Pro International E.V
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pro international e.V. Bahnhofstraße 26 A . 35037 Marburg Telefon: (06421) 65277 Fax: 64407 eMail: [email protected] http://www.pro-international.de Workcamp: PRO342 Deetz 02.07. – 22.07.06 Hello, having received your application for our camp; here is some more information in general about our work, our workcamps, and - of course - about your specific project. The following (general) information are valid for all of our projects; the detailed/concrete information about your specific workcamp starts on page 9. After we have confirmed your application to/through our partner (which means your sending organisation in your home-country), and our partner has confirmed the place in our camp to you, we definitely expect your participation. In addition we ask you to send / email us your re-confirmation of participation approximately two weeks before the beginning of the camp. If you cannot participate for any reason, please inform us immediately / as soon as you know about it, so that we can offer your place to another volunteer. It's really a pity if participants just do not arrive, and the group and groupleader are waiting and maybe worrying, and it's also not fair on other participants who would have liked to take the place... We have had experience that a delayed arrival (which means coming one or two days later) can be inconvenient and disruptive for the group. Please aim to arrive at about 5 p.m. at the arrival-day (but it’s also no problem to arrive earlier or later that day, but if possible at the same day) and not to leave earlier than the day of departure. If you have to come a day or two days earlier, and/or stay for a day or two days longer - because of transport-reasons, for example (there may not daily flights etc.) - we always try to help. In some of our projects it will be possible to arrive earlier or stay longer - at least for a day, but therefore we need to know in advance about it - especially about early arrival. Then we will be able to check if it's possible, to clear it with the groupleaders, with the hosting organisation, about the key, so that somebody will be there when you arrive, etc. Or at least we can give you other advice where to stay. But please do not just arrive earlier. On our website www.campinformation.de you will find not only this information, but also addition information about region, travel-instructions, helpful links, photos of the camp, sometimes also photos from previous camps, and how to get there, etc., also latest info and such about possible last minute changes. We do not add the maps and pictures to these written info-sheets, especially because of the size of the data. But you can easily download / print / copy them from www.campinformation.de. Approx. 2 weeks before starting of your camp you will find a list of the participants of your group on the web, with name, age, town/country and email-address. If you don't us to publish your details - please let us know. While preparing these information it may be that not all information (about work for example) is completely available. So we will announce missing or information a bit later on www.campinformation.de, as soon as it is available. Also your groupleader(s) will place a groupleader-letter (introduction) there. In any case we recommend checking the website in addition to these infosheets. You won't find description of trips and excursions during freetime/weekend here, but this does not mean that you won't do any. We/our groupleaders know places/cities which are worth to visit, but usually it will be always discussed with the group first. Trips and excursions have been budgeted for. On weekends, groups mostly go by train, partly by minibus - as far as available. Information about Pro International e.V. Germany “pro international e.V.” is a non-denominational and politically independent registered society (e.V.= “eingetragener Verein” – which means “registered society/organisation”). Our roots go back to the years after the second world war, as do those of many other volunteer organisations. Under the influence of the war and the following years with their dreadful consequences, our founders were looking for ways to re-new the bonds between people and nations. With the motto: „working together is better than fighting one another“, the first - yet hardly international workcamps took place in Tyrol in 1949 and in Marburg in 1953. The aims and objectives of this initiative were basically to offer an international meeting place for young people, especially from Germany and Austria, by doing voluntary work together. From this starting point, the „Aufbauwerk der Jugend in Tirol“ (an organisation based in Tyrol which worked with young people in the reconstruction effort), the „Aufbauwerk der Jugend in Schweden“ (based in Sweden) and the „Aufbauwerk der Jugend in Deutschland“ ( based in Germany - today ‚pro international’) were developed. Today ‚pro international’ has around 40 international workcamps in Germany each year, a variety of camps together with our partner organisations in different countries in Africa and Asia and sends volunteers to workcamps of partner organisations in almost every European country. The tasks, contents and methods of our work – and since 1990 the name too – have changed over the years according to social development; but we have kept our aim and principle steady: To promote meeting and dialogue especially between young people from different countries, cultures and social backgrounds, based on voluntary work for the society and community and through that work, to improve mutual understanding and respect as an important step on the way to a fairer and more peaceful co- existence of people and nations. We are not idealistic utopians but we are convinced that there are still enough reasons to believe that personal contacts and, through them, a growing understanding of other ways of life and value systems can meet this aim. ‚The way is the aim’ an old Indian saying. Our way includes youth and volunteer work which offers the chance to meet others and gain direct personal experience through working together. With this aim in mind, we offer volunteer work and work camps, meeting places? and seminars both in Germany and in many other European and non-European countries, find places for volunteers in other organisations’ programmes and work alongside many German and non-German organisations ...and we invite young people between 16 (and if working abroad, 18) and 26, who see in an international voluntary placement (?) more than a cheap holiday with fleeting holiday-friendships, sun, sand and sea as the most important elements, to participate. pro international sees its aim as being „to live side by side in peace and with responsibility“ and wants to do something through its work for the peaceful co-existence of peoples which can only be achieved through experience, growing realisation and as a result of development. Willingness to learn is therefore indispensable and requires that one is aware of oneself and the environment in which one lives and through this awareness to understand and act. Through our work we want to, fully recognising our limitations, illuminate a possible way of meeting this aim. We define our educational aims and principles as: Workcamps generally promote initiative and creativity. They offer, on account of their structure and conditions, room for shaping and experience which everyday life of family, school, university and work limits does not offer. Workcamps enable one to experience, learn and accept new things, and to live communally. Participants get the possibility to experience „holidays“ and „leisure time“ in an international group, spending and creating their days together. Workcamp free-time activities are designed to consolidate the community and to allow them to learn more about the host country than if they were merely tourists. H o l i d a y s M e e t i n g each other S u p p o r t each other In meeting other people, we see an opportunity The voluntary and communal work is surely a to make new friends or to learn about of social help and allows social or beneficial tasks to perceptions and behaviour. Every person has be undertaken by an international group. an individual culture, past, education and environment. At the same time, it should promote a sense of working together and solidarity and to Everyone takes on board what is offered to avoid random dashes and discussion. him by his environment. In this sense, the tasks undertaken by the Meeting other people in international voluntary workcamp are not seen as a necessary evil, work offers the chance to develop self- rather as an integral part designed to further awareness and tolerance of other points of view, understanding between the volunteers. social norms and value systems through living and working together in international groups The communal work not only requires and/or with nationals. volunteers to work together in order to achieve their aim but also allows the Through such meetings, one can experience volunteers to understand themselves and different ways of life directly. others and to develop their self-awareness and, despite sometimes differing valuation of, They thereby become more understandable for example, work and achievement, to and easily respected. achieve co-operation. What is a workcamp in general THE PRINCIPLE OF WORKCAMPS Workcamps are always v o l u n t a r y and without payment ! They are i n t e r n a t i o n a l and organise themselves.