Celebration of 25 Stages of Solidarit

These photos are representative of all those who have taken part in Solidarit; those who could not be there, those who made it happen and those who share in the journey

Solidarit founder, David Barnes. His belief in goodness - and his vision, courage and hard work created Solidarit. The best way to inspire our lives and to get love and meaning is to do things for others and to reflect Solidarit was born to do this.

Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, buys some Solidarit calendars from the Winter 2010-11 Solidarit Coordinator, Ciprian Begu

Congratulations for this celebration and for the fantastic achievements!

Of course, Oxfam and fair trade wine

I would certainly be very glad to come and testify on the extremely successful collaboration and involvement of Trainees Solidarit

Solidarit pour moi: Cest la possibilit de donner une autre envergure ces Stage, Cest profiter voire abuser du rle privilgi de stagiaire pour faire passer des ides, Cest utiliser les forces vives et les atouts de chacun pour dfendre une cause, c'est l'alliance magique de la convivialit et de l'efficacit.

Donatienne ClaeysBouuaert - thank you

Commissioner Vassiliou

Masters of Ceremony: Kelly Agathos and Ioana Leu

Solidarit Coordinator, Winter 2002/3, Emmanouil Athanassiou, shares some thoughts

Solidarit supporters from L to R: Klemen Zumer, Donatienne Claeys-Bouuaert, Evalyne Soetewey, Nathalie Charbonneau and Merete Michelson

Fashion parade supporting women in India

Being active in Solidarit was such an important part of my experience as a trainee of the European Commission. It represented an opportunity to meet different people from diverse cultural backgrounds across the world who share the same desire to start making a difference through small actions and with the motivation to reach out to those in need. We bonded and the Projects presented by Solidarit that try to raise awareness of humanitarian issues provide a wide variety of activities that can match the interests of everybody so meaningful and great

Good to hear Solidarit is still going on!

Front row, Joan Scott, former head of the Bureau des Stages; Commissioner Vassiliou; Solidarit helper, Elena Fernandez-Frontan and Matthieu Kleinschmager

Europe Tier Monde President, Dominique-Philippe Levieil

I wish you all the best celebrating this momentous achievement!

Solidarit was the best part of my Stage

Solidarit people coming to unity and peace through self-giving for the sake of others. Amen to that.

Solidarit hand painting

Solidarit is about a spirit of kindness, courage, creativity and ownership.

The best way to inspire our lives and to get love and meaning is to do things for others and to reflect Solidarit was born to do this.

Immediately before his Stage David was in UN refugee camps in Africa, as he left the camps, people said, dont forget us the Stage is the worlds longest running, largest and most significant traineeship programme, it is a cradle for one of the most unique and continuous leadership and policy making assemblies in the world - Solidarit was set up to enshrine the legacy and promotion of humanitarian and social consciousness in this group this opportunity is without parallel and why we worked hard to make it happen.

Each new set of trainees are the current representatives of past generations - Solidarit places particular importance on the participation of new trainees from each Traineeship, inviting their ownership of its structure, information and values.

Avec grand plaisir et bravo pour l'excellent travail de Solidarit!

First of all I would like to thank you so much for sharing with all of us this special event and for counting on our participation. I wish all of you to have a great gathering and big success. It is great as well that David Barnes is in Brussels at the moment and can enjoy this big celebration. Again, thanks for keeping Solidarit walking and for sharing with all those for which it means something special.

For me it meant to help people who do not have it as easy as everyone else.

The Solidarit experience made my Traineeship...it provided me with a sense of empowerment and a feeling of hope and optimism, the idea that we really can change things both at grass roots and at policy level - in short its pretty mind blowing!

Solidarit was an opportunity to get out of our small, protected EU cocoon and get involved with the real world, e.g work with refugees Its a chance to broaden one's horizons and to learn and gain valuable experience from other people from VERY different backgrounds. An opportunity to meet other motivated and enthusiastic people (in general) and from the Institutions (in particular), people I wouldn't otherwise have met.

Solidarit was by far the most meaningful thing on my Stage

Solidarit for me was an outstanding example of people demonstrating that they care about those less well off than themselves. Solidarit sets a fine example for employees and trainees of the EU Institutions and helps to do some fantastic work in local communities.

Left to right: Joan Scott, former head of the Bureau Des Stages, Donatienne Claeys-Bouuaert, formerly from ECHO (both of whom made beginning Solidarit possible), David Barnes and long term supporters Evalyne Soetewey and Maryse Robert.

Solidarit: you are an Inspiration to me as I am sure you are to others involved too. I feel so fortunate and yet so damn lucky.

And, what its all for