The Global Experience ''(formerly Solar Net International)'' is an international

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

that is involved with projects of global learning and

Education for Sustainable Development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

History

In 2005 a group of students and teachers from the Schillergymnasium in Münster founded the association Solar Net International e.V with the aim to support the intercultural dialogue of young people around the globe. In 2006, the organization was awarded the "North-South Prize" by the city of

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

. In 2011, counting by then almost 8000 members in more than 160 nations, the organization changed its name to The Global Experience in order to set a stronger focus on the organizations main goal, which is enhancing intercultural learning experiences across the globe.

Website

In 2006 the group opened an online forum that allows members to post reports about their daily lives to share with others. Through publishing language learning videos on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

the online community has been growing constantly. In 2011 the website was awarded with the World Summit Youth Award that promotes best practice in e-content putting the UN

Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 that had been established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millenniu ...

into action.

Projects

The Global Experience initiates and supports projects in the field of

and intercultural learning. Above that the different national groups also run own projects to improve the access to education in their local communities. Besides the German group, members in other countries have been forming their own associations and projects under the name of The Global Experience, amongst others in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. Since 2007 the organization annually holds international youth conferences that invite young members from across the world for a two weeks program to Germany in order to develop and initiate common projects. In summer 2011 The Global Experience launched a new project called "International Reporters". On their website www.internationalreporters.org an international editorial team with students from 20 countries report about issues of cultural awareness, sustainable development and social change. The project was recognized in November 2011 as a good practice project for

in Germany.

Recognition

Since its founding, this group has received recognition from several entities: * The North-South Prize of the city of

2006 *

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

Junior Ambassador 2007 * The Dieter Baacke Preis (Prize) 2008 * Official Project of the UN Decade

in Germany 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 * Winner of the World Summit Youth Award 2011 in the category "Create your Culture"WSYA Winner Projects 2011
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112021643/http://www.youthaward.org/taxonomy/term/48/33 , date=2011-11-12

References

External links

The Global Experience

International Reporters
International environmental organizations Münster