Summit Netherlands, march 2004

The pilot for the youth summits was held at Fort Sabina, Willemstad, the Netherlands. 30 students, 11 and 12 years old, participated from the Freinet school, Delft, the Netherlands.

Focus of the day: Practical solutions in crisis areas/locations.

Criteria the students had to use as a given:

1. Infrastructure of the localities is destroyed
2. Wounded individuals have to be taken care of and brought to a safe location
3. How to deal with the leadership and communication within the crisis area
4. Ensure safe and adequate distribution of provided goods and assistance from outside sources
5. Develop recommendations in regards to the provided assistance in the crisis area

Activities:

Confront participants with practical problems to be the foundation for the thinking process of recommendations developed. Students must experience themselves the effect of lack of materials and experience. They also must understand that leadership and communication is of the essence.

Evaluation and conclusions of the actual event:

The goals and objectives of the day were met. The students had a great learning experience. They all very actively participated during the day and their presentations at the end of the day showed the insight and ideas of the students. They were involved in the process at all times, showed a great understanding of the presented issues and provided the facilitators with the insight that the format of the program had worked successfully.

Reactions provided by the students and school leadership alike showed that all considered the day a great success. Months later the pictures of the day are still up on the wall and subject to many discussions and lessons learned. They also highly appreciated the provided T-shirts as proof of their successful day dealing with these unknown problems. The request was received to conduct a follow-up day in 2005.

top