Belgium.

Belgium has 10 provinces : 5 Flemish en 5 Walloon. The 5 Flemisch provinces are : Brabant, Limburg, Antwerpen, Oost Vlaanderen en West Vlaanderen. There are 589 municipalities. One of them thats situated in Limburg is Genk. Genk is divided in differend villages : Winterslag, Waterschei, ….

History Genk:

Our organisation is situated in Winterslag, one of the villages of Genk. Genk (now about 63.000 inhabitants) was only a small country village hundred years from now with no more then 2.000 inhabitants. Until André Dumont discovered the black gold of the 20th century: coal. This resulted in a new industry which changed this part of Belgium forever. No less then 6 coal mines were built in the middle of Limburg of which 3 in Genk (Winterslag, Waterschei and Zwartberg). It changed Genk from a rural area into an important industrial town. With a lot of problems: first, the coal mines needed a lot of employees.

But working in the mine was hard labour and very unhealthy. Belgian people were not font of working 'down under'. So the Coal Mines had to look for people in other parts of Belgium and even Europe. Before World War II they were found in the Eastern part of Europe: Poland, East Germany, Russia, … Later, the Belgian government made a deal with Italy, Spain and Greece. There were a lot of poor people without a job in these countries and they got a lot of benefits if they were willing to come to Belgium to work in the mines. From 1968 to 1975 the same was done with Turkey and Morocco. This resulted in an enormous population of 'strangers' in Genk. As long as the mines were open, this was no problem because under the ground, everybody was 'black'. Above the ground, this 'fellowship' continued. Until 1985-1987: all mines were closed at this moment and suddenly there was no future for a lot of families in Genk.

Living together suddenly seemed more difficult than before because everything till then was organised by the mine company: chops, café's, cinema, theatre, fanfare, school, ... it was all controlled by the coal mines. But now, this was all history. And because of the unemployment which was a result of this, problems accumulated. But more, now it became clear that no one had ever done any effort to integrate the people from the other country's because in the mines there was no need to. Now however, the differences between the cultures became very clear. Even children in these families, born in Belgium, didn't speak Dutch and had a lot of problems at school …

Information Genk :

" 63.000 inhabitants

" 89 nationalities, multicultural environment

" Close by the Netherlands (Maastricht), Germany (Aachen)

" Train station en very good public transport connecting it to the main city's in Belgium

" Shopping Centres, cinema, cultural activities like musea and ...

" Grand National Limburgs Nature parc

" Close to university Hasselt

Motivation organisation :

Our organisation has made an enormous step forward the past five years: not only did it develop a lot, it also became more professional. Add to that that our team of professional workers has years of experience in working with and support of youngsters. And because of the fact that we work for years now with volunteers and trainees, we thought it to be interesting to work with a long term international volunteer. We think that it would be an enormous surplus for our youngsters.

Regularly we incorporate educational activities, one of our major aims is teaching youngsters to function in a group as is learning to accept each other and having respect.

But they remain teenagers so… we see to lots of action, lots of sports, music and a place to meet each other.

During the school term we provide activities for teenagers every Tuesday to Saturday (after school). During the holidays daily from 2 to 5 pm.

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_form_en.cfm?EID=18000229901