lived also in the de-partment which was not far fromthe Dune, this summer I took a fewdays off and I went with friends toenjoy the sun and the sea. It wassuper and I jumped on the dune asa bird.

Here I worked as a volunteer. The centrewhere I worked is a M.J.C (house of youngpeople and culture), therefore I developedactivities with these young people you seein the picture. Throughout all my activi-ties I have focused on the leisure time andlocal life activities in Blanquefort. Blan-quefort is a town near Bordeaux, one ofthe major cities in France.

With the local organisations

Pyla dune

With youngsters of abc

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Laia

Biel

Maria

Cristina

Mariana

Modeste

Prudence

Kengo

Matshid-

isho

Janet