Retrospective ... the seventh day

All of our ISWIcipants got up early after a long part at the a-MAZE-in' Human Rights yesterday night.

The Thuringia Day led them to Erfurt, Weimar, Eisenach and the Kickelhahn.

Before taking off, the documentation group handed out the second issue of the ISWI-newspaper.

In the evening, the movie "I am Sam" led to a lively discussion at the Audimax. Read more

Intercultural communication and the understanding of others

After a burning discussion about the Israeli –Palestinian conflict, Ahmed EL Garhy from Egypt ran a soft discussion about intercultural communication and accepting others to help getting people back to ISWI’s mode
A documentary under the name” Whose song is that” was played afterwards and the audience liked it very much, as it simply showed people’s perceptions towards other cultures.
Participants also had the chance to give a brief overview of how can cultural influence affect the relationship between people specially if they have different cultural backgrounds.
Mido, Egypt Read more

Retrospective ... the sixth day

The Workshop Day gathered together the participants in an activity which enabled some of them to be "group leaders" for a day.
Later on, we had Landolf Scherzer's lecture, the expert in German Democracy and political systems.
In the evening, the aMAZEing Human Rights Maze was a warm setting for interraction between the participants, as well as another great opportunity to hear some good live music.
In the end, clubbing 'round the campus, neverending parties. Read more

By the way...here you have the Workshop day

In the middle of ISWI you have the chance to speak up about the issues you are interested in. In the morning at the Humboldt building participants proposed themselves topics of discussion and had the opportunity to be teachers for at least 1h and 30'.
There have been 4 sessions, taking part in three different buildings: Humboldt Building, Kirchoff Building and Helmholtz Building.

Voila the final result:
Humboldt Bulding:
Gabor - Dance as a wordless conversation
Tobler R. - Intercultural competence in communication
Eliasu - Children right is human right
Heussler - Photography
Charly - Presentation of Cameroon
Najib & Pinastika - An outline of global civil and political rights (Indonesia)
Johnmary - HR in the era of globalization
Sieglinde - Practice our right to VOTE: Philippine voting Amro- The Palestinian rights of return
Mohamed - Architecture and culture in Morocco
Mido - Intercultural communication to get rid of stereotypes
Tadeu - Voluntary work and exchange of life
Ethel - Public-private partnerships for peace
Elena - The right to marry the person of your choice
Mariana - Human rights - senseless?
Advanced sleep and relaxation :) - seriously, this is was a topic too (maybe based on our current needs :) - Kirchoff Building
Ricardo - Get active
Sibel - Housing rights
Bashil - Violence in universities
Martin - Your passion as a tool for social transformation
Monti - Humanitarian work - what is it?
Jose Miguel - Death penalty - right to consular information

Helmholtz Building
Susan - Letter writing for Amnesty International causes
Emmanuel - War against poverty
Umi - Informal Children Education in Indonesia
Simon- Finding freedom through personal values
Ayo - Right to medical care in Nigeria

We hope that the workshop sessions worked well and helped you to enrich you cultural and emotional background as well :) Read more

Retrospective ... the fifth day

The workgroups started their job as usual, at 9 o'clock.
The EAZ was a sad building from 11:00 to 15:00, while the docu group was in Erfurt.
One of the best lectures of this year's ISWI was held at 16:30 by Ulrike von Pilar, on humanitarian actions and the work of Medecins Sans Frontieres.
The Humboldtbau was a happy building today, as it had quite a lot of visitors nearby - the Open-Air concerts gathered there around 500 people (?) for some live performances.
Now, the clubs for tonight:
*BC: Hip-Hop feat. Iyho&pekalle
*BD: Open-Air Aftershowparty
*BH: Open-Air Aftershow(geöffnet ab 23Uhr)
*BI: Karaoke Night.

Have a wunderbar night! Read more

Retrospective ... the fourth day

Fourth day for ISWI =
- the first group works;
- lectures all around the campus and the town;
- Art on the Stre..Mensa;
- parties, parties, parties;

Fourth day for the docu group:
- coffee
- coffee
- coffee
- michael jackson vs. darth vader
- coffee
- disney soundtrack
- reviews
- holsurub
- coffee. Read more

Retrospective ... the third day

The day was started by the International Brunch in the town centre, where ISWI participants from all parts of the world presented their countries' traditional food, drinks and costumes. On-stage performances by many of the groups soon had the attending ISWIs, students and Ilmenau residents dancing. Hilarity ensued. (The author couldn't make this a single sentence, check out twitter for the really short version).

World-wide food supplies were also the topic of Hans Herren's afternoon lecture on "global thinking and local acting" for food security.



The opening ceremony in the festhalle ended the day's events with short speeches by the organisers and honorary guests, breakdance performances, klezmer and jazz music and a pantomime actress. Read more

Retrospective ... the second day

At the sports event everybody won ... a lot of new friends.

Wolfgang Heinz held the first lecture at ISWI 2009.

The groupleaders finally met their participants.

The get-to-know party was finished by a technical defect.

The participants moved on to the clubs.

The total number of participants arrived is 330! Read more

Retrospective ... the first day

Today 197 participants checked in at the infopoint.

Traditionally about 40 Ukranians chartered a bus to get to Ilmenau.

The longest journey had one participant from Australia

A Pakistani was robbed at the airport in Frankfurt and had to return home.

At 12 pm the ISWIradio started broadcasting, ISWIsion will follow tomorrow.

Read more