Alliance Flag Tour 2011

Thomas's cycle story #3: last kilometers of the Cycle Flag Tour and compliments to British cuisine

2011-11-14T06:15:00.000-08:00

First I'd like to come to the final point: I arrived at Fairthorne manor. Happy. Very happy to meet some of the guys supporting me all my way down to Botley. And even it was raining I enjoyed that moment.

But you may ask: How was it? Cycling in UK!? Well … it's different. Not only because of the left-right-driving-thing, but also because of the status cyclists seem to have here. The National Network is obviously trying to develop and establish proper bike tracks but there's still a lot of work left. I was trying very hard to find a good way along the Southern coast and found a huge variety of ways the British call „cycle path“: footpaths, bridleways, side-strips on a highway, promenades, etc. And some entertainment is also included: the signposting starts and stops randomly.

Don't get me wrong. It's lovely to cycle in UK. You can see a lot of interesting landscape and pass by several beautiful villages and towns. And just because of the difficult navigation you talk to quite a lot of people along your way. Once in a while this will take you some more time because you need to explain WHY you're traveling that way. And there's a good reason for that question - I've asked myself serveral times, too.
It. Is. Windy. Windy and flawy. And sometimes even stormy. Most of the time I was scared of my hair-do … and the remaining time I spent on complaining about hills, rain and signposting. Or maybe I was just fooling around because of that wonderful journey.

„What goes up must come down - spinning wheel got to go round.“ - my catchy tune for these 2 days. Fittingly a song by Blood, Sweat & Tears.

And all of a sudden I arrived all the places I had on my list going West to Brighton and Southampton. MPB enjoyed the seafront and climbed the cliffs. Enjoyed head wind and leant to the side wind. Kilometer by kilometer. Mile by mile. And again there had been nice people to have a chat and talk about Volunteering and the intercultural experiences you get from doing things like that. I've learnt that much. Again. And it's so nice to realize this. I reached that certain point of happiness right before starting my last stage.

I spent the last night at Fiona's house and enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by Jim – while my good old fellow (the wind) was just waiting for me at the seafront. Ready to push me ahead.

Accompanied by Fiona and the flag (!!!) MFB made its way along the seafront. Ready to meet everyone at Fairthorne Manor. As it happened during the last 5 days I met people, talked a little about the GA in Southampton and *new* awarded myself by having a proper lunch. Those who are scared of British cuisine: there is a good reason for that, but basically you can find nice meals – even in UK.

Thomas's cycle story and the Flag Tour is at it's end

2011-11-11T02:28:00.000-08:00

With 800 km in his legs Thomas had reached Botley in UK to join Alliance Staff meeting and General Assembly participants who welcomed him with the big applause.

We have celebrated together with Concordia board members who came to support our work and to see the impressive presentation of the whole year tour.
The Flag events were hosted by 33 organisations in 25 countries - mostly at various workcamps, workshops, exhibitions, but also at different campaigns or celebrations.

More pictures will be shown soon... :)

Thomas's cycle story #2: Crossed fingers are quite uncomfortable while cycling!

2011-11-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween to everyone! I saw people carrying pumpkins in Belgium, staffing homes in France and today I met several British kids on their trick-or-treat-mission …

Some of you might have already guessed it: MPB (aka me, the print and the bicycle) moved on. After a lovely Saturday night at the hostel in Brussel and some nice chats about our youth work it was time to go to France. But to finish you have to start first – and that became quite difficult: Brussel turned out to be a tricky town and I took me some more time to find my way.

On the last stage we learned to deal with hills along the way. Therefore the Belgians were great hosts and challenged me on the next level: Head wind.
They just forgot it's Sunday – cyclists grab their bikes and take a ride to get out of the house. That's a worldwide ritual. By that the first part in the surroundings of Brussel was a question of group dynamics. Once I met some other cyclists I was happy to stick to their rear wheels and enjoy some minutes without wind blowing into my face. Unfortunately that nice tradition stopped Southwest of Brussels and MPB was fighting its own way …

Slowed down by the head wind I entered France in the late afternoon and had to hurry up in order to pass the city limit of Lille before dusk. And have a question to the experts: Why are so many donkeys in the area of Roubaix and Lille? I never saw that many … but they seemed to recognize me as one of them. Grouping up again. Probably the topic of that day.

Next morning I was disappointed for the second time: most of the breakfast was served in those little plastic packages. At least they avoided to use paper dishes and plastic knifes like last time. That's crap! Most of us are trying to reduce consumption and pollution and by things like that the whole effort is destroyed instantly. I left some comments and shared some experiences at the front desk and just hope that might change their minds. Keeping my fingers crossed.

But crossed fingers are quite uncomfortabla while cycling – so I stopped for a while. Because there was not that much time. to reenter Belgium and do a loop to Dunkerque. Headlining the stage by „I neeeeeeeed to get the ferry!“ Some more than 120km and less than 6h. Tough job.

Therefore I was rushing down the way to the coast and had to pass too many battlefields, cemetries and memorials before entering the happy world of seaside vacation. I'm still wondering how many guests find their way south and have a look at this historical places. At Ijzentoor I found a nice plate placed on a wall built up with old grenades and planted with beautiful flowers: WIJ WERKEN AAN VREDE, VRIJHEID, VERDRAAGZAAMHEID. I'd rather translate that by „We work on peace, freedom and tolerance“. The lady at the ticket office told me it had been a project of the local community. Maybe they can be supported in the future.

My future was to catch the ferry and I did. They tuned …

Flag Tour in Mexico City and more ..... with Vimex

2011-10-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends Around the World!!!!!!!!

We wish to express to all of you our hapinness to Host the Flag of Volunteering in Mexico City first and then in different cities and localites of our country and in projects that VIMEX has presence. We host the Flag since the 21st. September until the 4th. of October . We never can imagine how many organizations, young people, universities, people in general will meet this Flag during its time in Mexico.

The first thing is that in VIMEX we thought that the Flag is not only for our organization, that we had to share with many ONG’S and volunteers that exist in Mexico and that day by day they are working in the promotion of volunteerism, to work for people, for education, people of third age, environmental, social work, ecology etc. Nowadays the Voluntarism in Mexico is in process to be more know, to be more listening, to be more present in our society. That is why this wish to share with our collegues of many mexican organizations and volunteers .

The objective was to impact our society with the Flag of Volunteering, that we all know that represents the efforts ofthousand organizations and thousand and thousand of volunteers around the world in the help of others. The impact, the happiness was incredible in the places where the Flag was present .

The most important fact was the reaction of the young people and the people in general, in the universities with the students, the teachers, the authorities, of the schools, with our parner mexican organizations and with the volunteers, everibody were really happy to see, to touch this Flag that represents the Volunteering around the world. We had different events as I told you, but this was possible with the help of our mexican partner organizations, in this case our mexican network called AMEVOL “ Alianza Mexicana de Voluntariado” (Mexican Alliance of Volunteering - MAV) that we have in Mexico and VIMEX is member of it. AMEVOL it is compouse for 14 different organizations that includes ngo’s, one university (our biggest by the way and the most important UNAM) and corporative volunteering.

Places where the Flag of Volunteering were:

2011-10-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

23 Septemberat UNAM in a Parade of Flags in Mexico City

The idea of this parade was that the students from UNAM design a Flag of Volunteering. There were 15 Flag designs, very interesting the designs but the concepts in order to design these Flags were the most enrichment ideas, minds of volunteering, how the students understand the volunteering. We have around of 300 persons.

24th. September at UNAM, too in Mexico City
Here you can see the II National Volunteer Fair with more than 100 organizations and around 1,500 persons

25th. of September Volunteer Walk at Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City

It was the promotion of Volunteering . It was a parade begining at the Monumento de los Niños Héroes (Heroes Children Monument ) to the Chapultepec Island Lake. We have here more than 1,000 people (one thousand ) in this event.

26th. September Welcome to the Flag at Millenium Tech. in Morelos State.

In this event more than 500 students took part given the Welcome to the Flag

Places where the Flag of Volunteering was:

2011-10-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

27th. September was the Welcome at Tamazulapam, Oaxaca

We have around 300 students since kínder garden until Preparatory school given the Welcome to the Flag

If you wish to watch video from Tamazulapam, Oaxaca of the welcoming of the Flag
CLICK HERE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBXXeAv_zxU

29th. September was the Welcome at Natate at San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

We have around 120 children taken part in different workshops.

Places where the Flag of Volunteering was:

2011-10-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

Flag Tour Puebla Mexico

Thomas's cycle story #1: IJGD dinner, Belgian scouts and the sun shining 400 days a year...

2011-10-30T02:20:00.000-07:00

I guess it's time to summarize the first quarter of my journey to Southampton and back to Germany – or rather back to Bavaria, which is kind of Germany. A strange kind. A very strange kind. Very, very strange. Anyway. Let's stay focused: CYCLING THE FLAG FOR SUSTAINABLE VOLUNTEERING – that's also kind of strange, but related to the topic of that blog. Therefore I'll continue with that.

Strange just because I'm cycling the flag without having a flag with me. OK, I printed the logo and took it with me, but that's not even half of the significance. But who carres! The first joke had been droped before I even got on the sattle for more than 20km: the flag arrived 2 hours after my departure from VJF-Office. That's a story to tell! If everything runs smoothly it might become boring … Roman will take care of it. He's the right man in the right position for that.

Sometimes it's very nice when nothing happens: due to the fact it had been the 27th October me, the print and the bicycle went to Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin in order to raise awareness for 50th anniversary of the Soviet-American confrontation in Berlin. 50 years ago a bunch of American soldiers was not allowed to enter Soviet sector of Berlin without passport-control – unfortunately this privilege was part of the Four Power Agreement on Berlin. In order to underline the validity of that agreement the US Army sent tanks. So did the Red Army. More than 1 day the world was on the edge of a 3rd world war – which probably would have been the last. But everyone stayed calm and finally the situation got solved without any weapon fired or anyone hurt. Hooray!

So me, the print and the bicycle arrived at the VJF office with a smile on my face (which is pretty obvious mine, because there is just one face within that trio). That smile got even bigger because my dear friends prepared some snacks and gifts to support the mission. Thank you, guys!

Heavy loaded me, the print and the bicycle catched the train to Bonn, met Sandra at the station and enjoyed the great hospitality of IJGD by staying at Christas flat having a wonderful dinner with quite a lot of selfmade stuff. Tomatos, vine, ginger schnaps. Everyone can define the single amounts on her/his own … just keep in mind: even when there's no documentation left from that epic moment in time I got up at 7:30am and went to Maastricht.

It. Was. Annoying. Partly. First of all the „gift“ from Christa was the catchy tune of „Capri Fischer“ - most definitely Top10 of the German Cheesy Song Charts. Pretending to be a bad ass rock'n'roller it's pretty uncool humming that song … But before leaving the Rhine it was out of my ear and I could focus on navigating, which was very important because the transition from one bike track to another (cross country - to make it easier) was quite challenging and took more time than expected. But finally me, the print and the bicycle found a way through and reached Aachen after passing some nasty industrial areas.

After some short sightseeing (Remember? Cross country navigating keeps catchy tunes away but takes more time) it was time to cross the border. Een warm welkom! The sun was shining (which happens at least 400 days a year in that area according to an old lady I met in Vaals) and me, the print and the bicycle rushed to Maastricht for a final sightseeing and some snacks …

Because of all that Euro-crisis-dilemma I decided to spend the night on the Belgian side of the border. You never know who's gonna shout down the borders! Just have a look at the Northern German (colloquial: Danish) folks … Focus! Me, the print and the bicycle also crossed the Dutch-Belgian border without even noticing at first sight and made our hattrick perfect: three countries within 1 day! Hooray! Again.

Right before having a desperately needed shower I stopped at „Nachtwinkel“ to grap some drink and food for the night just because this seems to be one of the most perfect names for a late night shop. Unfortunately it just means „late night shop“ and my respect for the genius of the shop owner dropped down like Greek bonds. But he was a nice guy anyway.

After spending a perfect night in Riemst I prepared myself by having a big breakfast – I guess the waitress is still wondering how on earth this guy can eat that much. I tried to explain her that the food is used in a sustainable way because the energy was needed on the rollercoaster ride to Brussel in order to promote sustainability and volunteering. Maybe that performance wasn't promoting our ideas very much. But I'll try to improve it for the next times – e.g. by having a first breakfast on my own...

All day long me, the print and the bicycle went slightly uphill and afterwards slightly downhill before climbing the next hill and rolling down again. It was a nice stage! It wasn't boring at all – most of the time I was looking for the right gear and during my breaks a did some sightseeing and got surprised by the unknown beauty of cities like Leuven. In Tienen a group of boyscouts came across and we had a little chat about International youth exchange recognizing Alliance organisations without providing badges for each and every success of participants might have a huge problem. Unfortunately I was not able to hand out badges for „Taking a picture with a random guy on a bicycle“ and failed to record that interaction. It was a highlight anyway.

306km done. Tomorrow it's time to go to France. It seems to become a cloudy stage ...

CYCLING THE FLAG FOR SUSTAINABLE VOLUNTEERING

2011-10-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

Today, on Thursday 27.10. Thomas from VJF had set off for the 800 km long bicycle trip in the name of the Flag Tour!

Thomas had left Berlin today for Bonn so that eventually we can meet him a week later in Southampton for Alliance General Assembly!

Follow and support him as he goes:

Étape 1	THU	2011-10-27	Berlin	Bonn	40 km
Étape 2	FRI	2011-10-28	Bonn	Maastricht	140 km
Étape 3	SAT	2011-10-29	Maastricht	Bruxelles	120 km
Étape 4	SUN	2011-10-30	Bruxelles	Lille	110 km
Étape …5	MON	2011-10-31	Lille	Dunkerque	110 km
Étape 6	TUE	2011-11-01	Dover	Brighton	150 km
Étape 7	WED	2011-11-02	Brighton	Southampton		130 km

Good luck Thomas!

FLAG (not) present in the Czech Republic

2011-10-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

The Flag Tour was silently present in Prague, Czech Republic few times during the year.

At the end of October INEX-SDA hosted the Conference on Quality Standards and Evaluation Methods for International Youth Voluntary Services.

Even though the actual Flag was absent, over 40 NGO representatives, coordinators of government programs and experts from several European Union countries, Tanzania and Uganda could learn about the mission of the Flag Tour during the 3 days of the conference.
The main objective of the conference was primarily sharing experiences, knowledge and experience in quality measurement and evaluation of international volunteer programs.

During the summer we have introduced the mission of Flag Tour and EYV 2011 at different workcamps in the Czech Republic during the workshops lead by our EVS volunteer Eva. Volunteers discussed about „The effects and goals of voluntary activity on individual or community at local and European level” and ended the workshop by painting the flag that can generally represent their ideas about volunteering and its effects and goals. Didn’t they do a great job?

Flag in Kulabo Media Camp 2011, Rauma, Finland

2011-10-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

Cultural Youth Centre – Kulttuurinen nuorisokeskus ry. received the flag 1^st of August 2011. The flag was a part of Kulabo Media Camp 2011. We were happy that Allianssi choose us to have the flag here in Finland. It had a great meaning for our organization and the volunteers that we had working here with us.

Our camp themes were human rights, media education and voluntary work. We had different kinds of workshops during these two weeks. For example we held workshop about volunteering and what it means. We also wanted to explore volunteering a bit deeper and had a whole day homeless-workshop. Our volunteers had a chance to experience and get a totally new perspective about being homeless.

They had to live outside the camp headquarters for a whole day and get their food, water and all what they needed by themselves from the nature, dumpsters, begging, collecting berries and exchanging those for food. Of course leaders had a contact to the volunteers for the whole day. So they weren’t totally alone.

One of our leaders has been homeless several times in Norway, and he brought up things what

people/volunteers can do to help homeless people. Every volunteer also checked information about homeless people and organization that help them in their own countries.

We also visited Red Cross in Rauma and we heard about volunteering in Red Cross.

We had 17 volunteers and 9 leaders from 13 different countries. Local youth also visited the camp daily.

As you can see from the photos, we are extremely proud of our work that we do in the field of cultural youth work.

Check out more: www.kulabo.com

Alliance Flag Tour 2011: The Flag flying at The Special Olympics World Summ...

2011-10-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

Alliance Flag Tour 2011: The Flag flying at The Special Olympics World Summ...: The Special Olympics World Summer Games ATHENS 2011 was the largest and probably most inspiring sports event of 2011! It took place in Athe...

Alliance Flag Tour 2011: Alliance Flag in Athens, Greece

2011-10-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

Alliance Flag Tour 2011: Alliance Flag in Athens, Greece: On Tuesday, 12th of April, ELIX - Conservation Volunteers Greece, welcomed the Alliance Flag with a great party! More than 60 people came: ...

The Flag flying at The Special Olympics World Summer Games in ATHENS 2011 with Citizens in Action

2011-10-05T01:30:00.000-07:00

The Special Olympics World Summer Games ATHENS 2011 was the largest and probably most inspiring sports event of 2011! It took place in Athens from June 20th to July 4th hosting 7,500 athletes with intellectual disabilities and 25,000 volunteers from all over the world.
Special Olympics is based upon the idea of volunteerism as volunteers have been the cornerstone to develop the movement in 180 countries and regions worldwide. They also serve as an effective catalyst for a social change towards understanding and acceptance of people with intellectual disability.

Within the framework of Action 2(Group EVS) of Youth in Action Youth, the organization "Citizens in Action" in cooperation with the ATHENS 2011 Volunteers Program hosted from the 10th of June to 10th of July 100 young European citizens.
The young volunteers, aged 18-30 years old, coming from Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany,Italy, Lithuania Spain,Turkey and United Kingdom contributed to the successful realisation of the event and supported the Special Olympics athletes in the sport venues as well as in the non-sport sites.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

Alliance Flag in Athens, Greece

2011-09-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, 12th of April, ELIX - Conservation Volunteers Greece, welcomed the Alliance Flag with a great party! More than 60 people came: old volunteers and friend of ELIX as well as new volunteers who had the opporunity to be informed about volunteer possibilities by participating in workcamps all around the world for 2011.

Moreover, the party was dedicated to more than 8.000 volunteers from Greece and around the world who had the opportunity through ELIX for the last 25 years, to participate in international volunteer projects promoting volunteerism and active participation in local communities!

Flag in Tallinn, Estonia

2011-09-06T03:50:00.000-07:00

In August The Flag made it's way from Finland to the Estonian Zoo in Tallinn. Every year international volunteers take part in this great enviroment camp, where people can enjoy nature and be more close with the animals. Volunteers from Germany, Italy, Spain and Estonia were delighted to receive the flag and promote the great work they are doing at the zoo.

Just two months to go.......

2011-09-06T02:57:00.000-07:00

You´ve almost made it, old flag! You have seen 20 countries, lots and lots of exotic places and beautiful faces, inspired people all around the world and attracted attention to the helping hands of many, many international volunteers and charitable causes in communities around the globe - and all that in the course of 6 months!! Your wings must be aching but so much fun and excitement lies ahead of you still...

Now you only have two months of travelling left and hopefully enjoy the rest of your journey!

Here`s the full list of where you´ve been and where you will head off to next.

Enjoy your last bits of the trip and see you in the UK in November!

The flag at ijgd in Hildesheim

2011-08-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

Flag tour in Germany (ijgd)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The flag has arrived in Hildesheim. And our event took place in the middle of the city on the city beach:

Our volunteers from the Czech Republik, Russia, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Ukraine and South Korea walked through the city mall, giving information about their work at the local radio station, about international workcamps and of course about the flag flying around the world.

To spread the idea of volunteering around we asked young people, to participate at a balloon flight competition. The lucky winner will take part in a workcamp in Germany next summer. The first card already coming back has flown a 50 kilometres way to Brunswick.

We were lucky with the weather and had a lot of fun.

It was great to host the flag for one day!!!

The flag at ijgd in Coswig

2011-08-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

The volunteers of ijgd workcamp “CARE AND PRESERVATION OF MONUMENTS” (1400) invited the local audience of Coswig to an open day to their campsite. During a three hours program they presented the work they have done during their three weeks stay in Coswig:

1) Sanding off old windows

2) Working with clay

3) Creating clay plasters

4) Putting the clay plasters on wall (overall 230 square meters) and watering them twice a day

At least 230 square clay plaster were used by the 18 volunteers.

The visitors got the chance to try all theses works out and as you can see on the pictures they enjoyed it a lot. The mayor of Coswig Doris Berlin mixed the clay plasters with her own feet saying “It is a great exercise for my legs’ blood circulation- I will come every day.”

Some of the older visitors were particularly touched that so many young people from around the world were guests in their Coswig 50 years after the Berlin Wall has been built in August 1961.

The Flag had arrived one day before the event and has been placed directly on the wall of the old Simonetti-Haus so that every visitor can see it. Afterwards the flag continued her journey to Hildesheim.

Flag Tour in (and around) Slovakia

2011-08-15T04:01:00.000-07:00

1st - 10th august, INEX Slovakia

We decided to make a full programme for the flag, once it arrives to our country.

During the visit, the flag made a real journey and had opportunity to get to know the majority of our country. Our driving team took the flag around 4 workcamps that took place during hosting the flag. We also organized a working event in Bratislava were many of our volunteers and supporters paricipated as well as lots of press.

1st stop - Hanigovce castle workcamp

2nd stop - Brekov castle workcamp

3rd stop - Senne workcamp

4th stop - Sklabina workcamp

Overall - 5 days on the road, more than 1550 km, more than 80 people involved and maaany nice ideas from volunteers on volunteering and its meaning.

We also organized a nice big event in Bratislava for wide public and we were cleaning a garden of a centre for socially disadvantaged people. Very nice day, lots of work was done and the flag also seemed to be satisfied :)

5th august - OZ Brana do zivota

We spent wonderful time with the flag and we are glad we could organize several great events and promote the ideas of volunteering among many people.

Here are some selected quotes...

Volunteering means to me…

"Having fun while helping to improve the world." Pepe (Spain)

“It's a kind of sharing behavior. Even if I don't have enough money or other things, I can share my things to other people who need it." Jeong Ho (South Korea)

"For me volunteering means sharing experiences. It is a way to know yourself better, in relation with other people you didn't know before. Volunteering is working for a goal." Silvia (Italy)

"When people want to help because you are interested in it. They don't do it because they must, but they want." Mirka (Slovakia)

“Volunteering takes a special place in my life. First of all it’s a wonderful opportunity to act in accordance with a phrase “Think globally, act locally”. So being a volunteer means to bring something good and useful in this world. What is more it’s a great chance to meet interesting people from different parts of the world. So I can feel united.” Nataliya (Belarus)

“Volunteering open the mind and permits to create a global way to work without to look after money change everything, the ‘’taste” of the work is different. It permits to meet people from everywhere, to learn about local country. Volunteering is like to put my stone to a global construction.” Jeremie (France)

Try volunteering because it is...

"…going to change your way of seeing the world." Malin (Switzerland)

"…the best thing I have ever tried." Dominika (Slovakia)

"…an experience in your life that is unique for each person but with good moments for all." Arancha (Spain)

"…you learn more about yourself and more about the world around you and it make yourself a better person." Elaine (Taiwan)

“Volunteering is the occasion to invent your own life!” Clemena (France)

“…amazing to see when people are really thankful to you.” Petra (Slovakia)

People can gain from volunteering…

"Tolerance, creativity, patience, understanding that there a lot of people which need your help." Katerina (Belarus)

“You gain a good feeling that you did something good for someone else. You can learn how to do things you normally don’t have a chance to try. You can meet a lot of new people, learn about their culture, travel around the world, and improve your language skills.” Petra (Slovakia)

“You can do in too short time something useful. After two or three weeks seeing a good result makes you happy. For children, for historical places, for handicapped people doing something is great experience. Far away from your country you do a favor for somebody who you don’t know! It is a big honor.” Ferhat (Turkey)

Thaaaaanks to everyone who contributed!

INEX Slovakia

Flag-rant délit in Belgium

2011-07-20T00:07:00.000-07:00

Friday 8th July. Belgium. Compagnons Bâtisseurs headquarters.

Everybody was in Marche-en-Famenne, ready for flying the flag : 20 international volunteers, camp leaders, CBB team, ... Just one "NO SHOW"... THE FLAG !!!

Anyway, we had joy, we had fun, even without flag and sun.
The evening, after getting to know each other, we enjoyed our time at a concert organised in the city.

On Saturday, the whole group discussed about volunteering : its spirit, its meanings, ... through different kinds of workshops.
All these exchanges were translated into three new flags.

Interculturalism was a real wealth in these exchanges ... One more time, thanks to volunteering... and even more thanks to the volunteers, a great moment could be created. Thanks everybody for joining the (Without)Flag Tour event!

PS 1 : DON'T WORRY about the flag, it finally came the following Monday! We sent it directly to SJ France! BE HAPPY !!

PS 2 : Flagrant délit means like to catch somebody red-handed in French.

PS 3 : Last but not least, to practice your French, follow the link below, it will guide you to an article published in a local newspaper.

http://www.compagnonsbatisseurs.be/images/PDF/chezlescompagnonsbatisseurs.pdf

Have a great summer!

Mélanie from CBB team

Many flags, one feeling

2011-06-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

A new Flag for Volunteering has been created!

Yesterday 28th june, in CAT01 Environmental Action in Costa Brava, a camp in the north of Catalonia, by Fundació Catalana de l'Esplai and COCAT, a new flag was created with the imagination and creativity of the international volunteers we are hosting. They are a nice and worker group, doing an environmental work and different activities in this region.

With a strong creativity and art they have painted this flag (you can see it in the photos) with the slogan "many flags, one feeling". Isn't it nice?

Flag in Namur, Belgium! (JAVVA)

2011-06-14T02:41:00.000-07:00

During the beginning of june was such a nice festival in Belgium : Namur en Mai!

JAVVA was there, the workcamp was about getting involved in building the festival, and cleaning up afterwards.

Why would we tell you about that? Because the Flag was there!

The event we created : thanks to the festival, we had a very good exchange with the locals. Therefore, volunteers decided to get in the street with the Flag and ask people about volunteering.

The question we asked : If you were to do a volunteering, where and what would it be?

Let's gather everybody in the room, papers, scissors, colours, we wrote the question down several times, so that people will be able to write their answers, and then we would hang it around the Flag, in the street!

And there we are, meeting locals, chatting with them about us, workcamps, Flag Tour, international volunteering !

Please appreciate the grass in the street, that was part of our work ! We put the grass down for the festival, and removed it four days later !

There it is, we have lots of answers !

Most of the people would like to do a volunteering in Asia, and work with children, but some would like to work on festivals in U.K., or building and renovating in Africa.

We linked all the answers together, around the Flag.

And the final picture, eight volunteers, three locals, one Flag, eleven smiles !

Enjoy your Flag adventure, greetings from Belgium!

Maëva, with Halim, Alvaro, Aurélie,

Yun, Anna, Stéphane and Salva

Flag in Russia (SFERA)

2011-06-03T00:25:00.000-07:00

In the end of May the Alliance Flag reached Russia (Nizhny Novgorod) and was hosted by SFERA.

The official opening ceremony was launched during the Alliance international training course "Volunteer Messenger Project - training for trainers/basic level" which was organized by ERC and TNWG together with INEX and SFERA, brought together around 30 participants from different Alliance member organizations and aimed to prepare volunteer messengers who will spread the word of voluntary service among Alliance workcamps and other events.

Furthermore SFERA has produced its own copy of the Flag and now it is going around all SFERA workcamps in Russia.

The Alliance Flag tour is a great opprotunity to increase the importance and recognition of volunteering for the Alliance! Wish you all successfull Flag events!

Flag in Lechbruck, Germany (IBG)

2011-05-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

By the time the flag reached us we have already spent one week in the small village Lechbruck am See in Bavaria.
So...who is we?
We were seven volunteer girls from around the world enjoying a lot of weeding and planting for this community.
An invitation of the local brass band seemed to be the perfect opportunity to introduce the Alliance-Flag-Tour and to share the idea of volunteering. We had a great party together with intercultural exchange, a lot of good food and great fun. We met so many kind people during our stay and we were really impressed about all the voluntary work people here are involved in !!!

Flagparty in Ilsfeld, Germany

2011-05-11T00:35:00.000-07:00

On Thuesday, 28th of April we had a great BBQ-party in Ilsfeld, Germany (hosted by IBG Germany). Almost 50 persons came: the 12 volunteers of our first IBG workcamp, a few members of the DLRG (German life saving association; one of the project partners, who hosted us in their base) and the members of the tennis club (our second project partner) with their families. Even the press celebrated this event with us.

The reason for this party was not just our farewell after 3 weeks full of fun, hard work, sightseeing, friendship, intercultural learning and new experience for all of us. Another reason was the arrival of the Alliance Flag.

I think we did a great job and made voluntary work more popular and visible in this area. The local population was very interessted in this and i think we achieved a lot.

It was a pleasure for us and we wish all of you a great and successfull Alliance Flag event! Sabine Send, Clara Steinheber (Campleaders) and IBG Team

PS: Now the Flag is in Bavaria, Germany in the second IBG workcamp. This week they will send the Flag to Belgium.

The Flag Tour started!

2011-03-11T09:22:00.001-08:00

More than 100 staff and volunteers attended the opening ceremony during the Alliance Technical Meeting in Yerevan (hosted by HUJ)!! The flag will now tour in 25 countries all over the world hosted by 36 Alliance Members and Partners and will end his route in November in Great Britain for the General Assembly!

FLY THE FLAG FOR VOLUNTEERING... AROUND THE WORLD!!

Route of the Alliance Flag Tour:

2011-02-23T03:40:00.000-08:00

The idea...

2011-02-23T03:23:00.000-08:00

The Flag Tour will be officially launched at the Technical Meeting (TM) on 4^th of March in Yerevan, Armenia. Then it will travel from country to country being hosted by 36 members and partners of the Alliance.

The participating organisations will take the flag to one of their workcamps or especially organised events with (international) volunteers, inviting and informing the local population about volunteering on the Alliance level.

The Flag Tour will finish at the General Assembly 2011 in November in Southampton, United Kingdom with a celebration and display of the season’s events.

The Alliance Flag Tour 2011 Mission Statement

2011-02-23T03:16:00.000-08:00

The Alliance flag tour celebrates the valuable contribution the voluntary service has on society, communities and individuals. The Alliance Flag Tour raises awareness and the profile of the European Year of Volunteering 2011 and the International Year of Volunteers +10 while encouraging active involvement of people within civil society. This campaign strengthens the partnership of the Alliance and the European Voluntary Service Organisations to empower meaningful community volunteering.

Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations

2011-02-23T03:12:00.000-08:00

The Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations was founded in 1982 and is presently made up of 47 member organisations in Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Russian Federation, Serbia, the Slovak Republic, South Korea, Spain (Spain and Catalunya), Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Each organisation runs an annual programme of International Volunteer Projects in their own country and exchanges volunteers with each other to create an international group of volunteer workers on each project.

This Flag Tour campaign strengthens the partnership of the Alliance and the European Voluntary Service Organisations to empower meaningful community volunteering.

Welcome to the Alliance Flag Tour 2011 blog!!!

2011-02-16T08:29:00.000-08:00