Youth2Youth - Terre des Hommes Schweiz

Introductionterre des hommes schweiz has an institutional history in working withyouth and was amongst the first organisations to promote psychosocialsupport for children affected by HIV/Aids in sub-Saharan Africa. The terredes hommes schweiz initiated Humuliza project of Tanzania is known forits innovative approach.Since 2001, the youth-led project “imagine” of terre des hommesschweiz organises workshops and a festival against racism in Switzerland.With “imagine international” the concept of youth-led events and advocacyfor relevant issues has been expanded to Brazil, Colombia and Kenya.With the strategic decision to reinforce the cooperation with sub-Saharan Africa terre des hommes schweiz consequently followed-up theknow-how, experiences, as well as best practices in the area of psychosocialsupport and youth participation. In cooperation with Terre desHommes Germany terre des hommes schweiz launched this pilot programto strengthen the social energy of children and youth.terre des hommes schweiz has elaborated a concept to describe ownstandards for psychosocial support. These standards are matched by theadaptable, practical and resource-orientated solution focused (SF) approach,respecting the cultural identity and background of the people. SFstands for a mindset promoting the expertise of the people themselves.The solution for challenges doesn’t come from the outside. The answerto problems has to come from within, whereas the role from the outsideis to recognise the capacity of the people facing problems by guidingthem to define their goals step by step. With this attitude of respectingstrengths and resources of each other, people meet at eye-level: youthand adults, counsellors and clients, donors and funded organisations.terre des hommes schweiz was very lucky to meet Dr. Theres Steiner, aworldwide recognised expert in the SF approach. She agreed to supportthe program under the condition that it would be solution focused all theway through. This implied that the program would be designed togetherwith youth from the sub-Saharan region and would involve different levelsfrom the staff of the participating organisations.5