Our exchanges

CIU develops and runs the exchange programmes Sweden World Youth (SWY) and Youth Partners in Development (YPD). The exchanges are carried out in cooperation with organisations in Cambodia, Costa Rica, India and Thailand and are aimed at young persons (17 – 26 years old) who want to live and work close together with young persons from other cultures. Each exchange is 6 months long, where 3 months is spend in Sweden and 3 months in one our countries of cooperation. All the exchanges involve participants from both countries. All participants live in host families and do voluntary work at a local work placement.

Sweden World Youth (SWY)

The SWY program is an exchange between Sweden and Thailand, India and Costa Rica and is for young people between 17 and 23 years old. In the SWY exchange the participants have two facilitators with them at all times during the whole exchange, one from each country. The project management hires the facilitator. The role of the facilitator is to coordinate the exchange and help the participants during the exchange.

Thailand
In Thailand the theme is “sustainable entrepreneurship and rural development”. The organization that CIU collaborates with is called Community Development Department (CDD), which is an authority under the Ministry of Interior . (www.cdd.go.th/eng/cdic.php).

India
CIU's partner in India is ICDE, based in Bangalore. ICDE runs a number of volunteer programs and will run the World Youth program with CIU for the first time in 2009. The focus will be on social work with marginalised people.


Costa Rica
In Costa Rica the theme is “sustainable tourism”. The partner organisation is Asociación de Volontariado, Investigación y Desarollo Ambiental (VIDA), which works with environmental questions and sustainable development (www.vida.org).

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Youth Partners in Development (YPD)

The YPD program takes place in Sweden and Cambodia or Zambia and the participants are between 21 and 26 years old. In YPD there is no facilitator like in the SWY exchange. The participant therefore needs to take more responsibility for issues that may arise during the exchange. In each province there is a coordinator who is responsible for the exchange at a local level and also a contact person for the participants during their time in the region.

Cambodia
In Cambodia CIU works with Khmer Youth Association (KYA). KYA is a humanitarian non-political party, non-governmental and partisan organization working in the area of human resources development, gender, human rights, environment and democratic development. (www.kya-cambodia.org)

Zambia

In Zambia CIU works with Youth Association of Zambia (YAZ). YAZ is a Non-Profit organization whose major objective is to improve the living standard of the youth and children in Zambia. It was formed in 1994. YAZ operates in 6 provinces namely Lusaka, Central, Eastern, Copper belt, North Western and Southern provinces of Zambia.