ESN International News

Going abroad for a period of time is not always easy for young people, especially if it is the first time away from their familiar environment or the first time they are studying and living together with other young people they didn’t know before. It is even more difficult for young persons with disabilities as they face inaccessible environment or disability-related stereotypes. This is exactly what the ExchangeAbility project wants to tackle.Release of the ExchangeAbility Handout made by EDF, ESN and Youth Agora

Going abroad for a period of time is not always easy for young people, especially if it is the first time away from their familiar environment or the first time they are studying and living together with other young people they didn’t know before. It is even more difficult for young persons with disabilities as they face inaccessible environment or disability-related stereotypes. This is exactly what the ExchangeAbility project wants to tackle.

Co-managed by 3 partner organisations, European Disability Forum (EDF), Erasmus Student Network (ESN) and Youth Agora, the ExchangeAbility project aims at making ESN an association accessible for young persons with disabilities at all levels of its activities as well as giving disabled students an opportunity to be involved in the international environment.

As part of the outcomes: the ExchangeAbility handout. This booklet is dedicated to raise awareness about what disability means and what are the specificities of young people with disabilities. It was created as a help for ESN sections to better integrate young disabled persons in their activities. However, the publication can be of benefit to anyone who would like to broaden their knowledge about the subject.

To download the ExchangeAbility Handout: English PDF | Word

If you'd like to know more about the project click here or contact the project coordinator - Magdalena Wawrzonkowska exchangeability@esn.org. 

<p>From 08-11 April 2010 the biggest and the most important meeting in ESN is going to take place in Istanbul, the AGM. Therefore, we need a chairing team that would lead the AGM Plenary - and you can be one of them! The are 4 positions which are shortly described <a href="/become_a_member_of_agm_chairing_team">here</a>. If you are interested in being a member of a chairing team or if you need any further information you can write to Veeli (<a href="mailto:vicepresident@esn.org">vicepresident@esn.org</a>) and Marketa (<a href="mailto:president@esn.org">president@esn.org</a>).<br />Deadline for applications: 15. January 2010.</p>

From 08-11 April 2010 the biggest and the most important meeting in ESN is going to take place in Istanbul, the AGM. Therefore, we need a chairing team that would lead the AGM Plenary - and you can be one of them! The are 4 positions which are shortly described here. If you are interested in being a member of a chairing team or if you need any further information you can write to Veeli (vicepresident@esn.org) and Marketa (president@esn.org)

You should write a short desciption about yourself, your experience  in leading meetings and your motivation to be a part of the Charing Team

Deadline for applications: 15. January 2010.

<p>During October, November and December you had the opportunity to meet and share your experiences with other ESN members in one of the Regional Platforms and at the end of the December the ESN members from the South Eastern region will meet.</p><p>However, the question is - where to meet in 2010? Why not in your town? For more information, contact either your National Representative or <a href="mailto:vicepresident@esn.org">vicepresident@esn.org</a>.</p>

During October, November and December you had the opportunity to meet and share your experiences with other ESN members in one of the Regional Platforms and at the end of the December the ESN members from the South Eastern region will meet.

However, the question is - where to meet in 2010? Why not in your town? For more information, contact either your National Representative or vicepresident@esn.org.

<p>Are you wondering what to buy for Christmas for your ESN friends? We have prepared especially for December a special discount on ESN gadgets. Check our <a href="/i_shop_0">I*Shop</a> to see the full list of gadgets with photos and prices.</p><p>We have prepared for you also 2 Christmas packages. You can order all the gadgets for only 15€ or in the alternative a smaller package that contains all the gadgets without the umbrella for 9,99€. </p>

Are you wondering what to buy for Christmas for your ESN friends? We have prepared especially for December a special discount on ESN gadgets. Check our I*Shop to see the full list of gadgets with photos and prices.

We have prepared for you also 2 Christmas packages. You can order all the gadgets for only 15€ or in the alternative a smaller package that contains all the gadgets without the umbrella for 9,99€.

<p><img style="border: 3px solid #f2c89c; margin: 3px" src="/files/uploaded/Mediation_resized.jpg" alt="" width="160" height="120" align="left" />After the mediation round which took place on 10 October 2009 in Vienna, the final communiqué of all the participants has been agreed upon and officially released.</p>Official statement regarding the outcome of the ESNtrain mediation

The mediation on the ESNtrain case took place in Vienna on 10 October 2009.

The following persons were present:

• ESNtrain participants: Christian Doni, Francesco Martino, Dmitry Nikolaenko, Alexander R.
• Platform GmbH: Bernhard Jäggle
• ESN: Christophe Andrey, Troels Christensen, Marketa Tokova

The mediation lasted for about 7 hours, from 10.00 to 12.30 and from 15.00 to 19.30. During lunchtime, between 12.45 and 14.30 a facultative meeting with Mr. Narrenhofer from ÖBB took place in his office, the content of which is entirely of public domain.

The parties have commonly agreed on this present statement.

Discussions turned around the following main points:

• Trying to understand what has actually happened regarding the ESNtrain cancellation
• Mutual understanding of the situation / point of view of others
• Possible compensation of the ESNTrain participants

Despite the development of some options, no solution could be found in the end that would sufficiently satisfy all parties to resolve the issue or that would point out directions to continue the mediation process. Thus, the mediation will not continue. The parties agreed preliminarily on keeping confidentiality over the discussion, in order to facilitate a fruitful process which could have produced a quick and satisfactory solution for every party, without resorting to legal actions. However, since the mediation failed to achieve such purpose, the participants felt the need to discuss with ESN and with the mediators whether to keep or to reconsider the preliminary confidentiality, but eventually the parties did not agree on waiving it.

We're very happy to receive next wishes! This time thanks to Czech Republic!

Thank You Czech Republic! Only 8 days left to ESN's 20th Birthday!!!

During the Ghent Celebration on 16th of October there will be an exhibition of paper bookpages! If Your section didn't send us theirs yet, hurry up! You still have a chance to be there!

Greetings from Greece!

We just received ESN TEI Athens' wishes! Remember to prepare your own special greetings for ESN's 20th anniversary!

ESN Jena just send us their wishes!

We just received wishes from Jena! 15 days left till Happy Birthday Celebrations! We are waiting for the rest of bookpages!

Happy Birthday from ESN Trento! Happy Birthday form ESN Trento!

15 days left to HappyBirthday ESN! We are waiting for more bookpages!

Greetings from Germany!

Happy Birthday ESN! This time thanks to TU Dresden!

We are receiving more and more Birthday Greetings! Thank You all! And keep on sending!