Citizens of Europe welcomed a group of young politicians and NGO- representatives from Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro for a study-visit yesterday.
Due to their request sent to us on learning more about German non-governmental organizations ways of working, we were honoured to invite them to our office in Berlin.
The group of fifty-five visitors got seated, listening to chairman Tobias Kunow and founder Frank Burgdörfer introducing Citizens of Europe. They presented historical background, previous and on-going projects and also shared some of their own experiences within the organisation. Our guests had the opportunity to ask questions and beside curiosity about our organizational structure, some also looked for advises on how to build a network of partners, ways of financing activities and finding international participants for projects.
Frank emphasized that Citizens of Europe’s aim is bringing together interesting individuals in projects, with diverse experiences and nationalities, rather than searching for the “right” participants from other NGOs or with academically backgrounds. Citizen’s project-concepts are realised by involved peoples wide range of knowledge and interest, based on hours of voluntary commitment. Our guests learned how Citizen’s coordinate informal educational programs in order to reach European citizens trough joint projects. The group’s study-visit was part of a trip, realized by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, where they also visited the German parliament, met union representatives and political decision makers.
We hope they had an inspiring visit at Citizens of Europe, welcome them back to learn more about us, and last but not least, wish them a nice stay in Berlin!