It was a sunny Slovene evening, in an amazingly small town called “Murka Sobota”, at a very old and shabby but very cool youth hostel when some 30 young people, from 6 different countries, Slovenia, Romania, Germany, Belgium, Ukraine and Moldavia came together, to form something that would change their lives. Ok, to be honest, it was less dramatic, but not less awesome. The named youngsters were all lucky candidates of “Youth Understanding Politics”, a project founded by international young people whose aim it was to teach the exciting skills of debating, to mix cultures and and to motivate to change the world. Now, the people were all fine and stuff but there were 8 people, who were magically drawn to each other. 8 people, 2 nations and a friendship that got really intense, really fast. Paulien, Ben, Jasper and Sarah met the German heros Armin, Bendedikt, Lena and Alma. The language, English, no problem, although we found out that dutch can be understood by Germans and vice versa (however it sounds ugly in the other nation’s ear). After 9 days of verbal fights aka debates, after nuclear catastrophe simulations, after Harry Potter and very weird games like “Bunny Bunny” (which we will show you for sure), it was hardly possible to separate the Germans and the Belgians, national neighbour and close allies. If there would be a reunion? Ridiculous question. Slovenia was a small step for us 8 friends, we believe we can achieve something tremendous in future.
We believed in something and we managed to realise an awesome project. Mission Europe: Ypres - Berlin 2010 is considered by many, not in the least the participants, a huge success. Therefore it was obvious that we should again do something in 2011. We decided to do it all over again, but with more participants, more countries and more weekends. We hope Mission Europe 2011 will be as successful as last year's programme.
The mentors!
Mission Europe 2011 is mentored by:
Belgium
Sarah Declerq - sarah@gerbel.org
Richard Steppe - richard@gerbel.org
Paulien Vandendriessche - paulien@gerbel.org
Jasper Ysebaert - jasper@gerbel.org
Germany
Alma Kafaie - alma@gerbel.org
Lena Muhs - lena@gerbel.org
Luxembourg
Louise Rasmussen - louise@gerbel.org
Lisa Helminger - lisa@gerbel.org
Mission Europe 2011 is coached by Line Kuppens and Patricia Weykopf.