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IOYR Logo
International Organisation of Youth with Rheumatism
 

Activities

One of the activities of IOYR is 'to exchange information and experiences and to learn from and help each other'. That is why IOYR arranges activities where the members can meet. Here you can read about International Youth Congress and Members Meeting.


IYC - International Youth Congress

Every third year an International Youth Congress (IYC) takes place. The purpose of IYC is to bring together young people with rheumatism from all over the world. Over an eventful week, through lectures, discussions, exchanging experiences and having fun together, the participants can gain lots of information, ideas, inspiration and new personal experiences.

We want to exchange information and different views, learning from eachother and also helping eachother. Young people with rheumatic disorders have specific experiences in daily life (family, job, study, relations), which could be improved by listening to and learning from experiences from other young people in the same situation. Many young people will discover that these experiences are the same, irrelevant to country boundaries and differences in language.

This congress is also a great event, which gathers young people with different backgrounds. At the end of the congress we expect the participants to return home enriched with all the gathered information and gained new experiences.

The first one was in the Netherlands in 1989, then in United Kingdom in 1992. On those congresses the ideas of IOYR was established. Read more about history.

In 1996 the first IYC in IOYR was arranged. It was in Denmark. In 1998 the fourth IYC took place in Germany and in July 2001 the fifth took place in Norway. The next will take place in Switzerland in 2004.
At IYC we also have the General Assembly for the IOYR. Read more:

Meetings, conferences and projects

 

 
Members Meeting

Between the congresses IOYR arrange a 'Members Meeting'. The 'Members Meeting' is a mini-congress for the members of IOYR. The goal of the meeting is to learn from each other about our work for and as young people with rheumatism. We want the meeting to be a forum where we all get new ideas and inspiration for our work back home. We have talks and debate about:
  • Loca lgroups
  • Youth-Weekends
  • PR - brochures, Internet, media etc.
  • Newsletter/magazines for youth with rheumatism
  • Projects like Into Work
  • Building up a group/organisation for young people with rheumatism
  • What can we do for the mother-organisation?, What can the mother organisation do?
  • How can we use each other?
The first 'Members Meeting' took place in Denmark in 2000. At that time the 'Members Meeting' was called 'Open Day'.
Read about it here.