EEMA guidelines for Youth Exchange Training

Introduction

Every year since 1953 the EEMA Conference has gathered YEOs from Multidistricts and Districts of EUROPE, EAST MEDITERRANEAN and AFRICA. The purpose of the conference is “to improve the exchange experience for young people by providing an annual forum for Rotarians to share knowledge of, to discuss issues arising from, and to explore new opportunities within, the Rotary Youth Exchange Program whilst at the same time en-joying international fellowship in a different EEMA zone country”

Over the years, this event has seen the participation of an increasing number of YEOs, from outside the EEMA area so has therefore become an event where RYEOs from all over the world meet to exchange ideas, knowledge, experiences, difficulties, issues and make proposals by constructive dialogue for improvement of one of the most fas-cinating and positive programs of Rotary International, the Youth Exchange Program.

The program aims to lay the foundations for peace at an early age by bringing to-gether young people from countries that may be different in terms of culture, language, religion, way of life, social and school organization.

Following my proposal in 2012 the main issues of the RYEP are now tackled and debated with an increasingly up-to-date approach by

• Encouraging the active involvement of the participants in the conference proceed-ings by planning of interactive working sessions
• Preparing and publishing EEMA guidelines on various aspects of the RYEP by Includ-ing in the proceedings a consensus conference dedicated every year to a specific topic (Training, Selection, Management, etc.).

Training in Rotary Youth Exchange Program was chosen as the topic for the first Consensus Conference which took place In Rome in 2013.

The findings that emerged from the 8 interactive Workshops were developed by a Working Group which met several times in the months following the event. The Work-ing Group was composed of EEMA President, Vivi-Anne Assel, EEMA Past President Dan-ielle Baltus, EEMA Consultant Andrew Page, two RI Committee Past Presidents, Dennis White and Leandro Araujo and myself as EEMA Vice President.

The results obtained are contained in this booklet and will become the official EEMA guidelines for Youth Exchange Training