The ‘European Year of Volunteering’ 2011 constituted an ideal framework for the Hamburg Senate Chancellery with the Department for International and Development Co-operation to initiate this joint project with partner communities and NGOs in Denmark, the Czech Republic, Estonia, and Tanzania to support young returnees from International Voluntary Services in their commitment to global development issues.

Carrying the title of “City of the UN-Decade for Sustainable Development” for the second time (2009), the Hamburg government seeks to create synergies between this European networking project and the Hamburg agenda on development education (2005-2014) under the roof of the “Hamburg learns sustainability” project. Moreover, Hamburg has been given the title of “Fair Trade Town” for its various initiatives such as “Hamburg mal fair”. As the European Green Capital 2011 Hamburg also seeks to set the course for a sustainable ecological future and responsible handling of global resources.

In the framework of Hamburg’s relationship with its sister cities Prague and Dar es Salaam and through the Baltic Sea States Sub-Regional Cooperation (BSSSC), the Hamburg Senate Chancellery (Dept. for International and Development Co-operation) seeks to strengthen the mutual exchange on concepts of Global Learning and diverse and innovative methods for development education through the qualification and integration of young volunteers in the formal and informal education sector as peer-to-peer educators and future decision-makers.

http://www.hamburg.de/entwicklungspolitik

The German-Tanzanian Partnership (DTP) association  has been active in a wide range of fields since its foundation in 1998. Its activities range from international and intercultural understanding to spreading the use of renewable energy in Tanzania. DTP’s focus lies on education and capacity-building of children, young people and women. Apart from the diverse individual projects our NGO carries out, a long-lasting co-operation has been established through our Voluntary Service which contributes to international understanding by bringing young adults together to work for climate protection in Tanzania. The DTP-volunteers work in Tanzanian NGOs and vocational schools in order to promote the use of solar energy.
From 2004-2008 DTP has been sending young Germans to Tanzania for their Voluntary Ecological Year. Since 2008 our NGO has been an accredited sending organisation with the weltwärts-programme funded by the German Federal Ministry of Development Co-operation (BMZ).
Our main co-operation partner for voluntary projects is the Tanzanian umbrella association TAREA (Tanzanian Renewable Energy Association) in Dar es Salaam. TAREA’s work follows their operation statement: Lighting the way for solar!

http://www.dtpev.de/dtp

Founded in 1986, CulturCooperation is a Hamburg-based NGO working in the fields of culture and development education.

Our main objectives are:

• To increase the European public’s critical understanding of the causes and consequences of global poverty and inequality, and of their relevance to personal, local, national, European and global interdependence with the aim to mobilise greater public support for fairer North-South relations.
• To strengthen development education by making full use of all appropriate educational and didactic methods and by creating new innovative approaches for global learning like cultural and artistic activities or participatory learning approaches.
• To promote the inclusion of development education and awareness-raising efforts in the mainstream of the existing formal and informal education sector.
• To enhance cultural exchange with developing countries and to foster intercultural understanding by using cultural methods as a tool for development education.
• To support initiatives and projects in countries of the Global South which have a clear potential for raising or strengthening sustainable development in various sectors. A particular focus lies on issues such as civil rights, youth, education, conflict prevention, civilian methods of conflict management, and the cultural sector.

Because capacity building in young people and the establishment and maintenance of sustained partnerships with young people as future decision-makers are crucial strategies for achieving fairer North-South relations, it is very important for us to involve young people as stakeholders and target groups in all our activities.

http://www.culturcooperation.de

http://www.culture-and-development.info

The Copenhagen Youth School (KKU) supplies leisure time courses for more than 5000 youths in locations throughout Copenhagen annually.

Also it supplies full-time educational courses and specially designed educational and guidance projects for approx. 650 young people aged 13 to 21 according to their needs.

KKU is municipally funded and organised in centres in different areas of Copenhagen, each providing a variety of creative, academic and remedial courses. Key values for the learning environment are Voluntary Participation, Active Involvement and Democracy. The staff consists of creative and dedicated teachers and youth-workers with a wide range of educational and vocational backgrounds.

Based on the concept of Education for All and Life-long Learning the Youth School has a special commitment to young people who have difficulties completing a youth education and holds membership of European Second Chance Schools. From 2011 mainstreaming Development Education and Global Responsibility will be among the fundamental concepts and promoted throughout KKU in collaboration with this EU funded project. To this end we will draw upon the European volunteers that the Youth School is hosting as well as former volunteers from Dan Church Aid.

http://www.ungdomsskolen.kk.dk/

DanChurchAid (DCA) is one of the major Danish humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGO), working with local partners, international networks, churches and non-religious civil organisations to assist the poorest of the poor.

DCA is a member of ACT International, a global alliance of churches and related agencies. ACT works ecumenically to make a real and lasting difference to peoples’ lives through high quality, coordinated and effective humanitarian, development and advocacy work. DCA carries out its work with the objective to empower the world’s poorest in their struggle for a dignified life. This effort is based on a Christian view of human nature as well as respect for the individual’s human rights and the equal worth of all human beings.
In Denmark DCA has an established network of popular support and recognition, including nearly 4,000 volunteers, DCA Youth Network, more than 125 second-hand shops and around 20,000 persons who assist in the annual door-to-door parish collection campaign.

http://www.danchurchaid.org/

The City of Prague, represented by the Department of Education, Youth and Sports, has been cooperating with the City of Hamburg for all the 20 years that the sister-city partnership has been in place, especially in the field of intercultural education through youth exchange programmes.

The City of Prague is interested in promoting youth exchange programmes for Czech young adults with the global South and seeks to broaden its international relations and the exchange of ideas with other local authorities from different European member states by participating in this common project.

http://www.praha.eu/jnp/en/home/index.html

INEX – Association for Voluntary Activities is a non-governmental organisation founded in 1991 to carry out and support international voluntary work and intercultural and global education. The mission of INEX-SDA is by organising international voluntary projects, educational programs and campaigns to assist the development of a tolerant and open society and to encourage an active and responsible approach to the world around us both locally and globally.

By our activities and initiatives, we intend to create space in which especially young people can gain new experiences, expand their skills and make their own views of the complexity of the world around them.

http://www.inexsda.cz/en

International Youth Association EstYES is a non-profit, non-political, non-governmental organisation which was established in 1991 with the purpose to promote youth and cultural exchanges for increasing international understanding and solidarity between countries and people. Every year EstYES organises 35 short-term voluntary projects (work camps) for 300 international participants in Estonia and sends over 150 Estonian volunteers to similar projects abroad. In addition EstYES annually hosts and sends international volunteers on long-term social projects. EstYES is a pioneer organisation in the field of international voluntary service in Estonia, seeing it as a powerful tool for local development and an effective means of non-formal education.

In recent years EstYES was particularly engaged in the development of cooperation in the field of international voluntary service with partners from South East Asia and Latin America and is active as a member organisation of the Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organizations, ICYE (International Cultural Youth Exchange) and the Coordinating Committee of International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) by UNESCO.

http://www.estyes.ee/index.php?lang=2

Hamburg and Dar es Salaam agreed to co-operate closely in the field of education and youth programmes in the scope of its sister city programme. Therefore promoting exchange programmes for young people from both cities is a priority goal of the partnership. To achieve this, long-term partnerships with Dar es Salaam stakeholders in educational, social, and environmental projects in the framework of existing programmes run by German voluntary services will be established.

Today many voluntary organisations from Hamburg already send their volunteers to serve in Tanzania, yet the partners also aspire to extend the sending of Tanzanian volunteers to Hamburg.

The Dar es Salaam City Council and several Tanzanian organisations will bring in Southern perspectives and contribute reports and analysis of experiences from Tanzanian development projects that host several hundred young European volunteers each year.