A great morning, afternoon, evening or night – whenever you read that as people full of motivation and engagement – to all YEE members.
As it says on our website, "FÖJ-AKTIV e.V., founded in 2005 and run by volunteers, is an non-profit organisation for volunteers of the ecological voluntary service (FÖJ) in Germany. The aims are to promote the FÖJ, to consult and support applicants, and to plan and implement local, regional and national activities to foster participation and multiply the participation of FÖJ-volunteers."  

The ecological voluntary service program is an opportunity for young people in Germany between 16 to 27 to get an insight into different branches of organisations, companies, institutions and offices that work with and for the environment. Its main idea is to be a year full of education – not education you get by sitting on a chair and writing on a piece of paper what somebody in front of you is talking about, no, education and awareness by working and being with people that are truly involved in environmental topics. This could be living and working at an organic farm, helping in smaller and bigger communities and organisations such as Robin Wood or Greenpeace, educating other people in schools or museums and so on. There is a broad chance to experience life and work more closely connected to our planet, especially for younger people – and on top of that, you meet with other young and engaged people in five seminars during your service.

We as the FÖJ-AKTIV e.V. are the organisation behind this service to connect people who want to be more involved in this idea or just want to stay in touch with other engaged souls.

Every year a board of five people who are either doing such a service or did this service in the past is elected – this year we have Jay, Charly, Stefan, Moritz and Xaver in our front rows (from left to right in the photo above).

Since the election took place in early November, we are just starting to connect, getting to know each other and figuring out ideas and events. However, there are already several topics on our list:

• our anniversary next year (10 years FÖJ-AKTIV e.V.);
• preparing the Bundesaktionstag (=National Action Day), the chance for all people and volunteers connected in the FÖJ coming together and creating a day full of environmental topics – with the main aim of creating more awareness about this year and our environment in the public (for example by having a great bike ride, flashmobs, etc.);
• another great project on our list is hosting and participating in the Training Course "Environmental Training for Eco-Trainers" in March 2015 – we are proud to be the host and happy to welcome many people with different backgrounds, but from one planet with one environment, coming together to share their ideas, energy and knowledge.

There are even more ideas on our list and a lot more people in our organisation and in the FÖJ itself who are living and acting for a society in which we can get closer – closer to each other and closer to nature.

FÖJ-AKTIV e.V. would like to welcome all of you who are coming to Rügen in March and of course all of you coming to us for other reasons, too.

Thank you for sharing your energy and time with all of us,

Jay, Charly, Stefan, Moritz and Xaver – and all other members from FÖJ-AKTIV e.V