Brussels 2011

In early May we were fortunate enough to be able to travel to Brussels once more. We visited The  EU Parliament and Europeaid (part of the European Commission). We took a trip to Bruges where we met Patrick Ghyselen, teacher in Ostend. Back in Brussels again we  made a study visit to Convivial, an NGO working with refugees and integration. Don't miss the students' brief stories below:

Elina says:

Belgium 1-5 May 2011

Our journey to Belgium was a lot of fun, instructive and something that I will remember for the rest of my life. At the time while we were in Belgium we visited many different places every day and experienced the wonderful country. On the third day we took the train to the neighbour city Bruges, fifty minutes from Brussels were we lived. Bruges is an old trade city from the time of The Hansa, the time then the trade in Europe grew. At that time Bruges was the centre of trade but today it is a big tourist city with old and wonderful buildings, restaurants and a lot of chocolate shops. When we were in Bruges we were guided through the city by a man named Patrick. He was born and grew up in Bruges but today he works as a teacher on a school in Ostende, a city not far from Bruges. The guided tour was very interesting, instructive and it was amazing to see all the old, but pretty, houses, the big church, the big clock tower and all that the city had to offer.

Thea says:

The first thing we saw when we came to the Parliament was all the flags of the Eu-countries. We had all seen the building in magazines and on  television  several times, but to see it in real life was something different. Inside the parliament we had to walk through a security control, almost like the ones at the airport.

We all got our own Ipod and we walked a guided tour through the parliament. The guided tour took around 40 minutes and it was very interesting.  We saw the chamber  and we received information about each room that we entered into.

 

Linus and Jessica say:

Convivial

On the fourth of May we visited an organisation that works with refugees. This organisation is called Convivial and is the only one of its kind in Belgium. When we were at the ”headquarter” they were introducing us to some people in their staff who are working with different issues. Then we went into a room with an exhibition. This exhibition was meant to create a discussion; What is a refugee?

One staff member had a presentation while we were guided through the exhibition. Afterwards we had learnt that most of the people who chose to escape from their country flee to their neighbour countries. Also that Pakistan is taking care of most refugees in the world. That is quite interesting because we in Sweden think that we have a lot of refugees while Pakistan has millions. It's a big difference. After that we were able to see some more of the building. We visited the storage that contained a lot of furniture and clothes for the refugees, and everything was gifts from other organisations or individuals. Convivial's main assignment is to help refugees build their new lives. They help them find a job, get an apartment and new clothes and furniture from Convivial's storage. Instead of doing all this for the refugees they help them to do it by themselves, it makes them more independant.Then we sat in another room listening to a man who now lives in Brussels but came there years ago as a refugee. His story really gave us a picture of what it's like being on the move, escaping something terrible. Last, but not least, we had lunch with the staff and many of us had very interesting discussions. Convivial seems to be a very important and highly needed organisation. It was really worthwhile for us to witness part of their work.

Ellen and Frida say:

EuropeAid

The first day we visited the EU Development, EuropeAid. We listened to a lecture on the EuropeAid. EuropeAid is a new Directorate-General, responsible for designing the EU development policies and delivering aid through programmes and projects across the world. It incorporates the forms Development and EuropeAid DGS. Having one Directorate-General will simplify communication in the development field by acting as a "one stop shop" - providing a single contact point for stakeholders inside and outside the EU to deal with.

The lecture was interesting and rewarding and he was a very god teacher. If we were to summarize the trip we would say that it was an incredible experience, we’ve gained lots of memories that we now have taken back with us to Sweden