The association "Förderer und Freunde des Gymnasium Rhauderfehn" tries to support the local high school but also the other schools in our area. We are working to develop the quality together with other involved groups; beside this it's also duty of our association to help young people while growing up. On purpose we focus not only on school but also on social and compensational issues. The schools in which the volunteers will mainly work, have a students' population of about 1600 totally. The Gymnasium is the biggest school with almost 1000 students which means that main parts of the work of volunteers will be done here. Nevertheless the volunteers can choose where they would like to have the main focus in their work. There are about 120 teachers and staff members in the different schools. The office of the volunteers (2 international ones and 3 German ones) is situated in the building of Gymnasium Rhauderfehn next to the Mensa and the libary. From here to the centre of Rhauderfehn it's about 600 m. In the center next to the market place you can find the youth-cafe where the volunteers offer their activities four times a week while normal opening times but also in closed groups. Rhauderfehn (www.rhauderfehn.de) is a municipality (about 17.000 inhabitants) in the district (Landkreis) Leer in the south. Eastfrisia itself is located in the North-West of Germany – the distance to the Dutch border is about 25 KM, to the North Sea Shore its about 70 KM. It's a quite rural area with respectable people. The contingent of migrants is quite low which means there is almost no chance getting to know other cultures. Wages, but also costs are not very high and the longterm unemployment rate is unfortunately quite high. Rhauderfehn is a small town (17.000 inh.), the next bigger town is Leer (35.000 inh., distance 18 km). There are busses running eat day time – for the evenings and busses there's a bus-by-call-system. The next bigger town is Oldenburg (130.000 inh., distance 60 km) which can be reached by train from Leer. Also the Netherlands with the city of Groningen is not too far away. Young people in the area we live in, quite poor Eastfrisia, do normally not have contact with youngsters from other European countries. The number of immigrants is rather low. This is why the association "Freunde und Förderer des Gymnasiums Rhauderfehn e.V." tries to improve the European awareness of young people by organising EVS projects. We consider it a good opportunity to build up relations between young people in our area and these youngsters from foreign countries who would like to spend one year abroad.School is a place where you normally find formal learning. In our point of view its helpful to offer opportunies of informal learning and social learning as well. The way of life for young people should not only consist in learning facts and getting marks. Its also necessary to provide opportunities to get intercultural experiences. Europe is enlarging and growing together and so it is necessary for young people to learn how to deal with peculiarity and culture of other countries. The opportunies for doing this are in the rural area of Eastfrisia quite spare – the contingent of migrants is quite low, as we already mentioned. Since 2006 we are recognized as host organisation and meanwhile there have been 5 young volunteers as guests in our organization. The experiences we made till now are really positive. This year, for the first time, we sent two young adults abroad for their EVS, the number of youngsters interested in this programme is increasing. The association "Freunde und Förderer des Gymnasiums Rhauderfehn e.V." (Friends and supporters of Gymnasium Rhauderfehn) is working on improving the situation of young people in the rural area of Ostfriesland. In our point of view it's necessary to provide intercultural experiences for young people. For this reason it is a good opportunity to build up relations between young people in our area and these youngsters from foreign countries who would like to spend one year abroad.School is a place where you normally find formal learning. In our point of view its helpful to offer opportunies of informal learning and social learning as well. The way of life for young people should not only consist in learning facts and getting marks. Its also necessary to provide opportunities to get intercultural experiences. Europe is enlarging and growing together and so it is necessary for young people to learn how to deal with peculiarity and culture of other countries. The opportunies for doing this are in the rural area of Eastfrisia quite spare – the contingent of migrants is quite low, as we already mentioned. Since 2006 we are recognized as host organisation and meanwhile there have been 4 young volunteers from Finland and 1 from England as guests in our organization. The experiences we made till now aremainly really positive.