Would you like to meet your fellow Young SIETARians in the area that you live? Then you can organise a YS Café. This is an informal meeting organised by local YSians to meet each other for dinner and drinks and simply have some fun and get to know each other. And if you offer some couches for people to sleep on, YSians who live further away can join as well!

Join us or add your own YS café to the list

On a rare sunny Sunday afternoon in Dublin five intercultural enthusiasts, Sabrina, Marielena, Johane, Helen and Andrea got together in a convivial café, the Queen of Tarts in Cow’s Lane, to discuss Young SIETAR and to share intercultural resources, experiences and advice. None of the five women was from Dublin, instead, Germany, Canada, the U.S., England and France were all represented. After the event, it is also safe to say that the name of the café and its location say nothing about the women’s (or rather the ladys’) characters and reputations.

We began by introducing ourselves before getting down to the serious business of drinking hot drinks and sampling delicious carrot cake and muffins. We also found out about intercultural events that members of the group are involved with, such as the SIETAR France Congress 2010 on Diversity and Human Rights taking place in Lille in October. We then considered Sabrina’s suggestion of hosting the 2011 Young SIETAR congress in Belfast which we concluded would be an interesting location for discussing intercultural issues given its sectarian history. Marielena told us about her positive experiences working with the not-for-profit organisation Meridian International, who aim to strengthen intercultural understanding through, for example, arranging international professional exchanges. Johane brought some of the good intercultural resources available at European Union House, 18 Dawson Street to our attention and also showed us a handy publication called ‘Embracing Diversity’ available at ECO-UNESCO which provides a set of useful training exercises aiming to raise awareness of both intercultural and environmental issues among children and young people. Our discussions finished with a cultural and institutional comparison of the merits and mostly demerits (!) of different university registration procedures and with wishing Andrea well in her move from Ireland to Switzerland. We hope she can fly-by for a visit back to the café later in the year.

Not all of the group were members of Young SIETAR but after this successful inaugural Dublin Café event, hopefully they soon will be! So, if you too find yourself in Dublin on the last Sunday of an odd month (next to be July) do get in touch.

Helen O’Sullivan (1^st June 2010)