Operating Principles
Maailmanvaihto is a politically and religiously uncommitted non-governmental organization. Our values are global responsibility, intercultural learning, and equality.
- Global responsibility. Participating in an international volunteer programme, international youth work and the activities of a youth organisation promotes the awareness and agency of young adults in development, equality, and environmental matters as well as their active role in society.
- Intercultural learning. A long-term volunteer programme offers young adults an intercultural learning experience that contributes to their individual growth and provides them with new perspectives. Intercultural learning promotes equality and cooperation across cultural borders as well as supports questioning and deconstructing prejudices and stereotypes.
- Equality. Equality is promoted in all activities of ICYE Finland. Our activities advance cooperation between people with different backgrounds and deconstruct discriminatory thinking and structures. Our activities are inclusive and as accessible as possible for different groups regardless of any reasons related to their person.
Our vision
For a more equal world through intercultural learning
Important principles in our activities
- Caring and inclusivity. We acknowledge the individual needs of the participants in our work and offer them individual support. We enable people from different backgrounds and life situations to participate in the activities of ICYE Finland.
- Reliability and responsibility. The quality of ICYE Finland’s operations and the expertise of the organisation as the organiser of international volunteering are based on long experience and long-term cooperation networks. Monitoring the quality and ethicality of the activities is an ongoing process at the organisation. The quality and ethicality are monitored, for example, through the feedback collected regularly from the stakeholders.
- Transparence. Transparence in communications and decision-making increases the reliability and quality of our operations.
For us at Maailmanvaihto, it is important to carry out activities so that they are ethical from the point of view of the young participants, the receiving organizations as well as the target groups of volunteering. In order to assure the ethicalness of the activities, Maailmanvaihto has initiated making ethical guidelines for the international ICYE. In the training for volunteers, and in the communication work, ethical questions are central.
In recent years, we have put effort into developing the quality of the voluntary work programs, e.g. by creating quality descriptions for our core activities, and by co-operating with university students in order to explore the impact of international volunteering. We have developed further our global education work, which aims at advancing intercultural understanding, via our school visiting activities. Maailmanvaihto executes in its activities principles of equality according to its equality plan (2024).
Climate change, especially at the global level, is also a question of equality because it is the minorities and the people with the weakest livelihood, who suffer the most of the environmental problems. When working with the youth, we aim at increasing their environmental awareness. We also aim at minimizing the environmental load of Maailmanvaihto.
Taking down stereotypes related to foreign people is the most important topic of Maailmanvaihto’s advocacy work.
In the activities and events of Maailmanvaihto, the guidelines for safer spaces are followed.
