Wow, there's only very little time left before my airplane leaves and I head for Hong Kong. Wednesday afternoon I jump in this big adventure. But as always, there are millions of things to do before I can relax in the plane. Preparations for the World Council, luggage and so much stuff I should fix for my time after the WC (write my Bachelor-Thesis, find a flat, ...).

It's going to become a nervous time, my next 36 hours. But as closer we get, the more excited I become! :-)

The Civil Society Responsive Grants supports activities in four main areas:
•       Culture
•       Governance and Democracy
•       Human Development
•       Communities and Livelihoods.

Applicant organizations should justify that their activities fall in any one of these areas in addition to its significance to an international or intercultural exchange. Gender and youth are cross-cutting themes of the programme and this should also be highlighted in the proposal. Besides supporting exchanges, there is opportunity for funding voter education projects. However, such projects are required to complete another application form in addition to the standard application form under this programme.

Who can apply?

NGOs registered in a Commonwealth country can apply for the funding support. Their work should be relevant to the values, objectives and priorities of the Foundation, demonstrate accountability and transparency and should be in a position to obtain resources from other sources as well.

It is also important for the Foundation that the actual beneficiaries of the grant programme are both women and men, should be 35 years or less than that and should be skilled enough to transfer the learning.

Travel grant to attend international conferences or events can be made to the Foundation but the beneficiaries should be from developing countries and half of them should be women.

Generally, the Foundation awards grants around £5,000, but NGOs can request funding up to £10,000. In rare cases, grants of up to £20,000 can also be made. However, decisions for approving funding amount of more than £10,000 are made only twice a year when the Grants Committee meets (in March and September). For grants less than £10,000, requests can be made anytime or according to the quarterly deadlines given above.

The Foundation is very flexible in its grantmaking approach. As soon as the proposal is approved, it transfers the amount to the grantee organization without many strings attached. However, after the end of the activities, the grantee organization should submit a report explaining the impact of the grant, the follow-up and the learning achieved and transferred. All grantees should acknowledge the support of the Foundation in their outputs such as reports, publications,events etc.

Application form can be downloaded from the Foundation’s website and after completing it, it can be submitted by email. For more information, go to http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com

Yesterday (25th of May) , the Africa Alliance of YMCAs launched a song and YouTube page for its Subject to Citizen (S2C) Campaign.  This Campaign, based on a civic competence model,  aims to give space to youth to raise their voices and make them heard for a more just social, political and economic world order. It focuses on: developing skills and confidence for youth to be able to communicate about issues that affect them; creating platforms and avenues for youth to articulate these issues; and advocacy, lobbying and the ability to influence those in authority for meaningful change that will impact positively on youth’s lives and ensure full empowerment.

The S2C Campaign Song created by Ghanian musician Chemphe and featuring Arfican YMCA youth stands as a reminder to African youth, and to their leaders and policy makers, that they can advocate for positive changes in their lives and their countries. Creating a powerful youth civic competence will give the world an opportunity to watch Africa lead with renewed hope and vision for a peaceful and productive future.

To listen to the song and learn more about the Campaign please visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/4rmsubject2citizen

The United Nations Educational, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and in particular the Division for Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace in the Communication and Information Sector, is currently conducting a call for project proposals under the framework of The Power of Peace Network (PPN).

The PPN encourages initiatives which promote peace and dialogue amongst different groups, different schools from different countries or regions, different communities and organizations from different point of views. The PPN also plays off the idea of “retelling the stories which connects us all”.

With the aim of furthering the goals and objectives of the PPN and to shift gear to the next phase of development, we invite you to submit funding proposal(s) for projects related to promotion of peace and dialogue. Projects shall have specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound objectives and be operationally, technically and financially feasible.

The Call for Project Proposals with relevant information is available for download. Please submit your proposal no later than 22 June 2010.

Please see full details on the PPN website.

Mr. Ming Kuok LIM 
mk.lim@unesco.org 
Division for Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace 
Communication and Information Sector 
UNESCO 
1 rue Miollis 
75732 Paris

MY FREE SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE FOR 6 WEEKS APRIL/MAY 2010 IN ZAMBIA,ZIMBABWE,TANZANIA AND KENYA UPON INVITATION !

Hello Everybody!

As I announced few days ago we reached our goal in one more public action in the campaign “You Can Stop HIV”.

Our group had a very fun night and he had been in touch with 2,000 young people in the streets of São Paulo. It’s good to have the opportunity to talk to so many people about YMCA. Of course, with some of them we spent just seconds, but it was great to hear lots of times that we arrived “just in time” if you know what I mean!

We will keep doing or work promoting conscience around São Paulo city. We have a big task. Our community has about 12 million people!

Our next action will be in April 23th as part of celebrations of Youth Service Day 2010.

All the best,

Romulo

Hello everybody!

On next Friday we will have a educative action about HIV in the city of São Paulo. With support of World Alliance and city government and inspired by YMCA initiatives around the world we will be during the whole night visiting night clubs in the city to tell young people that they can stop HIV!

Our goal is to reach 2,000 young people tomorrow and a group of 18 young leaders are involved in this action.

If you have any question, idea or suggestion, please contact us!

Above, you can see the video of our campaign:

Romulo Dantas

rdantas@acmsaopaulo.org

Skype: romuloguto

MSN: romuloguto@hotmail.com

UN-HABITAT adopted a resolution in 2007 to establish the UN-HABITAT Youth Fund to mobilize young people for advocating for youth-related policy formulation; support governmental and non-governmental agencies to respond to youth concerns; support youth information networks; implement new ideas on employment, governance, adequate shelter and secure tenure; share best practices; promote vocation training for entrepreneurship and employment; and promote gender mainstreaming in all urban youth matters. The Fund was officially launched as the Opportunities Fund for Urban Youth-Led Development on 4 November 2008 at the fourth sessions of the World Urban Youth Forum in Nanjing, China.

NGOs and community-based nonprofit organizations led by young people aged 15-32 years indeveloping countries can apply for this Fund (This can also mean that if the governing or management board of an NGO has an active representation of one or more young persons between 15-32 years, it can still apply for this Fund – partnerships between adults and young persons are also encouraged). Applicant organizations should be based in cities or towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants and they must be legally registered for at least one year and should have a valid bank account. If small applicant organizations do not have legal registration but still fulfill the eligibility criteria, they can apply in partnership with another legally registered organization which can facilitate the grantmaking process.

Proposals can be submitted in English, French or Spanish. The application form can be downloaded from the UN-HABITAT website. Supporting documents need to be submitted along with the completed application form. Submissions can be made by email. However, there are different emails for different regions. Budgetary limitations have been specified: small projects can request up to $5000 while larger projects can receive grants of up to $25,000. Proposed projects should schedule the starting date of implementation six months after the submission deadline and should last for less than 12 months.

Applications will be evaluated thoroughly and objectively and the judges’ decision on the rating will be final. The winners will be notified by email and projects receiving support will also be listed on UN-HABITAT’s website. The selection process can take up to 5 months after the deadline. The last date to submit applications is 15 April 2010. For more information visit http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?typeid=19&catid=637&cid=7903 

Calling on YMCA Youth leading projects on HIV and AIDS! Staying Alive Foundation is accepting proposals- the deadline is 12 March 2010. See details below as well as the link:

The Staying Alive Foundation is all about empowering young people who want to make a difference. We look for youth-led projects that have been recently established, and have received little or no previous funding.

We want to help projects that work with the following aims:

1. To provide and sustain HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention for young people

2. To empower and establish youth leaders in communities who can generate positive community responses and commitments

3. To alleviate the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and AIDS.
The opportunity to apply for a grant occurs twice a year – once in February and once in August.
Applications received in the February period are for grants that will be given out in June.

http://foundation.staying-alive.org/en/grants/apply

I just arrived at home, back from my first meeting with the rest of the swiss delegation for the upcomming world council (by the way: it took place in Zurich, the host city of next years YWCA World Council). Boy, it's going to be very interesting, intensive work! I'm excited to get the official detailed program and information about the official candidates. Our National Movement will try to get a swiss guy re-elected as well, but more about this later.

We're a well diversed delegation. The majority of us are staffmembers from regional and the national movement (including the national secretary), someone from the national board and then there are the too youngest, one of which is me. Will be a fine experience to work out together our positions, workshops and statements.

Well, it's not yet the big work - that will start with the announcement of the official program and businesses. Even though there's some stuff to already think about.
How are you doing regarding the preparations for Hong Kong? I guess many of the users on this platform will take part as well. Posting a short comment or open up a own blog would be a fine way of getting to know each other already befor the council! So let's type :-)