Youth Interchange:
A Youth Interchange is a program, which conveys groups of young people from two or more societies, providing them with an opportunity to discuss and confront various social issues, whilst learning about each other’s social norms and values. Based on a transnational partnership between two or more promoters from different society. According to the number of provinces involved, a Youth Interchange can be bilateral, trilateral or multilateral. A Bilateral Youth Interchange is justified especially when the promoters are at their Nepalese project, or when the participants are small-scale or local groups without experience at South Asia level. A Youth Interchange can be itinerant, implying the movement of all participants at the same time, throughout one or more states participating in the interchange.
Objectives:
Youth Interchanges allow one or more groups of young people was hosted by YPDSN from different provinces in order to participate together in a joint program of activities. These programs involved the active participation of young people, were designed to allow them to discover, and became aware of different social and cultural realities, to learn from each other, to develop the entrepreneurial spirit and reinforced their feeling of being Nepalese citizens.
Youth Interchanges enabled young people to go across Nepal, to meet peers from different society with different social and cultural backgrounds and to learn from each other through an active participation in joint activities of common interest. Youth Interchanges allowed young people to experience Nepal and so to feel more Nepalese Youth.
The successful Interchange was indicated by the following:
- Young Interchange inbound participants would develop an appreciation for Nepalese culture, an understanding of the underlying values and diversity of Nepalese society, and increased tolerance and respect for others with differing views and beliefs. Conversely, Youth Interchange across Nepal participants would develop an appreciation for their host cultures and increased tolerance and respect for others with differing views and beliefs.
- Youth Interchange across Nepal participants would teach their hosts about the cultures of their hometowns. Participants would interact with their local communities and generated enduring ties.
- Youth Interchange inbound participants would acquire an understanding of important elements of a civil society. This included concepts such as volunteerism, the idea that Nepalese citizens could and did act at the grassroots level to deal with societal problems, and an awareness of and respected for the rule of law. Youth Interchange participants would share and demonstrate these ideals of Nepalese civil society in their host communities
