Special Thanks to Bickel & Brewer Foundation for 2009 Support

SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL DEBATE ACADEMY SLOVENIA,  Ormož/Ljubljana  23rd – 27th November 2009 – IDAS 2009

The Bickel & Brewer Foundation awarded Za in proti, zavod za kulturo dialoga,  with a grant of 5000$ or 3317 EUR by November exchange rate  for organising the International Debate Academy Slovenia.The grant money was spent for awarding scholarships for some  participants in order for them to pay lower participation fee. It also helped  to cover part of the costs of accomodation and food for the trainers at IDAS  which  helped to   lower participation fee for all participants. The Bickel & Brewer grant was extremely important, because it helped participants who otherwise would not be able to come. Especially important was for everybody because it covered the trainers costs at IDAS, which allow everybody to pay lower partiicpation fee. The scholarships were extremely important for the the participants from Venezuela, because they are in the process of building debate programme in Venezuela, at the university and highschool level, and the knowledge gained at IDAS it is extremely important for them.  As Venezuela government does allow their citizens only very small amount of foreign currency their would not be able to come without the scholarship we granted.

The programme consisted of two parts, the training one being held in Ormož from November 23rd – 27th and the tournament from 27th – 29th in Ljubljana at the University of public administration in Ljubljana.  The total number of the participants, trainers, judges, organisers, volunteers  were 122,  75  for the Ormož training part and additional 47 people for the Ljubljana tournament.  Participants and trainers came from the following countries: Afganistan, Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Honk Kong, Ireland, Italy, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Ukraine, Venezuela, USA.

The Bickel & Brewer scholarships  were announced together with the call for  participants and at the IDAS 2009 web page. Till the end of September we got 24 requests for scholarhips. We awarded all of them with the grants from 70 to 100 EUR. However, 7 receipients later decided not to come, some of them because they did expect a 100% scholarhip including the travel expenses and some of them because of the unexpected problems right before the event.