What is Global Xchange?
Global Xchange is an international volunteer exchange programme for young people aged 18 – 25 years. A team of 18 volunteers work in a community in Egypt for three months and then in a UK community for three months. The programme is a partnership between Voluntary Services Overseas and the British Council in the UK and Youth Association for Population and Development in Egypt.

Aims of Global Xchange

How will the project work?
In March, a team of 18 volunteers - recruited equally from the UK and Egypt will travel to the town and region of Asyut in the Nile Valley of Upper Egypt to live and work for three months.  The team will then travel to Luton in the second week of June. They will live in cross-cultural pairs in host families and work as volunteers with community organisations.  They will work in their placements for four days a week.  The fifth day will be committed to Global Citizenship Days - focusing on issues they are learning about in the community, in their placements, and about the wider theme of the project - which this year is youth leadership and community development, social inclusion and gender equality. The volunteers will also be organising Community Action Days, where they will help to support or develop events in the community.

How were volunteers selected?
Team 73 – Assiut/Luton–March–August 08
Volunteers were selected both in Egypt and the UK to form a diverse group with different educational cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds.  They will be a team of five female and 4 male Egyptian/British pairs (counterparts), aged 18 – 25 who all share a positive approach to learning about themselves and other cultures through being active in two local communities in the UK and Egypt.

To find out more about Global Xchange in other countries, please visit: www.globalxchange.org.uk or contact, amina.jaheen@britishcouncil.org.eg , Programme Manager, Youth;