Name of organization/school:

Sint-Dimpnacollege

Official address of the organization/school:

Full Address: Gasthuisstraat 2
B 2440 Geel, BELGIUM
Telephone (country and town code): +32-14-58 02 04
Fax: +32-14-58 11 04
E-mail: info@dimpnacollege.be

Address for correspondence and contacts:

Danny Van der Veken
Full Address: Wenen 6
B 2470 Retie, BELGIUM
Telephone (country and town code): +32-14-37 22 50
Fax:
E-mail: danny_vanderveken@hotmail.com

Organization’s mission / school specificity:

St Dimpna’s is a private-subsidized, mixed, catholic school, aged 14-18. It has 727 pupils in the sections Economics-Modern Languages, Economics-Mathematics, Greek-Latin, Latin-Modern Languages, Latin-Sciences, Latin-Mathematics, Modern Languages-Sciences, Modern Languages-Mathematics, Human Sciences and Sciences-Mathematics.
Besides their mother tongue Dutch, our pupils follow for at least 3 years French, English and German. Nearly all these boys and girls will be going to universities or to other higher education schools. The school has a staff of about 70.
It got its name from a local saint, whose cult formed the origin of a very old, traditional method in treating the mentally ill, as it is still practised in Geel.
The Sint-Dimpnacollege arose 1 September 2001 as the result of a reorganisation of secondary education in Geel. Before, there was the Sint-Dimpnalyceum, a former secondary girls school, aged 12-18, and the Sint-Aloysiuscollege, a former secondary boys school, aged 12-18. Within the new school community KOGEKA pupils, teachers, headmasters and names were exchanged. Result: the Sint-Dimpnacollege now has boys and girls aged 14-18 and the Sint-Aloysiusinstituut has boys and girls aged 12-14.
Since 1992 our school has built up some experiences with international exchange projects. In that year we invited one school of each country of the European Community for one week in Geel. That ‘European Week’ was repeated in Luxembourg (L, 1995), Helsinki (FIN, 1996), Kingston-upon-Hull (UK, 1997), Athens (GR, 1998), Mainz (D, 2000) and Neumarkt am Wallersee (A, 2001).
Meanwhile we started projects with schools from Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Norway, Poland, France, Hungary, Romania, The Czech Republic and Latvia.

Legal status:

Date of creation: 1 September 2001 Date of official registration: 1 September 2001

Number of permanent staff 97 Full-time:61 Part-time: 36

Partner organizations and participation in networks:

School community KOGEKA: ‘t Peperstraatje, Geel (Belgium), Sancta Maria Instituut, Kasterlee (Belgium), Sint-Aloysiusinstituut, Geel (Belgium), Sint-Jozefinstituut, Geel (Belgium), Sint-Maria-Instituut, Geel (Belgium)
Comenius 1 school project ‘Water Solidarity’: Stenhus Gymnasium og HF, Holbaek (Denmark), Institution du Sacre Coeur, La Ville du Bois (France), 2nd Lyceum of Larisa, Larisa (Greece), Szechenyi Ferenc Gimnazium, Barcs (Hungary), L.S.S. ‘Piero Gobetti’, Bagno a Ripoli (Italy), Gaigalava vidusskola, Gaigalava (Latvia), Torsbergsgymnasiet, Bollnas (Sweden)
Comenius 1 school project ‘The Ciconia Project’: Schola Humanitas, Litvinov (Czech Republic), Kongsberg videregaende skole, Kongsberg (Norway), IV Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. K.K. Baczynskiego w Olkuszu, Olkusz (Poland), Externato Ribadouro, Porto (Portugal), Colegiul National ‘Doamna Stanca’, Fagaras (Romania)
Gymnasium Interlaken, Interlaken (Switzerland)
Socrates Accompanying Measures school education project ‘SPLASH. The International Year Of Freshwater 2003, Stepping-stone Towards Sustainable Development Education’: GREEN Belgium, Brussels (Belgium), College Louis Denayrouze, Espalion (France), Hogeschool Zeeland, Vlissingen (Netherlands), The University of Hull European Resource Centre for Schools and Colleges, Hull (United Kingdom), The Cyprus Pedagogical Institute, Nicosia (Cyprus), Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe, Vilnius (Lithuania), GREEN Pannonia, Barcs (Hungary)
Partner organizations and participation in networks:

Full name of the accompanying adult:

Mr Danny Van der Veken

Full name of the organization's / school’s legal representative:

Mr Luc Briers

Summary of water and sanitation major activities or campaigns of the organization since 2000:
(Please, describe each activity or campaign in no more than 10 lines)

1. Ecological day project “Water. Valley of the River Kleine Nete” (since 1992)
Each year, pupils determine the biological and chemical water quality of some local rivers in Geel. For the biological part of the job, they use the BISEL method (Biotic Index at Secondary Education Level) and compare their results with the “official” results of the Flemish Environmental Services. The BISEL method is being used all over Europe. After having identified the sources of pollution, the pupils contact the local responsible peoples to confront them with their results and to discuss the problem.

2. Water Solidarity (2000-2003)
Within this project we wanted to prepare our participation to the two next European Youth Congresses for Water, which were hosted by one of the partner schools: Szechenyi Ferenc Gimnazium in Barcs (H), 11-18 July 2001 & KOGEKA* in Geel (B), 22-29 March 2003 (* the school community the Sint-Dimpnacollege is part of).
Within the project we established three pupils' activities which lasted the whole project period or were repeated each year: 1. Water quality assessment of local rivers by means of the BISEL Biotic Index method; 2. Competition between the partner schools: try to reduce the schools' annual water bill; 3. Creation and management of a ‘Water Solidarity’ website: www.nexus.hu/watersol
Besides, each schoolyear we focused on another aspect of water solidarity:
2000-2001: evaluation of the initial 'Espalion Declaration' (1999) on water citizenship and preparation of the 'Barcs Declaration' (2001) on water ecotourism. 2001-2002: working on the topic 'water music promoting sustainable development'. 2002-2003: preparation of the 'Geel Declaration' (2003) on water, industry & politics.

3. 2nd European Youth Congress for Water, Barcs (Hungary), 11-18 July 2001
The second European Youth Parliament for Water was held during the Second European Youth Congress for Water, in Barcs, Hungary, from July 11 to 19, 2001 which brought together some 25 youth delegations, including 150 participants aged 11 to 19, and 30 adults, namely elected officials and ecotourism professionals. More than 20 European countries were represented. The theme for the Congress was "The role of rivers in cross-border regions." This event took place under the honorary presidency of Ms. Vigdis Finnbogadottir, former President of Iceland and current Chairperson of COMEST, and Mr. Janos Ader, speaker of the Hungarian Parliament.
The Sint-Dimpnalyceum (= ex-Sint-Dimpnacollege) delegation contributed to theCongress newspapers, guided the water quality assessment workshop and composed a video report of the Congress.

4. SPLASH
SPLASH, the Third European Youth Congress for Water, 22-29 March 2003, in Geel (Belgium), was a meeting for about 400 committed European youngsters, aged between 12 and 18, who are working on water-related projects. During the Congress they were able to present their activities, exchange ideas, work together and make plans for the future. The theme of the congress is “water, industry and politics”.
The programme comprised an opening ceremony, a ‘projects forum’, workshops, excursions, sports and cultural activities, in which various aspects of water are featured. The Melodie Theatre from France performed their ‘Water concert for a winter’s garden’, a lively and surprising theatrical fantasia. The quintessential elements of SPLASH were a proper parliamentary session in Brussels and a final celebratory event in Geel.
The Sint-Dimpnacollege delegation contributed to the parliamentary workshop sessions, preparing the parliamentary session in the European Parliament by composing motions on the topics “water & solidarity”, “water & human rights”, “water “ consumption” and “water & local governance”.

Please, describe briefly how you are going to participate in the project activities (see attached Second announcement) and which of your implemented projects you are going to present during the Parliament itself:

SPLASH was the Third European Youth Congress for Water, organised by GREEN Belgium, KOGEKA (the school community the Sint-Dimpnacollege belongs to), the City of Geel and the Youth Water Representatives, 22-29 March 2003 in Geel, Belgium.
It was a meeting for about 200 European youngsters (44 delegations from 27 European countries), aged between 12 and 18, who are working on water-related projects.
During the congress, they were able to present their activities, exchange ideas, work together and make plans for the future.
The programme comprised workshops, sports and cultural activities in which various aspects of water were featured.
The week started with an opening ceremony (in attendance of Laurent, Prince of Belgium) and ended with an excursion to Brussels, including a plenum session in the European Parliament.
During the parliamentary workshops, the students composed (together with experts) 4 motions for resolutions for water problems. The 4 topics were discussed and voted in a democratic way by all the youngsters participating in the congress.
In Brussels, the motions have been acknowledged by the members of the European Parliament and the European Commission and a Network is being constructed to give the youngsters the space to participate in the policy-making processes of the European Commission.

It are these motions, these ideas and experiences, created during a youth congress, that we would like to present during the Parliament, that we can improve, discuss about, that would give new inspiration and possibilities for youth participation.

Besides, we would like to contribute to the creation of the Parliament’s website and video.

Please, describe briefly how you are going to disseminate the results of the Parliament:

During SPLASH, 5 new Youth Water Representatives have been elected to spread the constructive ideas of SPLASH among all European countries, via a network of enthusiastic Youth Water Delegates. The five Representatives (coming from all parts of Europe) keep in touch with each other via e-mail and will meet each other several times a year to discuss further developments. One of the students of the Sint-Dimpnacollege, Annejo Huybrechts, is chosen to be their president. She has been congratulated with the SPLASH results by Mr Quevauviller of the European Commission and supported further collaborations with the Water Framework Directive Team of the European Commission. Besides direct contacts with politicians in Brussels, the Sint-Dimpnacollege has a lot of partnerships with schools and organizations all over Europe (see above). All our experiences are being shared with them, as fits in the philosophy of being partners with the same goal and interests.

List of Participants: