Ján Figel’, the European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, has congratulated winner of the Ubuntu International Youth Voluntaruy Service Award 2009, with the following statement:
“I congratulate the winners of the Ubuntu International Voluntary Service Award 2009. They exemplify all that is positive about volunteering: the individual benefits from the experience, the immersion in another society and culture; the recipients of the help offered by the volunteers benefit from their activities; and society benefits from the greater sense of social responsibility and social cohesion that volunteering engenders in those who participate. It further pleases me to see that the next Awards will take place in 2011, which the European Commission has proposed to be declared the European Year of Volunteering.”
