News

The ISWiB 2010 closing ceremony will be held on 17th July at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade at 2 PM. On that occasion, participants of all ten workshops: Environmental Protection, Filmmaking, Arts & Crafts, Media, Youth Activism, Human Rights, Performing Arts, Marketing, Sustainable Development and Photography will show their final presentations, as a result of their five-day work.

On Sunday, 11th July, ISWiB started with a welcoming sports night, where participants had a chance to get to know each other and watched the FIFA World Cup Final. On Monday 12th July, in the Assembly of the city of Belgrade was the Opening ceremony of ISWiB 2010, where the members of the Organizational team and city officials gave their welcoming speeches, followed by tasteful artistic performances, after which all the guests enjoyed a pleasant cocktail party.

In the evening was a Party in one of the most popular nightclubs in Belgrade, Povetarac, where all enjoyed a variety of music. Yesterday we all had fun, but also learned a lot at the lecture by Derek Small. After that it was a National evening in the Two Deer Inn, located in Skadarlija. Participants were able to feel the atmosphere of Belgrade’s old times, and enjoyed traditional Serbian cuisine and music. On Wednesday 14th July the Country Fair and MTV Concert will take place, this event will offere participants an opportunity to represent their countries in an authentic way to their colleagues and all other visitors. The event will end with a four hour long concert. The guests will be jumping and dancing to the music of: Negative, S.A.R.S., Iskaz, Kanda, Kodza i Nebojsa, and Kandzija.

During all 7 days participants have numerous lectures, where they will learn something new and express their thoughts. Also they will enjoy other events: a Costume Party at the raft-club Admiral, Summer Bitef Party at Summer Bitef nightclub, and the last day will be an Official Closing Ceremony at the Faculty of Law and a Farewell Party at the raft-club Sound where after 7 days of learning, making friends, exchanging ideas, attitudes, cultures and experiences, ISWiB 2010 will come to an end.

Colourful, vibrant, loud - words that best describe this year's Country Fair. This event has always been the most attractive to our participants, offering them an opportunity to represent their countries in an authentic way to their colleagues and all other visitors. Each participating country is preparing a performance, and will furnish their stand with traditional features of their culture such as food, drink, clothes and customs. The outdoor courts of Red Star Basketball Club at Kalemegdan will glow in all the world's colours, to the sound and vibe of worldwide music. There is no doubt that all visitors are going to have an unforgettable time, surrounded by the ancient walls of fortress Kalemegdan.

Thanks to MTV, the media sponsor of ISWiB 2010, the event will end with a four hour long concert. The guests will be jumping and dancing to the music of bands from Serbia and neighbouring countries: Negative, S.A.R.S., Iskaz, Kanda, Kodža i Nebojša, and Kandžija.

The final list of participants is announced! You can download the list here!

ISWiB is proud to announce that Derek Small will be holding an open lecture at this year's festival on July 13th! Derek has specialized in working in the fields of Leadership and Change with senior businessmen and leadership teams. He has also dedicated a lot of his time to working with international student organizations dedicated to tolerance, leadership and entrepreneurship. Derek's relaxed and humorous approach has ensured that his message is clear and straightforward, as well as being powerful and inspiring.

At ISWiB 2010 he will be speaking about what is possible when young people learn to overcome their personal challenges and become the best they can be. He is committed to the idea that there is more that unites us than that which divides us and we should focus more on those similarities than on the differences. He has worked with groups from all over the world and his messages are universal.

Thank you all for applying to be a part of this year's ISWiB! The chosen candidates will soon be contacted and informed about the beginning of their training course. The course will prepare them for the duties they will be expected to perform during the festival.

Thanks to our official carrier Austrian Airlines, all ISWIB 2010 participants coming to Belgrade in July can book their airline tickets with 15% discount.

To get the discount you need to enter the code in the voucher section of the booking tab on the Austrian Airlines website.

The code is: ISWB10

The discount is available for everybody coming to Belgrade with Austrian Airlines in July.

Visit their website at www.austrian.com.

There is still time to apply for volunteering at ISWiB 2010! The volunteers will participate in the realization of ISWiB 2010 along with the organizing team.

All high school and faculty students from Serbia fluent in English are eligible to apply.

The chosen volunteers will go through a short training course, where they will be informed about all the duties and tasks they will be expected to perform during the festival.

The application form can be downloaded here, filled out, and mailed to volunteers@iswib.org. Any questions can also be sent to the same e-mail address.

The deadline for applying is 15^th May, 2010.

The application deadline is now officially closed. We are very proud that so many of you have shown an interest in being a part of ISWiB 2010! From hundreds of applicants of different religious beliefs, races and nationalities, 200 will be chosen to help explain what tolerance really means in July in the capital city of Serbia - Belgrade.

Volunteer applications are still open - all high school and faculty students from Serbia fluent in English are eligible to apply. The application form can be downloaded here, filled out, and mailed to volunteers@iswib.org. Any questions can also be sent to the same e-mail address.

The deadline for applying is 15^th May, 2010.

Due to a large number of students from the whole of Europe expressing interest, the organizing team of ISWiB 2010 has decided to extend the application deadline to 15^th April, 2010.

In the last few days we have received a huge number of applications, and we don't want to stop this process with the previously announced deadline. The more quality applications we receive, the easier it will be to reach the goal of ISWiB 2010 being a gathering of 200 students, as diverse as possible in religion, race, and nationality, and, in doing so, show in the best possible way what tolerance really means.

So, download the apllication form, fill it out, send it to apply@iswib.org before 15^th April, 2010, and get your chance to be one of the 200 participants of ISWiB 2010!

The applications process for volunteering at ISWiB 2010 is open! The volunteers will, together with the organizing team, participate in the realization of ISWiB 2010.

All high school and faculty students from Serbia fluent in English are eligible to apply.

The chosen volunteers will go through a short training course, where they will be informed about all the duties and tasks they will be expected to perform during the festival.

The application form can be downloaded here, filled out, and mailed to volunteers@iswib.org. Any questions can also be sent to the same e-mail address.

The deadline for applying is 15^th May, 2010.

Due to a temporary server problem, some of you may have had trouble sending your applications to apply@iswib.org. This is solved now, so please try resending your application, if you haven't already. If this problem should happen again, and you cannot send any mail to apply@iswib.org, please try participants@iswib.org. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

ISWiB 2010. will be held from 11^th to 18^th July under the motto "Do we tolerate intolerance?"

This year, the participants may choose one of the following workshops: Human Rights, Filmmaking, Photography, Marketing, Arts & Crafts, Youth Activism, Media, Performing Arts, Sustainable Development, and Environmental Protection.

Apart from the workshops led by partner organizations, the educational program will include a panel discussion and open lectures.

As the goal of ISWiB is the breaking of national, religious, cultural and language barriers, not only through the exchange of knowledge, opinions and ideas, but also by making friends and hanging out with each other, ISWiB 2010 will be an opportunity for lots of fun, cultural manifestations, day trips, and parties.

The participation fee is 80 euros for foreign students, and covers accomodation, food and workshop materials.

For Serbian students, the participation fee is 40 euros and doesn't cover accomodation.

All students studying at European universities, fluent in English are eligible to apply.

ISWiB 2009 ended 5 months ago. In one week, 200 students from 42 countries faced the Challenge of Changes.

What we've accomplished last year gave us the will and motivation to start organizing ISWiB 2010, as early as September.

With the headline "Do We Tolerate Intolerance?", ISWiB 2010 will be held 11^th-18^th July 2010.

We hope that this year's ISWiB will outdo all the previous ones, both by quality and popularity.

All info about the workshops, applications and participation fees will be known and published on ISWiB's website after February 1^st.

On Sunday, 16^th of August, the third International Student Week in Belgrade has officially ended. ISWiB 2009 has gathered 200 students from 42 countries all over the world. During the week which they've spent in Belgrade, the students have exchanged ideas and knowledge, and also had unforgetable fun, made new friendships and experienced the Serbian capital.

Therefore, once again, we thank all of the participants, applicants, donors, sponsors, and partners, and all other people and organizations that helped make ISWiB 2009 happen.

Until next year!

On Friday, 14^th of August at 16h in Amphitheatre of National Bank of Serbia, the Panel discussion on the theme "The Challenge of Changes - The Young and Global economic crisis” will be held.

Panel discussion will deal with the situation of the youth in the great social and economic turbulence that leads to permanent changes in the world and the challenges that these changes are set before the young people. Panel participants will also speak about the perspective of young people, their future economic and psychological stability in such conditions, as well as the many other issues in today's conditions which are necessarily imposed involved with a better future of young people. As organizers of this festival, we believe that in the atmosphere of the International Student Week in Belgrade is necessary to discuss these issues, in an open and constructive manner, in order to increase the care for young people on even higher level in times of crisis and to encourage young people to look into the future with more positive projections and expectations.

Participants at Panel discussion are:

• Aleksandra Mitrović, Ministry for Youth and Sport
• Srđan Majstorović, Deputy Director of the Office for European integration
• Dejan Šoškić, Professor at Faculty of Economics in Belgrade and valid member of the Goverment team which is dealing with the consequences of economic crisis
• Miljenko Dereta, Executive Director of Civil Initiatives
• Stefan Salom, Infostud
• Adrew Mycock, Moderator, Professor of Huddersfield University.

Once again, this will be a nice opportunity to point importance of young people and their future in each society.

On Wednesday, 12^th of August at 18h, in Garden of Belgrade University, the main and probably the most interesting event of the entertainment section of ISWiB 2009 will be held - "Country Fair".

"Country Fair" is a specific event in which students from 42 European countries have a makeshift stands on which they will be able to present drinks, food, customs, songs, games and numerous other national characteristics to the public and their colleagues. This kind of event will be held on 12th of August, which is also the International Day of Youth, and its symbolism of 200 students gathered in the desire to expand their own views and acquire new knowledge even more. This will certainly be a very beautiful and colorful image of Belgrade after the Universiade, which will be the gathering point for students from all over the world. Pose the end of “Country fair” in the same venue the event will be continued with a Karaoke party in which the representatives of these countries will be able to present their voice capabilities.

Everybody is welcome to join us and enjoy this unusual event!

Today, on 10^th of August at 16h in the Assembly of the city of Belgrade, the Opening ceremony of ISWiB 2009 was held.

The Opening ceremony is one of the most carefully planned events of ISWiB 2009. The entire effort, work and endeavor we invested in the previous months, organizing this project was finally shown at the Opening ceremony in its full glory. On this occasion, in the Assembly of city of Belgrade, all the partners, donors, sponsors and friends of ISWiB 2009 have been gathered, and this was officially mark the beginning of the third International Student Week in Belgrade. After the speech of Radmila Hrustanović, Deputy of Major of Belgrade, and also members of the Organizational team the Opening ceremony has been continued as a cocktail party in which all individuals and organizations involved in the implementation of our festival, have been able to relax and chat in a pleasant and friendly atmosphere.

Finally, International Student Week in Belgrade has arrived!

ISWiB 2009 Organizing team wishes welcome to everybody!

On Thursday, 11^th of August at 16h, at Faculty of Law will be held the second open lecture on ISWiB 2009.

The lecture will be about the fight against violence towards women and children. The goal of the lectures is to present the current situation in the Balkans when it comes to violence in the family and to stimulate young people to help in the creation of necessary conditions that absolutely all members of the family be able to report violence and to overcome their fears and seek the necessary help. Also, the goal of lectures is to promote the values anti militarism, and the idea of war, violence and militarism for men is not natural but an imposed choice.

ATC is a civil association that aims to promote human rights in Serbia and the region, with special emphasis to the prevention of trafficking as well as gender violence.

On Monday, 10^th of August at 19h at the Faculty of Law the first open lecture at ISWiB 2009 will be held.

In a ground-breaking lecture, Dr Andrew James Myckok, professor at Huddersfield University will consider the challenges that have faced countries across Europe, providing timely reflection on successes and challenges for young people to develop active citizenship and democratic participation since the Berlin Wall fell.

The lecture will draw on a number of case studies and also reflect on Dr Myckok's recent work with the UK government to encourage more young people to democratically engage.

The lecture will highlight that many of the challenges faced by young people are shared across Europe, meaning they need to be willing to collaborate, share knowledge and ideas, and work towards a shared future founded on youth engagement and democracy.

On Friday, July 31st, a press conference was held in the Media Center as an announcement of the beginning of this year's festival.

In addition to members of the organizing team among the speakers were: Mirjana Arsic, Advisor for Youth in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, as well as Nemanja Rankovic, in front of the Agency for Cooperation with NGOs and the European harmonization.

On this occasion, the concept of the festival as well as its ideas and program were presented to the media.

Also, once again we highlighted the importance of the assistance we have from the organizations and institutions that support ISWiB 2009.

This press conference is an introduction to the media campaign which is significantly speeding up a week before the festival.

The Organizing team of ISWiB 2009 has decided to extend the application deadline for high school pupils and students who would like to become an ISWiB volunteer.

Due to the large number of people that are presently volunteering at the 25th Universiade in Belgrade and because of the short time period for submitting the application form for volunteering at ISWiB 2009, we decided to extend the deadline so that they would also be given a chance to participate in the International Student Week in Belgrade as well as due to the tendency to make as many people as possible become a part of our festival!

The application form can be downloaded here.
After the download, fill it in and send to: volunteers@iswib.org.

Hurry up - July 31st is near!

Mr. Danko Runic, Director of the Agency for Cooperation with NGOs and European Harmonization of the City of Belgrade, and Pedja Ljubojevic, President of the ISWiB Organizing Board, signed on Friday, June 12th, the Agreement of cooperation.

The city of Belgrade and ISWiB’s organizational team, will, in the coming period, together give their maximum in order to present our capital city in the best light and to host in the best possible way 200 students from all over Europe.

ISWiB 2009 aims to gather people of different nationalities in order to exchange their knowledge, ideas, standpoints, cultures and customs, and also to popularize Serbia and primarily, its capital city - Belgrade. Therefore, the City of Belgrade and ISWiB, connected in that common intentions, will, in the spirit of cooperation that tails, show Europe and the rest of the World that the Serbia’s metropolis is the city of future, which is open to all people.

We hope that this is the beginning of good cooperation which will have a long tradition!

As already known, ISWIB 2009 and city of Belgrade will host 200 students from all over the Europe in August this year.

Our European colleagues will surely take this opportunity to experience Belgrade in its fullest: its culture and lions, language, well known hospitality, its friendly mood and bright spirit and of course the last but not the least, its rich nightlife!

And there is not a better way for them to experience it all instead of from firsthand!

Therefore, if you:

• are from Belgrade or currently living in the capital,
• are a university student or go to high school,
• have a good knowledge of English,
• are interested in experiencing something new, interesting as well as to make lots of new friendships,

We invite you to fill in the application form for volunteers (click here to download) until 15th July and to become a part of ISWIB 2009!

Organizational team of ISWiB 2009 is announcing with pleasure that the process of selection is successfully finished. Over 600 high-quality applications from all Europe which we have received up to April 31st have required punctual analysis and also precaution and time, and all that just to make sure that none of the applicants would be unfairly neglected. As a result, ISWiB 2009 will host 200 students with the best qualifications from August 9th until August 16th.

To those who have been selected in the process, ISWiB's 2009 organizational team heartily congratulates and asks them to follow further instructions and requests which they will receive in their invitation letters.

The ones who unfortunately didn't pass the selection we ask to respect the decisions of the selection committee and we would like to thank them for showing interest and ask them to apply next year.