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Towards the end of the year 2021, our team has published various calls for intercultural exchanges and similar projects that work on improving hard and soft skills of young people in our society. Besides bringing the year 2021 to an end, our hardworking team successfully conducted selection processes for open calls, on the eve of the new beginnings, accomplishments as well as travel and business opportunities. One of those projects is ASA Program in Germany, in whose process, interviews with applicants were held which gradually led to a final decision. But before we get to the part where selection results are announced, let’s get back to the beginning where the mission of the program will be elaborated in detail. This leads us to the next question:
What actually is the ASA program?
Unfortunately, we can’t deny that the world we live in, doesn’t have equal access to people with certain medical conditions. There is a stigma surrounding those people and their medical conditions, that negatively affects the way others perceive them and find them fit for daily life jobs and obligations. Chronic disease diabetes as one of the leading causes of death in the world still isn’t taken seriously due to misinformation that alludes that eating too much sugar is the cause of it. It is the year 2022 and people with diabetes don’t have financial support or adequate health insurance that would enable them an equal and secure position in society. There comes the ASA program which is a transnational project that covers the above-mentioned problem and works on identifying and removing existing barriers for people with diabetes. Once again, two organizations Jugendenhilfe and Sozialarbeit e.V. in and BRAVO have come together for the purpose of successfully implementing the program.
This isn’t the first time that these two organizations have been collaborating because their cooperation sows its beginnings in the year 2020. When two similar organizations, with the same vision, come together, they are determined for success. Aren’t they?
Since social media has become an inventible part of our daily life, it will play a major role in empowering, networking, and educating people with diabetes. The program consists of two phases:
- First project phase in Fürstenwalde (April-June 20222) where participants will familiarize themselves with the project and the team. Along with the rest of the participants, they will define initial tasks and distribute them among themselves. The participants will have full responsibility for organizing the first international project meeting that will gather young people from Germany, Turkey, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Second project phase in Sarajevo (mid-July-mid October 2022) where support will be provided to participants of the international project meeting in local undertakings. Following this meeting, interns will revise the recommendations for action created in the first project phase. They will also assist in the planning and implementation of the second international project meeting, planned to be held in Germany in September. Most importantly, these interns will network locally to support local organizations and their work with people with diabetes.
With call opening, we started searching for young people that would be the perfect match for the program. With that being said, an ideal match must have had a good knowledge of social media, English language, and knowledge and experience in organizing events, public relations, and implementing projects. Based on the established criteria and application forms, our team has scheduled interviews with applicants to get to know them better and the ideals they stand for. We did get to know them better which partially made the selection process even harder as each one of them was special in their way as they brought something new, never seen before, to the table. Even though it was hard to make a decision, it wasn’t an impossible mission.
Following our ideals and the overall criteria for the ASA Internship, selected participants are:
• Lejla Druškić
• Mehmed Spahić
Preparations for the program have largely begun and personally, it is hard to contain excitement on the occasion of the upcoming period. We are sure that selected participant will showcase their skills and use gained knowledge for changing the way society perceives diabetes and people diagnosed with it. Existing barriers for people with diabetes will be identified and removed which will further improve their medical and professional position in society. Therefore, we are using this opportunity to call you on educating yourself and being the person that contributes to raising awareness rather than the person that turns a blind eye to the issue.
