On Saturday, March 17th 2012, « Le Forum des Initiatives Jeunes » – Youth Initiatives Forum, initiated by Animafac, took place in Paris. This initiative stems from the observation that negative prejudices about young people remain in French society. They are seen as egoistic, lazy, only thinking of getting drunk and having fun. The idea was to prove them wrong by showing how creative, involved, and enthusiastic the French youth can be. The creativity, the involvement, and the enthusiasm of the youth in France. That is why all French citizens and residents were invited on that day to come and discover the Associative Village, while young artists performed entertaining live shows.
AEGEE-Paris? “Present!”
Of course AEGEE-Paris had to be there and they came in high number, managing to get a stand in a very strategic place. Furthermore, the event was attended by one member of AEGEE-Lyon, and two members of AEGEE-Toulouse were also present. The involved spent two nights in a bus in order to be there, and they say that it was definitely worth it! This was a big event for AEGEE in France because it attracted many young people and therefore helped the involved antennae to attract new members, but mainly because it made them visible to the other French non-governmental organisations, as well as to the French political world. Indeed, Bertrand Delanoë (cf. picture above) came to congratulate the representatives, saying that their action is important and it is in their hands to wake up the European Union. Jack Lang, a politician from the Socialist Party, well-known in France for the initiatives he took when he was the Minister of Culture and then the Minister of Education, also passed by the stand. “One more little anecdote: as we could not hold the stand all day long, I spent the afternoon walking around with Bubulle, the mascot of AEGEE-Toulouse, and with our flag on my back. And randomly, François Hollande, the Socialist candidate for the upcoming presidential elections ran into me, and asked to see our flag! Unfortunately, I do not have a picture so you will have to trust me on this,” Pauline Létard tells The AEGEEan.
Animafac
Animafac is a network of French student associations in which AEGEE-Toulouse, AEGEE-Paris, AEGEE-Lyon, and AEGEE-Strasbourg take part. This network aims at encouraging exchanges and solidarity between student associations, since we encounter the same difficulties and are quite similar in our structure and organisation. Animafac also provides youth activists with various trainings all year long. For example, they organise an Academy in Paris every year. The last one in January was attended by several members of the above mentioned antennae and they all learned about human resources, visual identity, and financial management. They also had the opportunity to follow thematic trainings: welcoming international students and successful intercultural exchange, fighting against discrimination etc. It all taught them a lot thanks to the participation of great trainers and mainly to the possibility of exchange with the representatives of other associations about common issues and common solutions that they can resort to in their work for AEGEE.
French antennae are small but they are hyperactive! Next step is the project “Speak-Up, Bouge ton Europe” which is a project that will take participants throughout large French cities this fall. “I’m telling you, you’ll hear a lot more from us in the next few months,” Pauline ends of the article.
Written by Pauline Létard, AEGEE-Toulouse