UNSS participated in the “Social Day Activities on a European level” Summer Camp and presented OBESSU!
The summer camp “Social Day Activities on a European level” took place from 30th July until 3rd August in Berlin, Germany. The camp brought together delegates from different European youth organisations who implement “Social day” (SD) or “Operation Day’s Work” activities in their countries.
Started in 1962 in Sweden, Operation Day’s Work is a charity program based on volunteering by school students motivated to act in solidarity and improve the lives of young people worldwide. By volunteering, school students collect money and distribute it afterwards to youngsters that are in need of it. By 2010, Operation Day’s work (also called Social Day or Volunteering Day) has been carried out in eight other European countries: Finland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Serbia.
About 50 representatives from eight SD organisations from different countries came together to discuss the work in each country and to share knowledge and good experiences. The main content of the camp was the identification of similarities and differences between the organisations, as well as focusing on intercultural matters, tolerance and democracy.
During the summer camp the organisations – SHL (Germany), Zuiddag (Belgium), Adelante (Italy), OD (Italy), OD (Norway), OD (Denmark), ZI from (Serbia) and UNSS – Union of secondary school students of Serbia (OBESSU Member Organisation), formulated common European objectives such as the cooperation of the individual organisation in order to improve their work. In addition to many productive workshops on topics such as a common website, quality criteria for good work and SD organisations establishing an umbrella organisation; the participants shared experiences, had animated debates and created new friendships.
On the fourth day we talked about umbrella organisations, and as an example of good practice representatives of UNSS, Jovana and Emilija, presented OBESSU. Positively the other participants were interested in the way a successful European umbrella organisation such as OBESSU works. In addition, since SD organisations are interested in building-up their own umbrella organisation one day, they found that learning about OBESSU had a particular added value. Jovana and Emilija were open to questions about OBESSU and the Q&A was very interesting and interactive. The topic gained a lot of interest from all participants.
After five exciting days, the common network was named “SAME”, which stands for ‘Solidarity Action Movement in Europe: “Feel the SAME. Do the SAME. Work for change”.
Written by UNSS representatives Jovana Bozickovic and Emilija Radojev
