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Meet the new students from the Global Studies Programme

Bidur Tamang, 21 years old from Nepal

My big dream is to be a big businessman and to contribute with good social work in my society. I also wish to visit all countries of the world.

My small hopes are to complete my further education in Denmark, learn Danish language and improve my English skills.

My main concern is that it will require hard work to get International degree and learn about Danish language and culture.

My main interests and hobbies are table tennis, football,music, travelling and making friend with people from different cultures. I can speak Korean language and Nepalese food.

Emma Honoré, 18 years old from the United States

I just graduated from high school last June, and I will start university in the autumn, studying international business.

My small hopes are to travel around Europe this spring and to practice my Danish.

My big dreams are to become a film producer and to be fluent in Spanish, French, Danish and Portuguese. I enjoy singing, playing badminton, and travelling. I am especially good at cooking omelets.

Sophie Gram, 18 years old from Canada

I'm a tap dancer and student from Vancouver, Canada.

I graduated from high school in June and have not yet decided what I want to study but I'm hoping to figure that out during my stay in Denmark.

Above all I dream to spend a few years of my life traveling the world, learning about different cultures and languages.I dream of becoming fluent in at least four languages by the time I'm 40. During my stay here in Denmark I hope to make a network of friends from all around the world and to at least be able to understand the Danish language, if not speak it.

Omar Abdellatif, 22 years old from Egypt

I have a big dream to develop the Agriculture Sector in Egypt by initiating sustainability projects to improve the Agriculture sector using adaptation techniques to reduce the impacts of the climate change impacts in Egypt.

My small hope is to find scholarship to complete master’s degree and to learn Danish as well as build strong environmental network with organizations in Denmark. In terms of hobbies, I love reading, music and basketball.

I have 3 year experience as a volunteering, good communication, teamwork and management skills.

Laura Buzinska, 24 years old from Latvia

I studied Asian studies at the University of Latvia.

My big dream is to create a safe place for people, where they can express themselves and develop while finding friend with like-minded people to afterword develop projects.

My small hope is to learn about global education issues, visit NGO’s who works with refugees, human rights, questions of migration, intercultural communication and integration.

My main concerns in being in Denmark are that I will miss out many things because I don’t speak the Danish language.

My main interests and hobbies are playing a Latvian folk instrument, kokle, also a bit piano and guitar. I like to discuss with people about various topics. I also like organizing events and informal workshops, and to share info about actual things and events.

Jackey Maharjan, 21 years old from Kathmandu, Nepal

I have bachelor degree in social work in Nepal and diploma in hotel management.

My big dreams are to be good parent and social worker so that I can contribute to solving the social problems in Nepal.

My small hopes are to improve my English language and to lean Danish in order to know more about Denmark.

My main concerns in are to have to able to continue my further education and to learn more about different cultures.

My main interests and hobbies are film acting, music from the 1990sand to make friends. My special skill is cooking.

Prakas Shrestha, 24 years old from Nepal

My big dreams are to be as wealthy as Bill Gates enough to help other people in need by having a successful business in which I can provide jobs to people in need. As Bill Gates, put it,” I am not a university topper but today many university toppers are my employee”.

My small hopes are to improve my English language so that I can communicate with people more effectively. The other thing is I would like to complete my business degree in Denmark and to learn Danish.

My main concerns in being in Denmark are to complete my further education and earn money to reach my big dream.

My main interests and hobbies are music, football and making friends with people from different countries.

My specials skills are repairing computers.

Monk Owen, 24 years old from Myanmar

I graduated from Phaung Daw Oo monk’s high school in 2007.

I like reading and using the internet.

My biggest dream in life is to be the president of Myanmar in the near future.

My small hope is to be a teacher and while I study in Denmark, I would love to meet the local people as well as people from all over the world to get to know more about their cultures and life.

Finally, I love to learn languages. For, sure I will lean some Danish.

Adom Christopher Silas, 26 years old from Ghana

I speak English language and a bit of Russian. I studies pharmacy in Ukraine.

My big dream is to build a modern pharmaceutical company in Ghana to help improve the health sector in Ghana and also to provide free drugs to the poor who cannot afford it.

My small dream is to expand the orphanage that my grandmother has built so that we can cater for more orphans. My main concern in being in Denmark is to learn about the Danish language and culture, make new friends and also to further my studies.

My main interest and hobbies are football, basketball and sharing of jokes with friends.

My special skill is playing football.

Ajaya Waiba, 20 years old from Nepal

I graduated hotel management.

My big dreams are to be business man.

My small hopes are to travel around Europe, learn about Danish culture and people and to improve my English skills.

My interest and hobbies are singing, dancing, traveling, visiting the new places and playing volleyball.

My special skill is to make my dear mother happy.

ZONGO Koutenga Aubin, 46 years old from Burkina Faso, teacher of English in secondary school.

I am an active member of Human Rights Movement in Burkina Faso. I have experience in Mediation and Facilitation work in my country. I joined Crossing Borders Global Studies to prepare myself for Master’s degree.

My present stay in Denmark will help improve my English skills while I meet many people and earn a living awareness of different cultures as a living awareness of current international issues.

I am fluent in French and some basic German in addition to Moore, my mother tongue. I like spending my free time debating on current issues with friends.

My greatest lifelong project is to found a High School wherein Human Rights and global issues will be the most appreciated common subjects for teachers and learners.

Dinesh Gurung, 22 years old from Nepal,

loves to discover the world, with great sense of humor and can’t stop playing table tennis.

Linh Nguyen, 30 years old from Viet Nam,

with degree in hotel management, loves to travel around the world, very open mind and want to learn new things, exchange cultures, love nature especially, Scandinavian.

Dolakanta Lamichhane, 26 years old from Nepal,

has keen interest in learning about new cultures and language and European life and culture. Dolakanta loves sports.

“Toward Better Teaching Methods on the Arab World”

For the first time, Crossing Borders organized a special conference for Danish high school teachers. Titled “Toward Better Teaching Methods on the Arab World”, the conference was held on the 14th of March 2013 in Copenhagen. The aim was to provide an update and relevant knowledge toward improved teaching methods in high schools about the Arab world in light of the popular uprising for democracy, which has been raging since 2011. For this purpose, Crossing Borders invited experts from Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Ireland and Denmark to share their knowledge and perspectives with Danish teachers and civil society representatives. Lsebeth Krogh, Director of the Danish Center for Culture and Development Cooperation, opened the conference. Ms. Krogh’s remarks were followed with a keynote speech by the Irish expert Dr. Oliver McTernan and presentations and panel dialogue among the five guest speakers and with the teachers. After the panel debate, the teachers worked in thematic groups to develop teaching materials. The materials are being compiled into a handbook with a documentary video to be available online and on Ipad publication and distributed among the teachers.

Check out some of the photos from the event at: https://plus.google.com/photos/101923527184309370475/albums/5855696515925712961/5855696633064950482?banner=pwa

Youth Climate Ambassadors at Climate Festival in Cairo

On the 16th of April our Youth Climate Ambassadors (YCA) from Egypt held a climate festival in Cairo. The DEMENA Youth Climate Ambassadors Programme is in cooperation with CONCITO, Wadi Environmental Science Center (Egypt) and Masar Center (Jordan). YCA’s connected to WESC arranged a climate festival as part of this programme.

The festival took place in a small section of the beautiful Azhar Park in Cairo. Various climate organisations from Egypt were represented here at stands within the festival area. Among these were 350.org, Masar Center, Egyptian Sustainable Urbanism, Spirit of youth Association for Environmental Service and many more. Thus, a constructive event was created, for networking among climate organisations in Egypt as well as standing together for climate with the participants.

YCA MenaTullah Reda started off the event on stage, explaining the agenda and the background of partner organizations. WESC, Masar Center, Crossing Borders and CONCITO were then presented by their respective representatives. This was followed by a short introduction from all the attending organisations, explaining their functions in Cairo. A number of learning circles were organised with different facilitators, among these the Innovation Cup winners, academics and project coordinators. Thus, making positive use of the resource of personalities that have been part of the programme. The circles worked as a dialogue based learning space and participants had very differentiated ages and backgrounds. The day was finalized with a performance from an Egyptian hip-hop band that had great support among the participants. Throughout the day almost a hundred people visited the event, either checking out the stands and/or participating in the learning circles.

Two National Climate Ambassadors from Jordan that were trained in Salt last year took part in the event, explaining the activities of Masar Center at its stand. Also YCA Ehabiddean Jayyusi took part in the event, representing the programme and translating from Arabic to English. The Egyptian YCA’s expressed relieved emotions about the ending of the programme, since the activity level for them had been great. Though in a positive way, they where remembering the good and bad times, which are an inevitable part of such a process. While visiting Tahir Square with YCA Amena Adel I was told that the process had been difficult due to the political situation in Egypt the last few years. As she expressed, “it’s difficult to facilitate and encourage people and friends to take part in climate work, when friends are being violated and killed on the street”. Nevertheless the YCA’s from Egypt have done good activities and all YCA’s seems to have great political proactive attitudes, both concerning climate change as well as politics in general, which is visible in their activities. As YCA Rana Elmeligy puts it, “being part of this programme is the closest I’ll get to being active within the civil society. Now that the programme is ending I have to engage to a new programme, because I have to engage myself in climate change”.

Climate Solutions across Borders

The climate threat is a global issue. Nature is not connected to an artificial borderline and the outcomes of negative climate impact do not stay within it either. Though powerful international institutions aim to settle on agreements, it seems that agreements will only be adopted to satisfy national interests and as long as it doesn’t reduce national competitiveness. Thus, climate change affects the entire globe, however solutions are dealt with, within the national arena. These factors serve as counteracting components. The DEMENA programme has aimed to deal with this problem, to deal with climate solutions across borders in empowering an organisation formed of local people, thus combining development, dialogue and climate. The combination of developments and climate has, in practical terms, possibilities of both counteracting, as well as complementing each other.

On the 27th of February Crossing Borders had arranged the themed evening, Climate-solutions across borders as part of the DEMENA climate ambassadors programme. This event sought to discuss the above mentioned subjects, how to take action on solutions that are not nationally rooted and sharing experience of climate solutions that goes beyond the national arena. During the event, there were presentations from Thomas Meinert Larsen (Klimabevægelsen) and Peter With (IBIS, Folkekirkens Nødhjælp, CARE etc.), who gave their take on the Climate challenges anno 2013, solutions and challenges as well as combining developments and climate. Climate ambassador Omar Latif from Egypt also presented his experiences from Egypt and gave an insight on the activities being done by the ambassadors in Egypt in the aftermath of the DEMENA programme and the Arab spring.

More than 30 young people participated, all with an interest in the field of climate and development. Participants from both Crossing Borders and also from other NGO’s amongst them IBIS participated and exchanged ideas. Besides being an event that focuses on the DEMENA activities and the platform we have created in order to embed climate and dialogue, the event also served to invite likeminded individuals for future initiatives. From the event a mailing list has been created for sharing future ideas, events and meeting.

See photos:

https://plus.google.com/photos/101923527184309370475/albums/5849774213063214849?banner=pwa

Meet the new members of CB board

At the General Assembly in November Crossing Borders members elected the new Board members. The new members are: Søren Sønderstrup, Rosa Dich and Asbjørn Petersen and Inger Sarborg.

Søren Sønderstrup is a teacher in Current International Affairs at Krogerup Højskole and Culture and Communication at Malmö University. He has a background from the Ministry of Social Affairs. Søren is the founder of the NGO ‘C4C’. His reason for standing for the Board elections was that he wishes to engage in more trainings focusing on participatory engagement and democracy.

Asbjørn Petersen has been a Board member for nearly 9 years. He helped Crossing Borders to develop a strong network with the major Danish high schools. His role in the Board is to keep the ideas on track. He believes in the importance of an open society, free of prejudices and full of dialogue.

Inger Sarborg is a teacher at Rungsted Gymnasium in History, Drama and English. She has a degree in didactics and she is going to teach Chinese teachers about Danish teaching methods. She has started up a Global Society class at the gymnasium and wishes to work with CB on strengthening the organizational network with more gymnasiums around Denmark.

Rosa Dich is a Project Coordinator at the Danish Refugee Council

Overconsumption and Solidarity – action and reaction

Crossing Borders is part of 3-year consortium project called “Overconsumption and Solidarity”. The project elaborates on the ecological impact that the overconsumption in developed countries have over the process of development in Amazon region and sub-Sahara Africa.

The aim in the project is to increase awareness, critical understanding and competence of citizens of 8 of the European countries with regard to Europe’s responsibility for the social and ecological impact of its overconsumption on development in the Amazon region and sub-Saharan Africa. The main activities of the project include exhibition on examples of climate change victims in all partner countries including Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Peru, Niger and Burkina Faso as well as in the 8 European countries.

Crossing Borders is organizing exposition on the impact of climate change on the Beech trees in Denmark and ice melt in Greenland. CB will also host partner meetings and visitors from Peru and Burkina Faso. In addition we are taking part in a study tour to Peru.

The meeting in Doha came across a sandstorm!

“The Doha COP caravan is lost in a sandstorm. There is not enough ambition here,” said Ronny Jumeau, ambassador on climate change for the Seychelles, representing the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). “We can’t be in a situation a few years from now where some countries say economic circumstances prevent them from meeting their pledges,” Jumeau said at a press briefing.

The long expected climate meeting in Doha did not bring any proper solution on how to lower the carbon footprint and how to assign finances to help the less developed economies to protect themselves against the rising sea levels, storms, droughts and other damaging climate change impacts.

It seems that many of the governments have a short-term memory loss. Only $23.6bn of the promised in 2009 $100bn for a Green Climate Fund has so far been delivered ahead of a deadline at the end of this year. This so-called "fast-start finance" was meant to kick-start global climate funding efforts. However, according to the International Institute for Environment and Development, the majority of fast-start finance has come in the form of loans, which poorer countries will have to repay with interest. This jeopardizes the whole idea of such a fund...

The UK committed a further £1.5bn of finance yesterday, and while more is expected to come from European countries, the UK's pledge is currently the only formal post-2012 funding commitment to be made at the negotiations.

The US, which has mobilised about $7.5bn over the past three years, has yet to state what it will commit from next year, although senior officials have indicated new funding will be delivered. "We have every intention to continue pressing forward with funding of that same kind of level, to the greatest extent that we can," Todd Stern, the senior State Department diplomat at the talks, said at a briefing.

So far, only the EU and Australia have agreed to new carbon commitments, leaving 85 per cent of the world's emissions – including the planet's biggest polluters, China and the US – outside a new deal aimed at keeping global average temperature rise below 2ºC. Russia is also thought to be backing away from the 25 per cent emissions reduction target it announced at the Rio +20 conference over the summer towards a range of 15 per cent and 25 per cent.

The finances were the core of the problem in the summit. The "rich" countries are in a self-inflicted monetary and fiscal mess, the "developing" countries are still developing and are not willing to share even a tiny bit of their GDP for a Green Climate Fund and the "poor" countries cannot change the status quo simply because they lack the finances...

Barbara Kux, a member of the Board at Siemens and its Chief Sustainability Officer, said, "Finance is not the bottleneck, technology is not the bottleneck, businesses are not the bottleneck. There is one bottleneck and that's policy."

THE BIG MISSING on the discussion table - food insecurity!

Qatar may be one of the richest countries in the world, but it has something in common with its African counterparts – food insecurity. This Middle-Eastern oil-producing nation imports 90 percent of its food because it is a dryland country.

Climate Analytics, along with Germany’s Pik Potsdam Institute, prepared the World Bank report “Turn Down the Heat” that warns many parts of the world won’t be able to grow food if global temperatures rise by four degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit).

The report also warns humanity is on the path to a four-degree-C world, a world with unprecedented heat waves, severe drought, and major floods, with serious impacts on ecosystems and agriculture.

A four-degree-warmer C world means an average of four to 10 degrees warming over land, too warm for many crucial food crops. Large parts of Africa, China, India, Mexico and the southern United States will suffer declines for that reason, said Schaeffer. There will also be significant changes in rainfall patters and higher evaporation levels. GioTTo

Learning Spaces Pictures

International Day Pictures

Global Studies students get inspired!

To get inspired could be a difficult task, but it is the first step to creating a better World. Crossing Borders Global Studies students don’t seem to have problems with finding their muses. After finishing a semester at Krogerup most of the participants are getting out there full of energy for starting new incentives.

Kalifa Kanteh was a Global Studies student in 2010. After finishing his education in Denmark he went back to Gambia with fresh ideas and founded the community-based organization called "Young People without Borders", which aims to encourage youth to take an active part in their own development. Their latest project involved a bottle house resource centre built from used plastic bottles. 1,920 bottles used for the unusual building were collected from local households. More about the project, its implementation and results can be found at:

http://observer.gm/africa/gambia/article/bottle-house-resource-centre-inaugurated

Wojoud Mejalli is an activist, feminist and journalist. She was born in Yemen and from a young age she dedicated her life to creating the idealistic world she believes in. Wojoud recived the Bjønson Academy prize for peace activists (http://www.bjornsonakademiet.no). In the spring of 2011 she attended the Global Studies program at Krogerup. Now she is working on setting up a communal radio through Crossing Borders.

Education for all

Ali Ibrahim from Ghana was one of the international students who came to study at Krogerup College in autumn 2011. Crossing Borders supported him with a partial scholarship and a return flight ticket to Ghana. The course provided him with the knowledge and experience he needed to continue the project on which he was working in Ghana. Ibrahim established an NGO school 'Youth For Change' in 2009. For the success of the project, he needed more knowledge, assistance and above all international volunteers to help.

Youth For Change (YFC) is a registered, rural, non-profit childhood development center whose core objective is providing quality education to both privileged and less privileged children in Ghana. In addition, it also provides one nutritional meal per day and the current enrolment exceeds 200.

When asked about the project, Ibraham said:

‘I am happy to report that, the meetings and the presentations I have made to promote "Education for all" are yielding positive results. The program received support from Rungsted Kyst Gimnasium and Virum School in the form of the donation of educational materials (computers, books, etc.). In addition, we have a couple of Danish volunteers helping with the project. Last but not least, Youth For Change has developed a strong partnership with the organisation, "Danish 100% to Children".

Crossing Borders Global Studies is a wonderful program and I encourage anybody to pursue it because it opens venues for personal, community, national and international development and co-operation.’

Information on the project and opportunities for supporting YFC can be found at the following websites and blogs.

www.yfceducation.org

http://tonjegoesglobalghana.blogspot.com

http://change4changes.blogspot.com

http://www.rungsted-gym.dk/om_rungsted_gymnasium/aktuelt/nyhed/artikel/rungsted_gymnasium_stoetter_skoleprojekt_i_ghana/

http://crossingborders.dk/page5.aspx?recordid5=46

Study trip - Experiencing Sustainable Denmark

The two-week trip, called "Sustainable Denmark 2012", took CB Global Studies students currently studying at Krogerup College to places like Hallingelille Ecovillage in Ringsted, Ærø, Århus, Friland Ecovillage and Samsø. The 16 students of this semesters' Global Studies come from across the world, from places such as Morocco, South Korea, Kenya and Canada. On the trip, they had the chance to see firsthand several sustainable initiatives across Denmark, which included: going inside a windmill; looking at solar heating systems; and doing hands-on work in ecovillages, such as harvesting onions, and cycling around Samsø from North to South. In the evenings, the students cooked food together from their respective home countries, a special aspect of the trip together. The weather in Denmark can be quite cold in October, but the most hard-core of the students even swam in the ocean outside Samsø!

Now, the students are back at Krogerup Folk High School and are working on their presentations about the study trip.

Voices of youth - Voices from Ghana!

The VOICES OF YOUTH 2012 conference ran from the 30th of October to the 1st of November, as a three-day conference launching the ‘youth manifesto’. The manifesto was produced after long consultations in debates, over radio and online, through a highly inclusive process. It now takes form as a tool, for youth participation and advocacy, equipping youth with good arguments, and promoting youth issues so that they are reflected powerfully on the political agenda.

Elections will be coming up in December. The youth will this time be more coordinated and at the conference were discussing exactly why a cohesive youth front is important in Ghana. For the first time the youth are acting together, with a strong voice. They will make noise to get attention - but they will do it in a qualified and constructive manner, based on a new youth coalition and the youth manifesto. That is the difference the project aims to see happening – all the while under the slogan “A new era of youth participation for development in Ghana”.

Camilla from CB was in Ghana, representing CB at the conference. In December Garba and Camilla will be present at the elections, in the YES Ghana Youth Relay Centre, where, again, young people will be forming the Voices of Youth. Look out for the youth in Ghana--they are ready to make some noise! Follow the project at www.voicesofyouth.org

School visit in Rungsted High School

September 27th was a special day at Rungsted High School. The school hosted its annual Global Camp Day in cooperation with Risskov and Slagelse High Schools. The event program consisted of debates, workshops and lectures.

Students and volunteers from Crossing Borders were opened the event with a creative and fun workshop for 85 high schoolers. They ‘broke the ice’ with singing and dancing. Next was the roleplay game ‘Can I Come In?’, where students learned what is it like to be an asylum seeker. Each of the 80+ Danish high schoolers were assigned different roles in this simulation refugee camp. Students had the chance to experience the fear that refugees feel, to face the dilemma that border agency workers have, and to be journalists struggling to get the most accurate story.

The workshop finished with a debate led by Crossing Borders Global Studies students Kati and Jennybe. The students from Rungsted, Risskov and Slagelse High Schools shared their feelings and impressions about the game. All in all, the students came a little closer to understanding what it feels like to be a refugee, and many of them demonstrated increasing interest in the issue.

Find pictures from the event at: http://crossingborders.dk/News.5.aspx?recordid5=78

Personal identity and diversities Seminar in Cyprus

On 13-22 July the small village of Agros, Cyprus hosted the 52 participants of the ‘European Triple Leaders’ youth exchange project. The participants were from three countries – Denmark, Poland and Cyprus. The objectives of the project were to raise awareness of one’s own identity and culture and to cross borders to others’ traditions, languages and mentalities by involving actively with groups from different countries. One of the Crossing Border members said:

‘I´ve learned to be open-minded and really consider how you express yourself towards other people with different backgrounds.’

Read full reflections of CB Members about the seminar at: http://crossingborders.dk/News.5.aspx?recordid5=76

Youth and Social Media – New Ways to Social Action Seminar in Holland

Intercultural understanding and acceptance of diversity were the focus of the seminar "Youth and Social Media: New Ways to Social Action" in Bant, Holland from the 17-22 September. Participants from Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria came together to use blogging, videos and even graffiti to express their views, get involved and promote greater awareness about discrimination issues across Europe. One of the Danish participants, AJ, had this to say about the seminar:

"Holland was a week filled with cultures, as surprising as it sounds. I met some marvellous people who managed to blow me away. It's amazing how everytime I attend a seminar I always manage to be surprised considering the fact that I've tried it before, and I have always formed an image in my head of how it will be. In Holland we learned how to use the social media and run campaigns and what strategies to use to get the best outcome. It's amazing how diverse we all were in the group but in the end we were all fighting for the same cause - a better place, locally and globally."

 Check out photos from the seminar!

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