By Sarra Jouini
Tunis - A Global Village was organized on Saturday, 9th of August 2014 in Bizerta Resort Hotel.
This Global Village is an exposition of diversity and a celebration of cultures. It brought together young people from China, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary, Indonesia, Serbia, Romania, Italy, Taiwan , Croatia and South Korea. Each represented their countries with culturally distinct items, flags, dances, traditional clothes, food and drinks; a duet was sung by a Tunisian and a Turkish volunteer and finally a flash mob dance gathered together all participants.
The event was sponsored and organized by AIESEC, an international, not-for-profit, non-political organization run by students and recent graduates at institutions of higher education across 124 countries and territories. It is the world’s largest youth run organization, and is one of Bizerte’s most active yourht organizations. Thanks to the AIESEC Global Community Development Program, volunteering internships were made possible in Bizerte as the local committee welcomed international students seeking to implement positive change in society.
The aim of the Global village is to create a ground for cultural understanding, to enjoy differences and to celebrate diversity. The event was not exclusive to one age category and for that the impact was definitely wider. Amal Abayed, a 19 year-old student of medicine gushed “Each event in our lives marks a milestone.
So far, Global Village has offered me the opportunity to meet new people, to taste different dishes, to open my heart and mind and see this world; this mixture of endless difference is the reason behind the harmony we witness nowadays. I strongly believe that AIESEC, particularly, Global village is the key to a peaceful world, where all humanity cherish leadership in order to enhance thinking skills, enlarge our knowledge and learn to embrace other cultures. It is high time we made a difference. It is high time we acted.”
The volunteers provided information about their countries, as many people were interested in historical and cultural diversity. They exchanged opinions and wondered about the opportunities AIESEC offers. The Global village event is something Bizerte has never witnessed before.
Rahma Guettari, a 21 year-old student of English explained “having the global village for the first time in Bizerte livened up our coastal city. I got the chance to talk with Shawn, who is a Chinese student in Political sciences in Hong Kong. He gave me insight on the history of China, which encouraged me further to go on and discover his country. I also enjoyed eating some foreign meals. I was in fact travelling without moving and I saw a lot of youth enjoying this remarkable experience.”
Edited by Ilona Alexandra