TIRANA/SARAJEVO/SKOPJE – The Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) is organizing a series of national annual events across the region aiming to present its achievements in 2020 and plans for the upcoming year. The events are organized within a regional campaign A Better Region Starts with YOUth supported by the Federal Republic of Germany.
The first local annual event that gathered almost 70 participants was organized in Tirana, Albania on Thursday, 24 December, while the events in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina that gathered almost 60 participants and in Skopje, North Macedonia that gathered almost 90 participants were organized on Monday, 28 December 2020. The annual events in Kosovo*, Montenegro and Serbia will be organized in the upcoming days.
“With these six local annual events, RYCO wishes to foster relationships with more than 300 key stakeholders from the Western Balkans with the aim of making a true change in the region. As our slogan and the campaign’s title say, we deeply believe that a better region starts with YOUth. Join us in this mission,” RYCO Director of Programs Mr Jan Zlatan Kulenović outlined.
One and a half hour events are gathering RYCO partners and supporters – governments, international organizations, civil society, schools, media representatives but most importantly, young people. During the discussions with them, RYCO is focusing on exploring the fields for improving already good cooperation with the stakeholders on the local level.
Through three panel discussions, the events are answering the question why a better starts with youth and how RYCO is delivering its programs on the local level, putting a focus on more than 100 projects supported with more than 2,500,000 euros. The second panel discussion is presenting personal experiences from the youth exchanges from perspectives of youth, civil society and youth workers. Finally, the final panel is outlining the plans and activities of RYCO for 2021. The plans include the implementation of twelve projects supported within the fourth RYCO Open Call for Project Proposals, first volunteer exchanges and launching of the volunteer platform ROUTE WB6, supporting young social entrepreneurs within the RISE project, launching a new three-year RYCO school to school exchange program, launching a digital youth platform and numerous activities on the local levels implemented by the six RYCO Local Branch Offices.
The local annual events are followed with the media briefings for the media representatives where RYCO presents possible ways of cooperation between RYCO and media, informs media representatives on RYCO’s mission, vision and programs but also introduces media representatives to RYCO’s communication and local branch offices’ staff.
Finally, within the campaign supported by the Federal Republic of Germany, RYCO is organizing a give-away. If you are a young person between 15 and 30 years old, don’t miss a chance to win a hoody, t-shirt and a protective face mask. Click the button below to take a part in the give-away.
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*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.