We are now implementing the seminar "Mosaic of Youth Participation – Challenge, Capacity, Connection" applied under Action 3.1 organised in Pogradec, and that started on the 9 march and shall end on the 16-nth.

 What is "Explore and Learn"

"Explore and Learn" is the motto of youth exchange program, that was carried out from 7 to 16 October 2011 in the area of Dryanovo monastery, Bulgaria. Twenty-two young people  from Bulgaria and Albania contributed to the success of this project by sharing experience and knowledge in the field of Speleology (the scientific study of caves and other karst features) and outdoor activities.

Few days ago, on the 15th of December the EVS volunteers of Beyond Barriers Giulianna, Vania, Alberto and Joao, organized a Christmas party for the children of the special school Luigj Gurakuqi. With very simple materials, a lot of creativity and skills they managed to create their costumes: a reindeer, a Christmas tree, a sled, a big gift package and of course, Santa Claus was the special guest.

The children were really surprised when they met the volunteers dressed up and after few minutes they started to go to them taking some sweets and asking for a picture with Santa Claus.

The event was really successful, the children were happy to have the party in their school with the volunteers who came back to their childhood for a morning.

This project was financed by UNICEF and the SOROS Foundation and was implemented between 1^st and 30^th August 2011 by the Beyond Barriers Association in the Luigj Gurakuqi Special School in Tirana.

On 14^th of September 2011, in the office of Beyond Barriers organization, organized a round table on the framework of the project “Zero drop-out: Attraction and identification of vulnerable children in organized activities during summer, increase of confidence in schools and minimization of their abandonment”. Participants were representatives of government, directories and different organizations such as: World Vision, Regional Educative Directory of Tirana, Ministry of Education, “Luigj Gurakuqi” special school, Association for Women and Children, Hope and Love Association, European Volunteers of Beyond Barriers organization, etc.

Beyond Barriers is pleased to announce that training course named "What you get is what you give" ended successfully two days ago.
The project took place from 3 to 10 August in Vlora, Albania and it brought together youth leaders from 11 countries who work and are willing to continue working with European voluntary service action. The projects' main topic was voluntarism, its promotion to youngsters, exchange of experiences and improving competences of participants while dealing with EVS projects.

Promotion of volunteering among Albanian youngsters and promotion of values connected with volunteer work are two of our organisation's goals. Seeing the effect and local impact which the work of our 4 European Volunteers was making we decided to do more.

For a few months now, Beyond Barriers has been hosting volunteers in the frame of the European Voluntary Service which is part of the Youth In Action programme of the European Union. 

Its first EVS project as a Hosting Organisation started in February 2011 and will last until the end of November. As 10 volunteers from the UK just arrived for a short-term project, it's time for us to introduce the new blog through which information about EVS in Tirana will be published. Presentation of the projects, impressions of the volunteers, short stories about their work and travels: you will know everything about our volunteers!

This was one of the biggest events in the Balkans in the frame of the European Year of Volunteering 2011. It was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina on 20-25 June, hosted by the SEEYN (South Eastern European Youth Network) with support of the CoE's European Youth Foundation, the European Commission's Youth in Action Programme and the OSCE mission in BiH.