Events

Welthaus Education is the educational department for Welthaus Innsbruck, the network for developmental cooperation of the Innsbruck (Austria) Diocese.

We offer advice on intercultural encounters and intercultural learning for pupils, teachers and adult education instructors. We arrange contact with speakers from other cultures and hold workshops and continuing education classes.

In our "Lebensbilder" (images of life) project, we provide the opportunity for one month each year, to meet speakers of countries in which the campaign "Bruder und Schwester in Not"(brothers and sisters in need) Innsbruck (BSI) or the organization Caritas Innsbruck International (CII) support development projects.

The "Lebensbilder"project focuses on our guests' life experiences. They talk about their lives, countries and cultures from their very personal point of view. The hosts in the Tirol region (school classes or adult groups) prepare for the visit in order to ensure a successful encounter and establish a climate of hospitality.

During this project, a seminar on continuing education for teachers takes place in cooperation with the Pädagogisches Institut (institute of education) and the Religionspädagogisches Institut (institute of religious education) of the Innsbruck Diocese.

Our monthly "Weltcafé" (world café) event provides the opportunity to talk with the speakers about several topics (dialogue between religions, cooperation for development, global justice, etc.).

In addition to our Lebensbilder project , Welthaus Innsbruck will offer study trips to project partners in Africa and Latin America as of 2005. It is our goal to enlist actively committed Tiroleans to contribute to our work and to show solidarity with our partners in Africa and Latin America.

European Network against nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees

The Catholic university of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt belongs to few colleges in the Federal Republic of Germany at which the employment of Latin America forms a main focus in studies and research. The central institute founded in 1986 (ZILAS) should serve by its activities in research and apprenticeship to create the conditions for a better understanding more centrally of social areas and processes as well as more importantly cultural phenomena in history and present of the Latin American countries.

YFU is a non-profit student exchange program. They place students in over 30 countries and accommodate students from over 40 countries in Germany. For one year, students live with a host family and attend school.

In favour of a culture of understanding: What exactly is racism? How did it arise? How does it work? What can I do against it? What is my identity as a person of colour? What is a white identity in the battle against racism? We are searching for and giving answers to these questions. Our members are people of colour, black and white people from various countries in Asia, Africa and Europe.

To this end, we are offering individual counselling and training such as

• black consciousness training
• black empowerment training
• anti-racism training
• racism awareness training
• hip hop training
• seminars on intercultural competence

Additionally, our members are working on topics such as black and white identity, models of conflict resolution, development of ways of living based on equal rights in an environment of globalisation as well as interculturality and anti-racism activities.

The OeVA - Oecumenical Planing-Comittee for the Intercultural Week in Germany (ÖVA - Ökumenische Vorbereitungsausschuss) prepares the annual intercultural week (IKW) which is taking place all over the country. It recommends content focuses, suggests a theme, carries out the annual, nationwide preparatory conference  offers materials available for the preparatory groups and organizes a central nationwide inaugural event.In the EPC 15 members are appointed from the churches. Up to six additional members are coopted from institutions, organizations and socially important areas.

What is the intercultural week?
The annual intercultural week (IKW) is an initiative of the German bishops' conference (DBK - Deutschen Bischofskonferenz), the Protestant church in Germany (EKD - Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland) and the Greek-orthodox Metropolie that takes place throughout all Germany. The intercultural week is held ince 1975 at the end of September and is supported by churches, local authority districts, welfare associations, trade unions, integration advisory boards and commissioned, migrant's organizations and initiative groups. In 2016 about 5,000 events were carried out in more than 500 towns and municipalities. The Refugee Day is a component of the intercultural week.

Goals:

• Support and promotion of human rights work
• Research on human rights matters
• Promotion of human rights education
• Communication and exchange of information with other human rights organisations

We work on the local, regional and international levels to promote and defend human rights. This work includes organisation of conferences and seminars and participation in research projects, publication of documents, and educational efforts concerning human rights.

Help for Women in Africa, Asia and Latin America

The Marie Schlei Association was founded in 1984 in memory of Marie Schlei, the former German Minister for Development Policy. According to the statutes of this non-profit association, its objectives are "to promote cooperation with poor women, women's groups and organizations, to help educate and train women, to provide information about the causes of poverty and injustice and to promote equal rights for women. We inform the public about the situation of these women in order to raise and increase awareness as well as a feeling of responsibility and the willingness to help the women and therefore all people in the developing countries."

The Marie Schlei Association encourages women to create self-help projects. In the past two decades, about 300 projects have been successfully carried out in 45 different countries, from Argentina to Zimbabwe. All projects were planned and realized by local women's groups and organizations. In order for projects to be successful, the following criteria must be met: time schedules and curricula have to be adjusted to the women's daily routine. The projects have to be effective and applicable to everyday life in order to make the additional work bearable for the women. Cooking, child care, household chores, getting water and heating material – project work adds additional work to their daily responsibilities. Nevertheless, these women want and need these projects, since they offer them the only possible access to education and training and thus to their own income. Our female partners are responsible for "their projects and the management of the material required. The solidarity among women they experience also creates an atmosphere of partnership and mutual cooperation. The Marie Schlei Association works for equal opportunities and justice.

PDCS is a non-governmental organization providing professional training and facilitation services, consultancy and advisory services in areas of conflict resolution, support of dialogue in the society, citizen participation and civil society development in Slovakia and abroad.

We have been bringing to life the slogan of our organization „The Joy of Learning, Deliberation, and Change“ since 1991 when PDCS was started at the Comenius University in Bratislava as part of the international educational program of Partners for Democratic Change. In 1994, an independent PDCS foundation was established which has continued as a civic association since 1997. We are also members of the Partners Network (https://www.partnersglobal.org/) comprising 20 partner centers which share the same mission and values of democratic change.

For a long time we have worked to co-create and strengthen the democratic culture, spread participation approaches and mechanisms for dialogue and conflict prevention. We have provided help in international development programs and arranged cultured dialogue among various interest groups. We fulfill our mission by working with nonprofit organizations, public administration institutions and cross-sector partnerships. Our training courses have been attended by over 25,000 participants in Slovakia and 45 countries and regions of the world, including Abkhazia, Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kirgizstan, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Russia, Senegal, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the United States, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

PDCS also published 30 books in 8 languages.

The Afro-Asian Institute Salzburg (AAI) is a non-profit organisation with close ties to the university of Salzburg. It is financed by the public funds and the Catholic Church. The aims of the AAI are to provide educational services on development policy, to enable intercultural encounters and to promote interfaith dialogue.
The AAI is a meeting place for different cultures and religions. We show different global contexts through a varied educational and cultural program in order to raise awareness of injustices and set out development policy issues and its risks in the context of globalization. Affected individuals, as well as experts from the global South have an opportunity in our organization to take the floor. Within the framework of the AAI scholarship program, students from African, Asian and Latin American countries receive financial support, as well as a personal accompaniment and take part in our educational program.