Glocal Citizens

The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible - and achieve it, generation after generation. 

Pearl S. Buck


Between 18 and 25, each of us must build their future and find their place in social life as active and responsible citizens. Citizens have rights and duties to contribute to the good of the community and to the unity between its members. But citizenship is not only defined in legal terms, it is also a feeling of belonging and an active involvement into community life. John Kennedy in his inaugural address said: "And so, my fellow americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."


Today, our future is at stake at world level. The world is no longer a collection of nation states only, it became a system, a web of relationships. Changes in any one part of this system has effects on the whole as it was shown by the recent financial and economic crisis. All big current problems - the protection of the environment, the social progress, peace - cannot find sustainable solutions but at world level. Therefore, we must learn how to become citizens of the world: acting at local level while thinking at global level.


This is a huge challenge but also a set of new chances for everybody. In this new world, how to choose the best road to become agent of change and not only spectator? How and when should we start? What steps should we plan? How to get equipped for the journey?


Indaba-Network proposes to young adults the World Citizens programme in order to support them in developing social change projects at local community level with reference to global challenges: international and intercultural understanding, protecting the environment, showing solidarity beyond borders, education for all and sustainable development. 

Personal Projects

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A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao Tsu


In which world would you like to live later?  

Do you believe it's possible that actions taken in the present will shape the future? Many people think it is impossible. 

However, actions taken in the past have really affected the present. If in times past nobody had invented electricity, social welfare, television, automobile, human rights, democracy and computers, our life would have been very different today!


If actions taken in the past have shaped our present, we can think that actions taken in the present are able to influence our future. This is true at individual as well as at collective level. 


Each of us develop their personality and assert themselves through personal projects. This is particularly true between 18 and 25, at the time of the transition from adolescence to adulthood.


To manage successfully this transition, we need to step across four thresholds:

  • Moving from school or university to employment; 
  • Moving from family dependence to financial autonomy and individual accommodation;
  • Moving from intimacy to living in couple and founding a family; 
  • Moving from social involvement to active and responsible citizenship at local, national and international levels.

Taking our dreams seriously


We build a personal project from the dreams we have. All of us are dreaming about an exciting future, about a successful life. Our dreams about the future are the driving force of our personal project. We must express them, analyse them, take them seriously for it is by shaping them that our life is becoming meaningful. 

That does not mean escaping from real life or imagining oneself as a super-hero. That means recognising oneself as a constantly evolving individual with an open future and a right to be happy.  


In order to set up and develop your personal project, Indaba-Network propose you several steps :

  1. Alternative futures - Become aware that several futures are open to you and that you have a possible choice;

  2. Self diagnosis - Identify your weaknesses and your strengthes;

  3. Personal objectives and action plans - Set up personal objectives and plan to progress towards the achievement of your personal project; 

  4. Manage your time - Learn how to manage your time in order to be able to implement your personal action plans; 

  5. Portfolio of competences - Evaluate the results of your personal plans and set up a portfolio in order to have your experience and skills recognised. 

Teams and Organisations

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”

Ryunosuke Satoro


Planning and achieving a personal project is not easy, particularly if you are alone. By forming a team with other young people, you will have the opportunity to share your needs and aspiration with others ; you will plan together a collective project to meet them and through this experience you will progress towards organising and achieving your personal project. 


Living the challenging experience of implementing a team project, you will understand that a personal project is also a construction that is achieved progressively and requires time and means. You will also have the opportunity to share your personal project with others team members. Your reflection will be enriched by their reactions. Thus a team is source of ideas, it makes the reflection more fruitful, the views broader and people more perceptive and more objective. You cannot achieve the same level of reflection alone.  


Finally, when implementing the team project, you will discover new horizons, meet new people, and face unforeseen situations. Through these new experiences you will acquire several skills that you need to achieve your personal project but that formal education (school or university) cannot afford to you. These are the life skills, the most important skills for successively achieving your social and professional integration (from the Toolbox, download the handout Life Skills: C-fields of Experience/CE-Talents Spotters ).  


In this chapter, you will discover :

  • How to set up a team; 
  • How to share your values and write down the team's charter ; 
  • How to sharer roles within the team; 
  • How to plan a team project;
  • How to get a critical friend, able to guide and advice your team; 
  • How to join or establish a network to share your experiences with other teams and get support.

Fields of Experience

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It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Confucius

We believe that to prepare our future, we need to live some of the following six fundamental experiences, which correspond to the current big global challenges (international and intercultural understanding, protection of environment, solidarity beyond borders, education for all and sustainable development): 

  • Active and Responsible Travelling :  Discovering one's country, other communities, taking the dimensions of the world as it is; respecting the environment, the people and their cultures.

  • Expression and Culture: Learning how to express oneself, how to communicate with the language of art, music, poetry, theater, cinema; discovering or inventing new ways of expression.

  • Nature and Environment: Feeling the beauty of natural environment and discovering how our own future depends on its survival.  

  • Solidarity and Cooperation: Discovering the challenges of the society where we are living; fighting against prejudices and understanding how the future of mankind is shaped by global interdependence; developing empathy with less privileged people and help them improve their conditions of life.

  • Liberating Education: Experiencing the strength of active learning, helping youngsters discover and develop their full potential in order to find their personal way towards happiness. 

  • Social Economy: Exploring ways to enter the work market and access to financial autonomy, developing income generating activities to fight against poverty, experimenting new solution of social enterprises.

Through exploring these fields of experience, you should be able to live exciting adventures and to discover new ways for your life.

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