Session on AFS with School Principals
The Principals of various schools of the valley visited our school on 25th March to attend the session with the coordinators of AFS India from Delhi namely Ms. Rithima and Mr. Najamun who briefed them about the vision of AFS India as an international organization which offers global exchanges and learning opportunities to develop inter-cultural competencies for a just and peaceful world. They gave a brief introduction about AFS India, How it restarted in 2005 by sending a group of 45 students to the US, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Japan. AFS India has quadrupled its capacity, sending more than 200 students on exchange programmes and DPS Srinagar has been the first of its kind to introduce AFS in the valley in 2012, when two students Asar Majid and Haziq went for a cultural exchange programme to US. They briefed them that the essence of any AFS programme is ‘Stay’ and ‘Study’ in a different cultural setting. The participants live with a host family while attending local school, gaining a fresh perspective on a foreign culture. Further more, students exposed to international cultures tend to have an edge over other students thereby facilitating their schools to also be a part of the same. They were introduced to different Scholarship Programmes, Paid Programmes, Short Term Programmes for the age group 14+, teacher’s training programmes. They were told that they can have their volunteer base in their schools to spread the message of AFS and take up exchange programmes and send their children for these exchange programmes to avail the opportunities provided by AFS India.
