The aim of the project is to create a mobility scheme, labelled W_UP Tour, to support young people and non-profit organisations to develop entrepreneurial activities on waste upcycling both in Europe and in Asia. These mobilities will be defined as a mixture of raising awareness tours and change-making actions organised by 3 European and 3 Asian non-profit organisations working on the field, with the purpose of: offering quality-learning experiences to international participants; raising awareness at international and local level on waste issues; financially support non-profit organisations and local communities through social entrepreneurship; help the local community to manage better manage the waste. The need to promote a new mobility model specifically on “waste upcycling” steam from a common interest expressed by all partners that have noticed increasing environmental concerns at local and national level due to the lack of proper waste collection and treatment facilities. By valuing the know-how of the partners involved, the project aims to enhance the organisations’ competencies to host and implement change-making experiences on waste upcycling with common quality standards, and to develop an innovative sustainable entrepreneurial concept, based on non-formal education principles, to make positive impact in local communities. The idea of this new mobility format comes from the experience of the VolunTour in Asia and the Change-making Tour in Latin America: the most enriching part of these mobilities, according to the partners, was visiting other non profit organisations, working on a specific change-making topic, and mobilising local people to impact in their social contexts. The W_UP tour will be implemented in each partner country and it will involve between 10 and 15 foreign participants travelling with 5 to 6 youth workers from the consortium. The Tour will last 14 days and will be focused on waste upcycling for entrepreneurial activities. During the trip the participants will discover the local context on waste management together with local community and stakeholders dealing with it, like experts, local NGOs, public institutions and local people, to perform educational activities with young people, campaigns and workshops on waste upcycling. In the last days of the W_UP Tour a dissemination event with local authorities and relevant stakeholders will be organized to present the outcomes of the mobility and raise awareness in the local communities. After each W_UP Tour, there will be a local workshop on waste upcycling run by each partner organisation with the help of a local expert. The workshop will foster active participation of the local community and will contribute to help local people look for innovative solutions on waste management in their own social contexts.
The project aimed to create a mobility scheme to support young people and NGOs to develop entrepreneurial activities on waste upcycling in Europe and Asia. The core was to make a positive impact and reach economic sustainability through a self-managed programme as well as host change-making experiences based on NFE on waste upcycling with common quality standards. The project also aimed to raise the awareness at international and local level on environmental and waste management issues.
W_UP Tour is a follow-up of VolounTour and Change Making Tours KA2 projects: the idea was conceived in February 2018 by No Borders -that was at that time preparing Change Making Tours-, Xeracion Valencia and RUCHI during the Evaluation meeting of VolunTour, while discussing the positive impact the project had in Nepal on waste management. Due to the lack of proper waste collection and treatment facilities, partners realised the potential of entrepreneurial activities on waste management.
<< Background >> W_UP Tour is a follow-up of VolounTour and Change Making Tours KA2 projects: the idea was conceived in February 2018 by No Borders -that was at that time preparing Change Making Tours-, Xeracion Valencia and RUCHI during the Evaluation meeting of VolunTour, while discussing the positive impact the project had in Nepal on waste management. Due to the lack of proper waste collection and treatment facilities, partners realised the potential of entrepreneurial activities on waste management. << Objectives >> The project aimed to create a mobility scheme to support young people and NGOs to develop entrepreneurial activities on waste upcycling in Europe and Asia. The core was to make a positive impact and reach economic sustainability through a self-managed programme as well as host change-making experiences based on NFE on waste upcycling with common quality standards. The project also aimed to raise the awareness at international and local level on environmental and waste management issues. << Implementation >> After the suspension due to Covid-19, we gathered at the KOM in India in November 2022 and at the TC in Spain in March 2023. Then, W_UP Tours took place in each partner Country between June and October 2023. With a few exceptions, every tour was followed by a dissemination event and a local workshop to involve local communities, while in October 2023 we had the final evaluation in Cambodia to analyse the project impact and discuss follow-up plans. << Results >> 13 videos published across FB, IG, and Youtube, totaling 571.7k views;30 IG reels shared; 1 free online Toolkit available;8 articles on mobility experiences on the website;76 self-funded participants trained in W_UP tour;280 people, 15 representants of local authorities and 31 stakeholders at Dissemination Events;169 people in local workshops;6 waste upcycling local experts and 14 project coordinators involved;30 future project proposals created; 16 new partnerships activated.