INTERKULTURELLE KREATIVWERKSTATT SOLOTHURN

Youth Exchange“Intercultural Paintings 2013”

April 14th – 24rd 2013 Tbilisi, Georgia

INFO PACK

About the EXCHANGE PROJECT 2013

For the first time, from 14 April to 24 April 2013, the “Intercultural Creative Factory Solothurn” (Interkulturelle Kreativwerkstatt Solothurn) http://www.schrift-bilder.ch/en/workcamp organizes in cooperation with the League of Young Voluntary Georgian (LYVG) www.lyvg-georgia.org an international exchange project for 10 days with young people aged 18–25 from 5 various countries in Caucasus/ Georgia/Tbilisi.

We have 25 participants from 5 countries:

Switzerland The interkulturelle KreativwerkstattGeorgia The League of Young Voluntary Georgian (LYVG)Armenia Voluntary Service of Armenia (HUJ) Latvia Art Academy of Latvia (Riga)Belgium Service Volontaire International (SVI)

The interkulturelle Kreativwerkstatt Solothurn is the name of a small union of local artists, working in the region of Solothurn. There is a writer, a photographer, a painter, a guitarist and off-and-on some other artists working together on different projects like performances, expositions etc. The Creative Workshop was awarded the 2002 prize by the Regiobank Solothurn and the 2003 prize “conTAKT’03” given by Migros Cultural Percentage.

LYVG is a national Georgian Coordinator Host/Send-Organization of International Exchange Voluntary programs and official partner of ALLIANCE www.alliance-network.eu. The main programs in which LYVG is involved are: coordinating international youth volunteer exchanges (short-term, mid-term and long-term); organizing seminars, trainings, conferences, study tours on both national and international; elaborating work of the local volunteers on social and cultural projects.

The intercultural art workshop is a special exchange project to work with kids, for which we seek the help of international volunteers. The idea of the project is the create painting with texts written in different languages. 25 young people, artists from 5 different countries can to share their artistic ideas through these texts and to be able to understand the diversity which is bringing richness to the society, to let touch by the art and to start an intercultural dialogue between the international groups of volunteers, the artists, the kids and the local public.

Volunteers paint their texts using various techniques on canvas.

INTERKULTURELLE KREATIVWERKSTATT SOLOTHURN

The Georgian children are looking forward to meeting international volunteers in the workshop and to working with them. At the end of the project volunteers will help to organize an exposition show their art to the public. The paintings will be sold and the money will be used to initiate further projects aiming to enhance intercultural dialogue. Volunteers work 6 hours a day, no work on weekends.

INTERKULTURELLE KREATIVWERKSTATT SOLOTHURN

ACCOMMODATION & FOOD

Participants will stay in Tbilisi, at the “Center of Rehabilitation and Adaptation” AISI www.aisi.ge.The beneficiaries of the Center are the children and adolescents with mild and moderate learning disability. In 2001 the joint effort of partners and professionals has found the Union “AISI” Centre of Rehabilitation and Adaptation, which targeted to support the social integration of adolescents with disabilities and building an equal society in Georgia. The centre can provide 4 bed-rooms with 4 toilette, 1 big kitchen and 2 bath-rooms (hot water, central heating). In the room of the staff there is a computer connected to internet. The house is big enough to gather all of the participants. There are no beds in the house. During the project time you will sleep on your foam mattress in your sleeping bag, so please don’t forget them. The participants are responsible for their own cleaning the rooms and the bathrooms each day and need to respect the host’s house rules. Please bring towels as well.

Food will be provided for everyone. In the house there is a big kitchen with all the necessary equipment for cooking. We are going to cook by ourselves and eat in the house as well. The participants will have the opportunity to build international or maybe just national teams who will be responsible for the cooking during the whole exchange; just they will be divided in different days. We kindly encourage you to bring your ideas about different meals from your countries, to exchange recipes and share something from your traditional kitchens. We will reserve at least one evening per each country to prepare traditional dinner.

Please discus in your groups about the meals that you want to prepare and make a list of all the ingredients and grocery that you going to need, so when you come here we will go together with each group in the supermarket to buy all those things. We are covering the expenses for the food. You are also welcome to bring some specific food from your country that cannot be found here in Georgia.

We are going to make a schedule for cleaning the kitchen too, so all the participants will be assign with this task in some of the days.

THE VENUE – LOCATION

TBILISI (Tiflis) is the capital of Georgia, was founded in the 4th century by King Vakhtang Gorgasali on the site of its warm mineral-water springs. Tbilisi is an awe-inspiring city with ancient and fascinating history. It is a lively town with friendly people, that offers many cultural and leisure activities.The old town has many historical and picturesque buildings.

Take a look:www.de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiflis; http://www.georgien.bilder-album.com/index.php

The AISI house address: 3 Larsi str., Tbilisi (Tiflis), Georgia

The venue is just 10 minutes from the city center.

LANGUAGE

The official language that will be used during the youth exchange will be English. Because of this, all the participants need to know the language really good in order to be able to communicate with the others. We leave the responsibility of the group leaders to choose the participants taking in consideration this fact. The local Georgian language may be hard to understand for people speaking English, French, German and Russian.

INTERKULTURELLE KREATIVWERKSTATT SOLOTHURN

SPARE TIME ACTIVITIES & DAILY LIFE

The social aspect of the project is very important. The project is an intensive group-living life experience. You will be able to live with many people from different parts of Europe for 10 days in one house. This will provide you with the opportunities to learn many things about the other cultures, go out in the evenings with them, talk on different topics etc.

The people in charge of this project are particularly interested in an intercultural exchange with the participants and want to offer you not only worthwhile volunteer work but also a unique experience in Georgia. You will also spend some evenings socializing with the person in charge at ART WORKSHOP.

During the weekends we are going to organize few excursions to some interesting places near Tbilisi.

WEATHER

In April there is usually nice and warm/hot weather, but there can be rainy and colder days, too. In Georgia the weather changes in spring really quickly, so we advise you also to take some rain coats, umbrellas and warm clothes for any case.

WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU?

- Texts in your language you want to work with (can be proverbs, phrases that you usually use in your country, poems, and typical sayings for some topics like: love, health, happiness etc.) This will be the material that can help you later when you will draw the paintings in which you will have to include some text like

- Sleeping bag and mattresses (during the project time you will sleep on your mattress in your sleeping bag, so please don’t forget them)

- International Insurance policy or European Health card (or E111)- Passport / ID (depending on where you come from & official invitation letter)- Your travel documents- Pocket money (we will provide everything else )- Old work clothes (we don’t want you to make dirty your nice clothes, so bring some old ones)- Good working shoes (in which you will feel comfortable for work and for the house)- Sun hat (the weather can be unpredictable)- Adapters for the electrical plugs in Georgia: type of plugs / sockets C 220 V 50 Hz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country- Toiletries and towels - Pictures (copies) of your own art work (to show fellow participants etc.)- Games- Positive energy and enthusiasm - …and anything else you would normally bring along to a camp.

COSTS and TRAVEL DETAILS

The only costs that the participants need to pay are the 30% of the travel costs, NOTHING MORE!!! There is no participation fee or any other fee that participants need to pay to the organization. All the other costs like: food, accommodation, local transport in Gergia and 70% of the travel will be covered by the project. So keep this in mind because is really wonderful opportunity for young people.

BOOKING YOUR FLIGHT TICKETSAll the groups from each country must book/buy their flights latest 1st April 2013.

Please book/buy your flights to Georgia as soon as possible in order to get the cheaper offers. You may take ONLY round trip flights from your home country to Georgia and back.

Please contact us for the price of your ticket before booking them.

INTERKULTURELLE KREATIVWERKSTATT SOLOTHURN

We will be expecting the names of participants and the booked flights with the e-tickets and invoices to email: tbilisi84@rambler.ru

Reimbursement of travel expenses

Participants can get their travel expenses reimbursed according to the general rules of the Youth in Action Programme, meaning 70% of travel costs. You have to take return tickets from home place to Tbilisi (depends of mean of transportation). The tickets must be 2nd class economy tickets. Please contact us for the price of your ticket before booking them.

The best way is to buy the tickets together as group. Your group leader can arrange this with all of participants so the transfer later will be on one account. But also each of the participants can be reimbursed separately on his/her bank account.

Reimbursement will be done ONLY through bank transaction upon presenting original tickets together with all the boarding passes, bills, invoices and receipts AFTER returning in your home countries. We will not be able to reimburse any travel costs that are not covered with receipts and invoices because those are the rules of our National Agency.

Regarding this, you will have to provide us with your bank details:

1. Name and address of your bank2. Account Holder’s Name and Surname3. Address of the account holder4. Account Number5. SWIFT and IBAN

ARRIVALS AND MEETING POINT IN TBILISI

All the participants have to arrive in Georgia on Sunday 14 th April 2013. We will wait for you at the airports Tbilisi or bus/train stations.

If you cannot be there at the meeting point on time, please let us know as soon as possible and tell us when you will arrive in Georgia. But please respect the date 14th August 2013.

HOW TO ARRIVE IN TBILISI?

Official Lari (GEL) exchange rates s. Georgian money/National Bank of Georgia www.nbg.gov.ge (1 Euro = 2.20 Gel).

HEALTH & INSURANCE

In Georgia it is mandatory everyone to have health insurance. Insurance is not covered by the organizer, so participants need to arrange this on their own. In cases of emergency where medical services are needed, if the participant need to go to doctor and does not have insurance, all the costs will have to cover by him/her-self. Discuss your own particular needs and contraindications to vaccines or tablets with your doctor or practice nurse before departure, if needed. Make sure you have adequate travel health insurance and accessible funds to cover the cost of any medical treatment abroad. Medical services for uninsured people in Georgia cost a lot

Get additional information on “health & travel issues” when preparing for the trip first in your own country with your doctor. Here you might find some helpful information: http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/europe/georgia Don’t drink tap water. Bottled water is widely available.

If you need emergency medical assistance during your trip, dial 033 from a landline or 112 from a mobile and ask for an ambulance.

DEPARTURE

INTERKULTURELLE KREATIVWERKSTATT SOLOTHURN

All participants need to leave the place on 25rd April 2013. Please reserve your return plane bus/train tickets in coordination with the schedule. We cannot stay longer in the house because we have reserved it for this period of time only.

If you plan to stay longer in Georgia, please take care for booking other place by yourself in advance. There are many nice places and also cheap ones that you can find on web.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any additional information for the youth exchange, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Service Volontaire International8/142 Boulevard de la Woluwe

1932 Woluwe Saint EtienneBelgium

Tel : +32 2 888 67 13info@servicevolontaire.orgwww.servicevolontaire.org

LOOKING FORWARD TO MEET YOU ALL SOON IN GEORGIA