In this Newsletter you can read about our new website, our new program for Internships and two new board members in Tanzania. We are excited to share these new developments with you and look forward to be working with you in the New Year.

NEW! ACCESS TO ONE WORLD WEBSITE
We have worked hard to launch our new website, which is now online! It highlights our Internship Program, has up-to-date information on who we are, what we do and an attractive layout. Check us on www.xs21world.nl, and find us on Facebook or Youtube.
Questions? Get in touch through info@xs21world.nl

NEW! ACCESS TO ONE WORLD INTERNSHIPS IN TANZANIA
We offer a new program: internships in Tanzania. Do you want to see more of the world while boosting your personal and professional experience? Consider doing your internship in Tanzania, a challenging country with many unexplored opportunities. XS21World offers you a learning experience that you won't easily forget.

Internships are available in education, media, entrepreneurship, architecture and other fields. We take great care to support you through personalized coaching before, during and after your trip.

NEW! TWO TANZANIAN BOARDMEMBERS
We welcome Athman Hamza Sungura and Imma R. Mbuguni in our board. Athman is a former participant, group assistant and volunteer of our Summer Camp & Winter Camps and dedicated to make the Internship Program a success. Imma has been involved with XS21World from its very beginning, contributing to our vision and our workshops on volunteerism. Welcome on board!

2008 has been the year of reflection and new ideas. After two rounds of exchanges, we felt it was time to take a step back and look back at what we had created. When we had done that, it was time to look ahead, and dream. What was the ideal situation for XS21World? What kind of projects, people, and places would we like to work with and for? From there we dived back into our network, and created new opportunities. More info in this newsletter. Enjoy reading!

Selma, Ludger & Laura

We had talks with all our former partners and shared where we stand, listened to their plans for 2009 and tried to find common ground for projects. We met with lots of enthusiasm and openness, which gave us a new boost to continue. First of all we renewed our cooperation with Right to Play Tanzania and got their support for future sports projects in Dar es Salaam and upcountry. Another organization we talked to is Junior Achievement Tanzania. They are very open for helping with finding participants, hosting Dutch volunteers and possibly cooperation between JA Netherlands and Tanzania. Last but not least we deepened our friendship with Afriroots who offered their help in organizing projects. Together with them we have been thinking of exchange projects in rural areas that could help uplift the communities. We established contact with the Tanzanian ministry of Youth and Employment who opened up for future cooperation, starting with the Tanga Youth Week.

In the shade of the canteen we shared the present state of XS21World and continued with an evaluation of the impact that the project has had on the participants individually. Questions we asked where ‘how has the project changed your life, in what areas do you notice change, what type of program could we offer you after the Winter Camp to help you develop further?’ Among the answers were
• I am more confident working in groups and speaking up for myself
• I realized the value of volunteer work and doing something for society and am now volunteering at a school / orphanage
• In my relationship with my parents I have become more straightforward and open
• I have more focus in my life, I know where I want to go and am no longer postponing that by being lazy in school
• I’m more confident in speaking English
All participants who were present shared their wish to stay involved and give a hand where possible in organizing new projects. Especially Athman Hamza has taken leadership in devoting his time to make XS21World grow.

Here an excerpt of Athman’s report:

‘We had workshops with different topics concerning youth and the part that they have to play for better society. Topics were in fields such as youth rights / participation on planning, implementation and evaluation, HIV/AIDS, corruption, environment, drug abuse and the voice of the youth and volunteerism. Different from XS21World almost the rest of organizations are dealing with a single or multi task related to HIV/AIDS, Orphans, Entrepreneurship skills, peer education and hand made products.

From the experience I got from workshops and the exhibition most organizations are not dealing with the root of the problem like XS21World. By bringing up a community that understand themselves and their environment one might solve all the above-mentioned problems facing youth and societies in Africa.

I got a lot of contact details in different parts of Tanzania, which might be useful when we introduce long-term volunteers again. I also think that XS21WORLD can take the lead in introducing the effective means to fight problems facing African / Tanzanian youth by investing in their minds which is the root of problem instead of using a lot of resources and effort on problems as they are. In our discussions during workshops we came into agreements that some efforts and resources should be directed to mind investment (prevention) as well as keep on tackling the current situation (curing)’

With the help of Marloes we used a nice room at her work in Utrecht. After again telling about what situation we are in right now, we posed the same questions as we did in Tanzania and everyone discussed in small groups to find the answers. It was interesting to see the difference in experience from the first and the second project. We had implemented a lot of change after Summer & Winter Camp 006, and this was the moment to share it with the participants who were there. From the answers to our questions came among others:
• Working in groups during the Summer Camp has made it easier for me to work in any group. I understand that other people work differently and I don’t get frustrated by that anymore. I find it easier to take initiative and make sure that we reach our aim well.
• My interest for the international context has grown. I wish to study or work abroad and I read the newspapers more carefully when they talk of Africa. I really want to go back to Tanzania or explore other countries.
• My belief in development aid has shrunk. I have become more skeptical because of what I have seen in Tanzania. At the same time social entrepreneurship has become the norm in our work. Wolf has started a foundation to support agricultural knowledge in Zimbabwe, for example. Everyone left the meeting inspired, and willing to stay in touch to see our further steps and maybe help with training new participants for upcoming projects.

We had a meeting with Jong Ondernemen, the Dutch counterpart of Junior Achievement Tanzania. From this meeting we saw ways for cooperation between the student companies in Tanzania and the Netherlands, and besides that for importing Tanzanian products to the Dutch market. Inspired by these new opportunities we also sat down with the Kofi Anan Business School in Utrecht. Their second year students have a ten week internship in a developing country and already there are established contacts between the school and Dar University. More talks will follow soon to see how we can cooperate here. Other than this we of course continue talking to out existing partners. Among them Right to Play Netherlands, Tricona, Iona Stichting and Vereniging Afrika Sport.

- The person requesting a loan is one of our former participants.
- The person requesting a loan is in a position to pay back the loan within reasonable time and is socially and financially supported by family, relatives and or friends.
- XS21World has enough resources to lend money and gets support from the Dutch buddy of the Tanzanian participant and or other private persons in Netherlands.

When all these conditions were met we decided to draw up an agreement for a student loan and started the process of making the agreement concrete and feasible. Our former particpant is now back in school and will hopefully finish her degree in 2010. If you like to help our former participants to get access to education you can share in a student loan with a fixed or monthly amount. For more info and conditions please contact us.