Spring Into Action! Members' Meeting 2025

27 May 2025

2 min read

A woman with curly hair and glasses attentively listens in a meeting, surrounded by others. The room conveys a focused and engaged atmosphere.

Welcome to the spring session!

An unusual date for our yearly members' meeting. The members' meeting we originally planned in February could not count on enough registrations and the programme struggled to take shape as well. That is why we decided, in consultation with the Steering Committee, to have the members meet later in the year and simplify the programme.

Networking & Getting to Know Each Other.

We started the afternoon with a casual lunch with sandwiches. The opportunity for our members to catch up or meet new faces. We had planned a playful activity as an icebreaker, but that turned out to be unnecessary. The participants found their own way and got to know each other in a spontaneous way.

Three individuals in a bright room are having a conversation. A smiling woman in glasses sits facing a standing man holding a drink, both listening to another person.

Two men are conversing and smiling indoors. One wears a green hoodie, the other a white polo shirt. The ambiance is warm and friendly.

Before moving on to the order of the day, members had the opportunity to introduce themselves and their organisation to the group. Previous evaluations on the membership meeting had shown that there was not enough time in the programme for introductions and exchanges. The composition of the group allowed for it this time.

A smiling man with glasses in a black shirt sits in focus, surrounded by others in a blurred background, creating a warm and friendly atmosphere.

Smiling person in a blazer giving thumbs up indoors. A sign behind reads "Enabel," indicating an agency setting. Atmosphere is positive and enthusiastic.

A woman in glasses speaks passionately while gesturing, seated among others blurred in the background. The scene conveys a focused discussion in a seminar.

Overview & Prospects 2024-2025

The plenary part of the afternoon consisted of an overview of the achievements of 2024 and the prospects of 2025 (download a PDF of the documents below). In the first part, the results of the objectives and sub-objectives of the platform, measured by indicators, were explained by the coordinator. One indicator about the number of formal collaborations between Educaid.be members, is in red (less than 50% of the target result has been achieved). Indeed, during the 2024 midterm evaluation, the evaluators had recorded only one formal collaboration between Educaid.be members.

The indicator may cause confusion, as it is almost impossible for organisations such as APEFE and Enabel to indicate whether a collaboration was created thanks to educaid.be or not. However, the proposal to no longer include the indicator in the next multi-year plan is not desirable, as the indicator does illustrate the role that educaid.be plays in creating synergies between smaller organisations such as, for example, EdukoMondo and TDSO, or even Impala Bridge, which strengthen each other through the platform.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: The Project Groups Introduce Themselves.

Up next, the project groups presented themselves and Peter Stremus (EdukoMondo) of the PG D4E, Pauline Bourtembourg (Enabel) of the PG Climate Change Education and Marije for the PG Policy Advocacy explained the realisations and future activities.

This was followed by a word about the 2024 conference on ‘Education and Technology’ and a preview of the 2025 theme on ‘Education and Health’ taking place on October 10, 2025 in Brussels. Hereby, an appeal was made to the members to do their part in organising the celebration of the 15th anniversary of Educaid.be.

Woman in a green dress speaks passionately at a seminar, next to an Enabel banner, with seated audience members in the foreground.

A man in a white shirt speaks at a podium with a laptop, next to a screen displaying "Review 2024." A banner for "Enabel" is in the background.

A woman stands smiling at a podium with a laptop. Behind her, a screen displays a group engaged in discussion, with text referencing a 2025 meeting.

We continued with the results of the latest member survey on increased knowledge, synergies and external communication. This type of survey (20 responses) gives a good picture of what is going on among members. We closed the presentation with an overview of Educaid.be's external communication by VVOB communication officer Larissa Celis.

Welcome to the Community!

After this, we gave 3 new members the opportunity to introduce themselves. The presentations by Eksenia, SAPI Belgium (by Marije) and EduLab (TechnofuturTIC) could count on a lot of interest (presentations downloadable as PDF below). Once again, we welcome them to Educaid.be.

A man wearing glasses and a blazer speaks at a podium in a conference room. He gestures with his hands, conveying an engaging presentation.

A man with glasses stands at a podium, speaking and gesturing with his hands. He appears engaged, with a laptop open in front of him. Chairs and blurred audience are visible in the background, suggesting an indoor presentation or lecture setting.

We concluded the afternoon by handing over a bag of Phacelia seeds (a purple bee-friendly flower for in the open ground or in a pot) with the following message on it "Sow the seeds for the future with Educaid.be For children and young people around the world. For education that helps them flourish."

We thank the Educaid.be members present for their enthusiasm and active participation in the meeting and Enabel for the use of the conference room.