Description of organisation

AFS Norge Internasjonal Utveksling is an independent partner in AFS Intercultural Programs. AFS 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. We pursue our mission by providing quality intercultural learning opportunities for a growing number of young people, families, other stakeholders and wider audiences, thus developing an inclusive community of global citizens determined to build bridges between cultures. Our exchange program is our main activity. It is devided into sending and hosting, where we send about 240 exchange students to more than 30 different countries. Through our host program we recieve about 140 exchange students that will spend one year in a host family. The organization is volunteer based, and the volunteers execute most of the tasks in the organization such as the selection process, host family finding, being a host family for one year, local contact support person, local activities, backup and support and so forth. Central for the exchange program is the intercultural learning. We emphasize the learning experience, and put great effort in preparing and supporting the participants to make sure that they get an intercultural learning experience. That is for the participants on both sending and hosting, as well as schools, the community and our volunteers. AFS Norway has around 400 active volunteers. The volunteers participate in regular trainings and seminars. They are also active in decision making processes in the organization. The volunteers are organized in 20 local chapters around the country. In addition, we also have active volunteers in areas where there is no local chapter structure. The national board is also based on volunteer work.