EIL Annual Report 2021

ANNUAL REPORT

Our Story

The EIL/AFS* Ireland story began in the early 1900s in the shadows of the World Wars with a desire to avoid any future wars. Our founders believed that peace and understanding could be built through intercultural exchanges. We were pioneers in developing intercultural learning methodologies and in the use of experiential learning to cultivate global competence. We continue to build global peace and understanding through international secondary school exchanges, cultural immersion opportunities and a series of citizen-to-citizen exchanges across the world.

Our Vision / Mission / Values

 Our vision is “a just and tolerant world where all cultures thrive together in peace.”

 Our mission is “to provide intercultural learning experiences that enrich lives and inspire global citizenship.”

 Our core values of integrity, diversity and passion are the stars that guide us.

Our Call to Action

To foster transformation that will last a lifetime. Today’s exchange participants are tomorrow’s change-makers: diplomats; thought leaders; teachers, parents; influencers in the international business and non-profit communities. Every new participant is another global citizen in progress—an individual primed to help build a more just and peaceful world.

A Message from the Chairperson of the Board

Despite the hopes of everyone in EIL, 2021 saw the continuance of Covid, and presented another year of hurdles for EIL to overcome. Despite these challenges and a huge reduction in our participant numbers that came with them, EIL remained a strong and stable organisation thanks to the hard work of our staff and CEO in particular.

The Board continued to meet virtually throughout 2021 with the number of Board members who had never met in person ever growing. The Board goes from strength to strength each year and I continue to be impressed by their dedication and insights and feel very lucky to chair a Board of such hard working and talented people.

2021 was the first year that EIL, and all other charities in Ireland, were legally required to not only complete self-assessments on our compliance with the Charities Governance Code, but also declare this compliance to the Charities Regulator. The Governance sub-committee led out on this work and we were able to comfortably declare that EIL was fully compliant with the Charities Governance Code.

Another large piece of work that the Board completed in 2021 was adopting a new Strategic Plan for EIL. Our previous Strategic Plan had been extended to cover 2021 in light of the Covid pandemic and the uncertainty and volatility that brought with it. In 2021 we then decided that the best approach was to create a “bridging” strategy that would allow us to plan for the future and where we wanted EIL to be in the next 3 years, whilst also acknowledging that the pandemic was still ongoing and that we could not predict the short term future. The Board and staff therefore engaged UK based strategic planning experts Caplor Horizons to carry out a strategic planning process with us for 2022 - 2024 and we are very happy with the new 3-year Strategic Plan that has come out of that process. The 3 key strategic goals of EIL for the next three years are to rebuild and strengthen our programmes, to run an excellent organisation and to grow our education and global citizenship impact.

EIL continued to develop and closen our growing relationship with AFS, both International and EFIL (AFS in Europe), and once again our membership of the AFS network helped us weather the worst of what Covid brought our way in terms of reduced numbers of programme participants, but also the ability to share with colleagues in other organisations experiencing the same challenges as us, both at staff and Board levels.

EIL’s history with Federation EIL goes back to the very beginning of our story, and is an important part of our identity. We continued to work closely with other FEIL organisations in 2021 and this year also saw EIL submitting our application to be assessed under the Intercultural Exchange Certification. Federation EIL has addressed concern about the lack of quality and accountability in the intercultural exchange field by establishing a set of principles and standards in the form of a certification to strengthen organizations, build trust among partners, funders and participants, and ultimately promote more impactful and high-quality exchanges.

Finally, I want to extend my thanks to everyone who was involved in EIL in 2021. We had all hoped that it would be a year where things returned to “normal” but whilst to all of our disappointment, that was not to be, EIL continued to strive to achieve our mission, to provide quality programmes, and to succeed in all we aim to do. This was only possible with the involvement and dedication of the whole EIL family - the amazing, talented staff who so often go above and beyond to make sure EIL is the best it can be; Kevin, our CEO, who has had to steer EIL through some of it toughest times and has safely seen us through all the challenges we’ve faced to date, through his commitment and hard work; the volunteers, including the Board, who give up their time to share their passion for all that EIL is with others; the group leaders and local coordinators who had more challenges to deal with than usual. Without all of you EIL would not be the organisation we all love so much.

Hill

Niamh

Niamh Hill

Proudly representing Federation EIL and AFS Intercultural Programs in Ireland

Federation EIL (FEIL) is a global network of international exchange organizations that share a common mission, vision and educational goals. In 1989 it was recognized as a Peace Messenger organization by the United Nations Secretary General.

AFS Intercultural Programs is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world. AFS activities take place across 113 countries and reach over 110,000 people each year.

A message from the CEO

Covid 19 continued to have a dramatic impact on the work of EIL Intercultural Learning in 2021. International travel started to open up again during the second half of the year and by the end of the year we had organised in-person programmes for 360 participants. However, this was just 17% of the total number of participants in 2019. In August we hosted our first Road Scholar Group since October 2019. And in September our first two Explore participants since 2019 departed for Mexico.

We continued to receive international secondary school students throughout 2021. Strict protocols around vaccinations, testing, isolation and airport transfers were in place for the 221 students who came to Ireland throughout the year. We had a very small number of Covid cases and nobody became very ill.

Working from home was the norm for the staff team throughout 2021. While it was something of a forced experiment it worked really well and the flexibility and adaptability of the team was truly impressive. It set the foundations of new ways of working that will continue post Covid.

At the very start of Covid we agreed the sale of our old office building at Summerhill North. Some weeks later we agreed to the purchase of new offices in Washington Street in Cork. The new property required extensive work to turn it into a modern, bright, open plan state of the art facility. These works continued throughout 2021 with

various stops and starts as the highs and lows of Covid took place.

Even though it was a year full of challenges there were also some big successes. We won the “Best use of Twitter” Award as part of the Cork Digital Marketing Awards, we deepened our engagement with AFS partners and we launched some innovative multi-day online programmes for Road Scholar.

The EIL community rose to the many challenges during 2021 and EIL ended the year in a strong position. This took an enormous effort from staff, board, volunteers, leaders, coordinators, host families and host schools. All were part of the journey and all are owed enormous gratitude as 2021 was not another normal year.

Kevin Hickey

Kevin Hickey meeting President Higgins and his wife Sabina in pre-COVID 19 times.

2021 in the study Abroad department was a year that was full of activity, with a record 221 international students placed in communities all over Ireland. 40w students arrived in January ‘21 and a record 181 in September ‘21. As in previous years, we had a large number of students from Italy and Germany, and we were delighted to have our first AFS students from Greece, Portugal, Estonia and the Dominican Republic.

Significant challenges had to be overcome, not least those posed by the Covid ‘19 pandemic, but also the challenge of successfully placing such a high number of students in secondary schools and host families across Ireland.

Our local co-ordinators did a stellar job at rising to this challenge, and our amazing volunteers from the EIL network welcomed each one of our students arriving at Dublin airport with smiles and reassuring words.

2021 also saw the return of our Castlebar host community in county Mayo, under our new co-ordinator there, Grainne de Barra.

Overall, 2021 was a very busy year, with 217 students from all over the world experiencing Irish life and immersing themselves in Irish culture, all the while learning about themselves, growing personally and developing into Global citizens.

As 19 year old Diana Fuganesi from Italy, who spent time in county Carlow said: ‘’ It is the best adventure I’ve ever lived in my life and I would do it again and again. My cultural background is enriched now, I’ve met new people and established beautiful relationships that I really care about. Moreover I grew up as a person in terms of independence and responsibility developing skills as self awareness, adaptability, critical thinking, open-mindedness, valuing differences, global awareness, empathy and effective communication.”

Julia Iacob, Manager

●  Host families in 21 counties across Ireland

●  360 people travelled on EIL programmes (increase of 65% on 2020) 90% on 2019

Linked Ireland with 21 countries in Asia, North America, Latin America and Europe

9 Volunteer Board Members

Average attendance at meetings was 92% 10 Board Meeting in 2021

EIL CULTURAL GROUPS

As one participant said, “Every trip with Road Scholar is a learning experience” and this is at the heart of the Cultural Groups department.

We had over 50 in-person groups planned for 2021, but only 11 of these materialised, due to case numbers and ongoing restrictions. The first group arrived in Ireland in August 2021 for the first time post - Covid. They had a slightly different experience to previous years, dealing with Covid testing post arrival and pre-departure, but it was a wonderful return to Road Scholar programmes in Ireland, and thankfully no one tested positive for Covid in 2021!

2021 was a very different and innovative year in the Groups department. Early in 2021 we had “Discover Dublin in Depth” online programmes. These involved a variety of speakers, experts and performers who brought the rich culture of Dublin to Road Scholars directly in their homes. Reviews for the online programme illustrate its success: “An excellent online instruction and sampling of history, literature, sights, and music of Dublin.”

The impact of Covid-19 was widespread in 2021, with many sites in Ireland unable to open their doors to us, but looking ahead to 2022 we are hopeful that we and our colleagues in the sector are looking at a busy season next year as we build back from the pandemic.

Coordinating and managing Road Scholar programmes is a privilege for us in the Groups department, where lifelong learning is at the heart of what we do. It’s amazing to see that no matter what age you are, discovering new places and having authentic intercultural experiences is a life enriching endeavour

Rachel McCourt, Manager Cultural Groups dept

One of our Road Scholar groups learning about Viking history in county Waterford

First day of school for our students placed in county Clare, Sept ‘21’

EIL GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP ACTIVITIES

EIL EXPLORE AWARDS

EIL Explore is EIL’s flagship programme that funds overseas intercultural learning adventures for Irish citizens which challenge participants to become global citizens. Explore is a programme that supports participants with an interest in global issues to travel abroad for the purpose of cultural immersion, volunteering, or language education through a variety of awards.

Explore 2021 was planning to run a full programme as well as prioritising the deferred participants from the 2020 group who were still eligible with an overall budget for the year of €161,050. However, the Covid ‘19 pandemic continued to impact all international travel, and due to travel restrictions, we did not send any of our deferred participants during the summer nor did we run an application process for ‘21 participants..

Activity in Explore didn’t cease however, activities and engaged in several online events and programmes that included:

2

1 x global citizenship workshop

3 x check-ins and update sessions with deferred participants

2 x volunteers engage with our partner VPV in Vietnam teaching English to young students (3 hours a week)

6 x Youth Activists participate in workshops over two weeks with other Youth Activists from North America and a few from Spain and Afghanistan.

5 x youth climate justice activists engaged in a month-long online programme hosted by our German office that involved 64 young people from 12 different countries across Europe and the world (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Thailand, USA, etc.)

Despite limitations caused by COVID-19, we were delighted to be in a position to be able to offer two participants the opportunity to travel on an outbound programme later in 2021.

Aedin McAdams and Ajibola Abiodun both travelled to Mexico and participated in an exciting programme hosted by our partner, PEI Mexico. Aedin and Ajibola were our first participants to travel since 2019, and after all the risk assessments, health evaluations and emergency support put in place, they both spent 7 weeks in Mexico with language lessons, cultural immersion and volunteering in Totláli (a nature and ecological reserve).

The positive experiences of Aedin and Aji overcoming challenges and actually living the Explore experience had us all excited for 2022 when we looked forward to the return of the usual Explore programme.

x SDG workshops

GLOBAL CITIZEN AWARD

The Global Citizen Award (GCA) is a global education initiative that encourages international volunteers to use their overseas experience to take action and raise awareness of global justice on their return to Ireland. Highly motivated individuals are supported to engage in local actions designed to raise awareness of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Participants receive Bronze, Silver, or Gold Awards depending on their level of engagement.

Co-funded by Irish Aid, supported by Comhlámh and IDEA (Irish Development Education Association) and partnered by 24 sector organisations, the GCA has developed into a meaningful national programme and we had 15 successful participants complete the programme.

A summary of the GCA in 2021

 1 new partner (VSI)

 15 GCA participants from 8 VSA Alumni Networks

 35 actions reaching approximately 7,183

 Actions were carried out from 6 counties reaching a national and international audience

 38 reflective posts

 210+ volunteering hours in Ireland

 17 virtual webinars & workshops carried out by participants

 Collaboration across the DE sector for online workshops with Creativity and Change, Comhlamh, STAND and SERVE

 We had three podcast shows published

 8 x newsletter published (The Global Citizen reaching 440 subscribers)

The two online events with 130 participants engaging were: “Living Sustainably in 2021” and “Fake news and Misinformation - the Role of the Reporter in Information Literacy” which were collaborations between EIL, Saolta and STAND.

In the calendar year, we had 7 online engagements including 2 workshops that had 51 and 79 participants on either call.

Our annual GCA ceremony was postponed due to COVID-19. In 2022, we hope to celebrate the 2020, 2021 and 2022 winners at a national awards ceremony in Dublin with special guests.

A pie chart illustrating the various actions participants delivered to the Irish public

EIL VOLUNTEER NETWORK

This year again has been heavily impeded by the restrictions and safety measures due to COVID-19 and therefore we didn’t have any major networking events (not from the lack of want or trying). Our in-person Network Weekend was only two weeks away before we had to make the disappointing but safe decision to go back online with it for a second year running.

Despite the over reliance on Zoom and online engagements, we did have a successful year in networking among the EIL community, and we also were able to deliver training opportunities.

Although restrictions were in place at various degrees throughout 2021, EIL volunteers supported a few major operations this year which included Study Abroad arrivals and departures, orientations and GCA mentoring of participants. In total, we had approximately 44 individuals offer their time and support throughout the year to facilitate and deliver EIL programmes.

Summary of EIL network engagements/training in 2021

2 x social gatherings (Cork and Dublin)

9 x online check-ins

3 x network event (Ubuntu, Tell It On A Tuesday and AGM)

5 x online training events (Tusla, Creativity & Change, Skill Share)

2 x AFS training opportunities availed by 57 individuals (“Foundations of Intercultural Learning and Global Competence” and the “Global Up” programmes)

FINANCE 2021

The Covid 19 pandemic continued to affect international travel in 2021 and had a significant impact on our activity, particularly with Road Scholar, which only partially recovered towards the latter stages of ‘21

*Capital Reserves consist solely of Buildings

GRANT INCOME IN 2021

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth / Youth Service Grant Scheme: €40,340

Irish Aid / Development Education Grant: €25,000

Government of Ireland: Covid 19 Support Schemes TWSS/EWSS: €208,450

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chairperson: Niamh Hill

Vice Chairperson:

Aleksandra Anaica (Chair of Audit & Risk Committee)

Vice Chairperson: Santo Leung (Chair of Governance & HR Committee)

Staff (at time of print November 2021)

Kevin Hickey - Chief Executive Officer

Fiona O’Leary - Senior Manager

Adam Peerbux - Manager, Global Citizenship Department

Rachel McCourt - Manager, Cultural Groups Department

Julia Iacob - Manager, Study Abroad Department

Richard Nixon - IT Coordinator

Lisa Tetteh - Finance Officer

Therese Casey - Senior Programme Coordinator, Study Abroad Department

Ruth Manning - Programme Coordinator, Cultural Groups Department

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD

Gary Cooke

Andrew Ormsby

Amanda Keane

Neasa Peters

Paul Conway

Celine Quinn

Helena Hyde - Programme Coordinator, Cultural Groups Department

Mary Watson - Programme Coordinator, Cultural Groups Department

Rebekah Keating - Programme Coordinator, Study Abroad Department

Carolin Chucholowski - Programme Coordinator, Global Citizenship Department

The Experiment in International Living is a company limited by guarantee not having a share capital, registered in Dublin, Ireland with registered offices at Classic House, 11 - 13 Washington St, Co. Cork, T12 NHP1. Trading as EIL Intercultural Learning

Registered company number is 136044; Charity Numbers: CRN 20107390 and CHY 22114.

The EIL Team