Six experts from Uzbekistan won a deep insight of the support of disabled people in Germany right on their first day of their visit in Dortmund on Tuesday, the 18th of November.

In the town hall, in the Max-Wittmann-special school and in the occupational rehabilitation centre Dortmund (BFW) the guests met experts, who descriptively pointed out the organisational structure of work with disabled and non-disabled people and at last communicated how this work looks in everyday life.

The guests from the central Asian country have come on invitation by the IBB and the von-Bodelschwinghschen faculties of Dortmund and Bielefeld. They will occupy themselves in theory and practice with the German system of work with disabled and non-disabled people until Saturday and will travel home after a strategic discussion with the IBB on Sunday.

“How good succeeds the integration of disabled children in standard schools?” and “Which possibilities of work have adults?” were questions by the guests. In Uzbekistan, which has 27 million inhabitants, live more than 700 000 disabled people, informed us Askar Muminov, from the Ministry of Work and Social matters in Uzbekistan. First integrative institutions for children are being opened at the moment. But many of the self-governing Makhallyas in the cities urge for more emergency measures to better integrate disabled children and older people into everyday life and the working world, said Raviya Mirzaewa, project coordinator of "Professional integration of disabled people".

Our photo shows the visiting group from Uzbekistan together with Hildegard Azimi-Boedecker (first row, 2nd from left), department expert ”Job international and Migration” of the IBB, in the town hall of the city Dortmund. For their hosts in the town hall, Cornelia Irle (first row, left.) and, Christiane Vollmer (right), the guests brought handmade caps and roll boxes.

A Polish evening at the French Atlantic Ocean coastline was not only for the German participants of the eighth French-German-Polish youth conference a highlight. On July the 5th the German participants came back from the exciting, but also exhausting, youth encounter within the Regional Triangle of Weimar.

The Association for International Education and Exchange Dortmund (IBB) had organised the German participation in the department of Job international and Migration and send Linda Ebbers as group leader along the way to Northern France. Since 2004 the IBB is in charge of this annual project by order of the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The 17- to 23 year old participants met others of the same age from the partner regions of North Rhine-Westphalia: Nord-Pas de Calais (France) and Silesia (Poland) for seven days. In the Northern French resort Ambleteuse, few kilometres western from Calais, the 45 participants dedicated themselves to the subject “Migration in the enlarged Europe”.

Manifold presentations on impulse enlightened the subject – from the centuries-old history of migration in Europe up to the possible consequences of the Irish „no“ to the Lisbon treaty and possible consequences for the EU. Politicians from the three regions visited the group, among them Europe referee Dr. Christian Engel from the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia, vice marshal Zbyszek Zaborowski, responsible for international matters and culture in the region of Silesia, Europe referee Michel Grellier and Jan Olbrycht, member of the European parliament and vice president of the commission for regional development. That was not all. Even the Polish ambassador of France, his Excellency Tomasz Orlowski, as well as the German ambassador his Excellency Peter Ammon met the young people on the eighth youth conference and also Wanda Krystyna Kalinska from the Polish consulate general in Lille visited the politically interested group.

With their presentations the top-class visitors activated vivid discussions, for example about the increasing demand of regional flexibility of highly qualified specialists within Europe. The young participants brought individual experiences and variable perspectives into the conversations: The own derivation from the Iran and experiences of parents from the Senegal and Algeria. The young Polish reported about the noticeable pressure on the new EU- external border in Poland by willing immigrants from Belorussia, the Ukraine and Russia – while qualified young Polish migrate in search of work in the direction of England and Ireland.

Interesting impulses were conveyed by the presentation of an award-winning film “Lichter”. It tells about the life story of young Germans, Polish and Ukrainians, who meet in Frankfurt on the Oder and recognize, that in their life stories worlds collide. On the border river the film shows, how small the border between poverty and living, between lie and legality, between the wish for a free choice of resistance and the reality for the people beyond the EU border is.
“This film has moved many“, reports Linda Ebbers, attendant of the German group.
The manifold new experiences were assimilated by the participants in collages, sketches and mind-maps and the results were presented at the end of the week on the 4th of July at the trilateral youth conference in the Conseil Régional, the French regional parliament in Lille, where the group even had the possibility to speak to European and regional politicians.

Simultaneous translators provided for a brilliant communication during the whole week. In the leisure programme the young people enjoyed the closeness to the ocean. “Many had a first opportunity for sand sailing”, tells Linda Ebbers. At the end of the very informative week many were certain: Such an encounter would have to take place again. And also the subject migration leaves room for many points of contact for further discussions. Preliminary considerations by the political side for continuing this subject series over three years are already existent.

About the background:
The 15 German participants came from Recklinghausen, Essen, Dortmund,
Pulheim, Bonn, Nettetal, Sendenhorst, Meschede, Warendorf, Bad
Oeynhausen, Oerlinghausen, Oer-Erkenschwick and Bergkamen. They were invited by the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia, which arranged the youth encounter on the basis of the Triangle of Weimar for the eighth time.
The annual youth conference is offered by taking turns by the countries Germany, France and Poland and in Germany it is organised amongst others by the Association for International Education and Exchange (IBB) in Dortmund.
It follows on the regional level the axis of the Triangle of Weimar between the three countries, which was brought into life by the former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher together with his French and Polish counterpart Dumas and Skubiszewski, on the 28. August of 1991 in Weimar.

In 2008 for the eighth time it brought young people from former coal mining areas of Nord-Pas de Calais (France), the voivodeship Silesia (Poland) and North Rhine-Westphalia together.

Those cooperating were:

The German-French Youth Office, the German-Polish Youth Office, the IBB, the House for German-Polish Co-operation in Gliwice, the Maison de la Polonia de France in Hénin –Beaumont and the Goethe-Institut in Lille.