Tuesday 22 November 2016

TRAVEL FAR TO SEE NEAR

Marita Modenius

The idea of establishing AEKS, a non-profit organization to promote civil society issues in Europe, was  born in Cairo, Egypt, where my colleague Eila and me had the opportunity to work in an EU Twinning project on supporting the development of vocational education in 2013—2015. We got good results by introducing European and Finnish education expertise and practices in the Egyptian education. We found that despite differences in culture, language and legislation, the fundamental problems in different countries are similar. From Egypt’s horizon, we could clearly see Finland, the EU and all of Europe's competence, which should be shared globally. For us, the vision of sharing international exchange of best practices, developed in projects and organizations in different countries, became clear.

In late spring of 2015 our real actions started. We set up AEKS and formalized our activities. We bestowed our association the name “Aktiivinen Eurooppalainen Kansalainen Suomi ry” - Active European Citizen Finland (Nonprofit organization). According to the rules of the association, membership can be applied both by individuals and organizations who wish to operate internationally, developing and disseminating good practices to promote issues of importance to citizens in the globalizing world. We welcome all active European citizens, associations and organizations to become our partners, to promote the sharing of good practices in Europe and throughout the world. Together we can make the world a better place to live in for all of us – the European citizens!