Our board member Nami Isaki attended the annual Youth for Exchange and Understanding General Assembly 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal from 7th to 10th December and was elected to be a vice president of the network for the next two years. We did a little interview on his impressions and benefits.

What was your motivation to get involved into this international network?

My story with YEU started 7 months ago, when my colleague responsible for sending people on mobilities asked me to be in the facilitation team for their project “Brave new you”, and for that reason I needed to attend a training course in Slovenia. I met a lot of YEU people, and it got me interested in involving into this network. After that I participated in their Annual Convention, it was my first one, which continued with the final event “University on Youth and Development” held in Mollina in September. Since I got in touch with a lot of YEU people, I started to think that I should apply to be a member of their Governing Board. I like new challenges so I decided to go for it, and luckily I got elected.

What are your responsibilities now as a vice president?

YEU has five strategic priorities and the board should follow and work on them. One of the main priorities of the board is to strengthen the network and especially its member organizations. As a vice president I need to work closely with the administrative office and member organizations of the network, and also to promote YEU as one of the leading networks in non-formal education and policy development.

What are the benefits for you and for the organization that you represent from this position?

CID is a part of YEU from 2010, since then a number of people from CID were part of their pool of educational trainers. A lot of volunteers and young people participated in different projects implemented by the network. Another benefit for the organization is working on common projects. On personal level representing CID in important events across Europe is really beneficial for me, but also getting more engaged in policy development on European level, following important networks such as European Youth Forum and Lifelong Learning Platform.

Why would you recommend to young people to get more engaged in international networks?

International networks are interesting but at the same time have a lot of responsibilities because to engage in a network means that you need to attend a lot of activities. On the other side there are a lot of advantages like having information on first hand, meeting with different stakeholders, and of course using this opportunity for self-development.