Starting international youth work – Step-by-step

Participate in someone else's project first

Plenty of international activities for rural young people already exist. You can just join in an activity or match up with an organisation you find particularly interesting.

Many European institutions and organisations offer great training and exchange opportunities. There are also some rural youth umbrella organisations (which have national and regional member organisations all over Europe) which organise regular international activities such as study sessions, seminars or training courses. The choice is yours.

Existing international rural youth activities

• MİJARC Europe = study sessions, seminars, work camps, exchanges, study visits about rural & farming issues > www.mijarc.org/europe
• Rural Youth Europe = study sessions, European rally, training courses for rural youth work > www.ruralyoutheurope.com
• IFYE (International Farmers' Youth Exchange) = exchange programmes between young rural farmers, conferences > www.ifyeusa.org/links/european.html or www.ifye.lu/test-europe/
• International Agricultural Exchange Organisation = agricultural work in 12 different countries, staying with a host family on a farm > www.agriventure.com
• Herrsching Seminar (organised by German ministry) = International Rural Youth Seminar with participants from all over the world > www.international-herrsching-seminar.de
• WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) = stay and learn about organic farms, while volunteering in exchange for food and lodging > www.wwoof.org/
• Service Civil International > www.sciint.org & Alliance of Voluntary Organisations > www.alliance-network.org & Youth Action for peace > www.yap.org = Short term volunteer work camps in international groups in projects all over the world - also in rural projects.

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