A.Hatzopoulos S.A. is a proud supporter of the AIESEC “Global Volunteer” program.
Global Volunteer is a cross-cultural experience for youth who want to gain personal development and leave an impact on the world. The Global Volunteer projects around the world fall under the AIESEC “Youth 4 Global Goals initiative”, aiming at activating youth towards achieving the “Sustainable Development Goals”.
Through the program, AIESEC calls youth to live a cross-cultural volunteer experience by working 6-8 weeks on projects directly contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Covering 120+ countries, young participants take action upon the Goal that matters the most to them, while developing themselves and contributing where it matters. Global volunteers of AIESEC have the chance to engage with all kinds of people and new cultures towards achieving a bigger purpose, to surpass challenges and empower others, to travel abroad learning and exploring their passions and values and to make a contribution seeing its impact in real-time to communities around the world.
Hatzopoulos is a proud supporter of this initiative, offering to 5 students of the local AIESEC department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki the opportunity to participate in the Global Volunteer program.
We have started this trip with the Vietnam project, which falls under [Sustainable Development Goal 4]: Quality Education. Goal #4 states: “Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning”. Obtaining a quality education is the foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable development. The Vietnam project aimed at bringing English education and various cultures worldwide to the children through fun English classes and activities and was successfully completed this summer.
The second stop of this trip was Egypt. contributing to [Sustainable Development Goal 1]: No Poverty. Goal #1 states: “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”. Eradicating poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice and the key to unlocking an enormous human potential. Still, nearly half of the world’s population lives in poverty, and lack of food and clean water is killing thousands every single day of the year. Through the Egypt project, the volunteers helped families living below the poverty line in a suffering country where poverty rates have increased over the past 15 years to reach nearly 30%, as per a recent report published by UNICEF. By collecting for these people supplies in need, such as clothes and food on a daily basis, the participants in the project have contributed to local society and communicated a strong message of humanity.
The next stop of this magnificent journey was Brazil, contributing to [Sustainable Development Goal 8]: Decent Work and Economic Growth. According to the International Labour Organization, more than 204 million people were unemployed in 2015. The SDG 8 promotes sustained economic growth, higher levels of productivity and technological innovation. Encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation are key to this, as are effective measures to eradicate forced labour, slavery and human trafficking. With these targets in mind, the goal is to achieve full and productive employment, and decent work, for all women and men by 2030. Through the Brazil project, the volunteers helped two different non-profit organizations in Rio with their marketing strategy. By using and applying the latest digital marketing tools to the NPOs communications strategy, the two organizations’ activities and their contribution to local society were broadly acknowledged and further supported.
The fourth volunteer project took place in Romania and addressed target 4: [Sustainable Development Goal 4] Quality Education. The noble goal of the greek student who participated in the program was to teach children that lived in an orphanage of a small village in Romania. By playing interactive, teaching games, young kids of 4-8 years old took basic english lessons useful for their future, while learning at the same time the value of multicultural education.
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AIESEC serves as a global platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential. It is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), affiliated with the UN DPI, member of ICMYO, and is recognized by UNESCO. It was established in 1948 after World War II, where seven youth across seven countries had a dream of building cross-cultural understanding across nations. They hoped to change the world, one person and one internship at a time. By 1977, AIESEC was present in 50 countries across six continents and to that date over 40,000 young people around the world had participated in a leadership development experience. In 2015, AIESEC’s youth leaders from 126 countries and territories in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth gathered at the United Nations Headquarters to promote and drive youth participation in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The relevance and contribution of AIESEC is now clearer than ever. In sum, since it was founded, AIESEC has engaged and developed over 1,000,000 young people over the years, as a global network of people that simply believe that youth leadership is not an option, but a responsibility. The impact of the organisation can be seen through their alumni who represent business, NGO and world leaders. As its moto states: If we don’t change the world, then who will?
https://aiesec.org/global-volunteer
https://aiesec.gr/
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/