From May 12 to May 21st, our Belgian counterparts of the Global Citizenship Education Programme of Enabel “Kruit” organised an exchange between youth workers, trainers and coaches from Palestine and Flanders on education and empowerment of youngsters in vulnerable contexts.

This cooperation is linked to the ongoing Skilled Young Palestine (SYP) project with five innovation hubs (PARC, Station J, Maan Development Centre, Youth Without Borders and Al Quds Open University). During the 10 days visit, the participants exchanged and learned about the various tools and practices used to empower vulnerable youth in Palestine and Belgium.

The delegation of Palestine arrived in Belgium on May 11th  but unfortunately, the participants that were supposed to join from the Gaza Strip did not receive a visa. A lot of interesting visits and exchanges took place.

Some of the visits included:

• Encora: the biggest centre for adult education in Antwerp.
• Stedelijk Lyceum Olympiade: secondary school with a strong focus on technical and vocational training where the delegation learned about active citizenship, school dropouts and employment in Antwerp.
• ESF-partners Formaat: non-profit organization that gives support to youth and youth trainers.
• Kras : youth work organization that sets up diverse leisure activities for children and young people in various districts of the city of Antwerp.
• Jes: youth organization that provides support to children and young people related to their leisure time, education, work, training and well-being.Shadi Thiab, trainer with Open Al Quds University described it as follows: “Global Citizenship Education is like a key, it opens the door to different opportunities”.
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