ISTANBUL - Youth Voices Groups Retreat

Istanbul was home to the Youth Voices Conference on the 28th and 29th of April, where young people from Europe and Asia got a chance to meet. Over 100 participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Moldava, Georgia, Turkey, Kosovo, Albania and Serbia met for the first time at a conference of this sort in order to trade experiences and open up roads to future colaboration.

The conference consisted of two parts. The first part included talking about the the activities of the group in their countries so far, identifying where improvements could be made and what lessons have been learned through field work. The second part of the conference was working on a conjoint input for the upcoming „Youth in East Europe and Central Asia – from politics to action“ conference which will be held in Rome from the 21st to the 24th of May 2007.

Two of the main areas covered in the istanbul conference were : Youth Employment and Active Participation of the Youth in Civic Life. Representatives from all the countries agreed that they share nearly identical problems in these fields and worked on identifying them and finding solutions. At At the conclusion of the conference key messages that will represent the contribution of all the groups in Rome were defined. The groups will all have one representative each who will try to make sure these messages are relayed correctly and accepted. Also, two members from each group gave an interview about problems in their country, and these interviews will be presented at the conference in Rome. Serbia was represented by our members Danijela Matijas and Bojan Rakonjac.

The first YVG retreat was held in october 2005 in Macedonia, but it was only for the facilitators of the YVG groups. The Istanbul Retreat represents the first meeting of all the groups in the ECA (Europe and Central Asia) region. Its succesful realistation opened the door to further communication, cooperation and possible future activities together.

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