Behinderung und Entwicklungs­zusammen­arbeit e.V.

Inclusive Volunteer Services

bezev wants all people to be able to participate in voluntary services abroad!

That is why we have been advocating for inclusive volunteer services for over ten years. Bezev has made it its mission to make volunteer services more inclusive and to enable all people, whether with or without disabilities, to spend time abroad.  

In the lives of many people, especially young people, stays abroad play an increasingly important role. The motives for this are very diverse and range from the desire to take a breather or to develop a personal perspective to the need to be able to make one's own knowledge and experience available to other people abroad. Stays abroad shape the lives of many people - whether professionally or personally. The right to inclusive voluntary service is enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) and is therefore a human right. It can be classified by the right to education (Art. 24), habilitation and rehabilitation (Art. 26), participation in political and public life (Art. 29) and international cooperation (Art. 32).

There is now a wide variety of opportunities for volunteering abroad. It doesn't matter whether it's for a short or long period of time - whether it's a work camp, youth encounter, weltwärts voluntary service or European Solidarity Corps. There is also a wide variety of state-funded opportunities to go abroad, and there are now more and more possibilities for support and funding for additional needs. Bezev works in a network of organisations that are open to inclusive secondment.

Our inclusive volunteering services include the following:

• We have been sending young people with and without impairments on international voluntary service through the weltwärts programme since 2008.
• We advise people with impairments/disabilities who would like to volunteer abroad or who are interested in doing an internship or studying abroad.
• We advise and train organisations working in the field of volunteering/commitment abroad on inclusive working.
• We are politically active and represented in various networks and committees to improve the framework conditions for inclusive stays abroad.

Below you will find access to our section "With us in the weltwärts voluntary service" and "Advice on inclusive stays abroad".