Views International

“VIP building bridges between Europe and China through intercultural dialogue”

We are happy to announce you that the project of VIEWS International “VIP building bridges between Europe and China through intercultural dialogue” has been approved by the Executive Agency (EACEA).
The whole project consists of 6 activities which are aiming at the development of intercultural dialog, youth policies and extending of the opportunities for visually impaired people from China and Belgium. All in all, we would like to build a relationship of trust and confidence between VIEWS International and our Chinese partner ZhangCheng Blind Massage Professional Training School, as well as a better knowledge of each other’s cultures.

This project includes at the beginning only 2 participant (China & Belgium) countries having in mind the perspective of extension of the pool of participant countries for the future cooperation.
Chinese and Belgian environments for visually impaired people are quite different in cultural, technological, and social terms. For example, during the preparatory visit our youth worker encountered a surprised reaction from the Chinese colleagues about the fact that in Belgium visually impaired and blind people actually can work. This project is devoted to explore alternatives and possible ways of life for visually impaired people trying to maximize the opportunities and broaden the horizons.

From October 2012 to September 2013, 148 young participants and youth workers and 112 trainers, facilitators and staff would meet in the framework of the project participating in various activities. The project starts with a feasibility visit and a job shadowing in Belgium where VIEWS International would host a youth worker from China showing the methods of work and the adaptations and facilities visually impaired people have at hand in Belgium. The shared experience of the Chinese colleague would be highly appreciated as well as it would help us to improve our work by seeing the possible alternatives and means of work with visually impaired people.

Then, Belgian partners would go to China for a study visit and job shadowing in the partner organization, and in the end there will be a Youth exchange taking place in China and an evaluation visit summarizing the results of the collaboration and building up the future possibilities of cooperation.

We are indeed looking forward to start the activities, work hard and open up our horizons in an encounter with another culture.

Phase 1. Feasability Visit from 25 - 29 November 2012:

Two participants from our Chinese partner will come to hour headquarters in Belgium in order to set up our colaboration, to discover nonformal and formal educational opportunities for vip in the French Community of Belgium and to discuss further stages of the current project.

Phase 2. Job Shadowing in Belgium (28th of february to 19th of March 2013)

The goal of this phase is to learn about youth work in the hosting organization.
Two youth workers from our chinese partner, accompanied by a translator, will come to Belgium in the above mentioned period, in order to discover and learn from the way of working and dealing with and for the blind and visual impaired youngsters in VIEWS International.

Phase 3. Study visit in China (from 5th to 16th April 2013)

• to discover nonformal and formal educational opportunities for vip in China

Phase 4. Jobshadowing in China (26th of June- 15th of July 2013)

• to learn about youth work in the hosting organization

Phase 5. Youth exchange in China (2-15 July 2013)

• to encourage intercultural dialogue between young people with and without visual impairment from Europe and China through art and outdoor activities

Phase 6. Evaluation visit in Belgium (26th of August – 3rd of September 2013)

• general evaluation of the project results and of each activity in particular
• discuss possible follow-up activities
• create tools to support the collaboration between the 2 organisations.

General presentations booklet of VIEWS International

Attached you will find a downloadable presentation of VIEWS International and ist Projects in PDF-Format. This presentation was developed during the Project.