Jamshedpur, Dec. 2: Youngsters from across the globe working towards resolving critical issues plaguing today’s world are now in the steel city for the annual conference of Aiesec.

Aiesec, an acronym for Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales, is a world-wide forum, working through collaboration of youngsters — graduates to school students — with its headquarters at Rotterdam, Netherlands.

From environment to education, the youth — 130 delegates from 30 countries — are currently involved in all sorts of discussions. Formed with an objective to develop individuals through co-operation and formation of committees, the youngsters’ forum was found in Europe in 1948. Today, it has managed to spread its wings in 105 countries.

“We are here to discuss projects which have a direct impact on individuals. This is a conference aimed at sensitisation and creating a global network,” said Aditi Bhat, the vice-president, of exchange (AIESEC-India).

Here, her role is pretty cut out. Aditi would be responsible for the overall supervision of projects that would be discussed over the next four days at the conference.

Speaking to The Telegraph today, Thomas Klesken, a volunteer currently posted in Pakistan for women’s empowerment, admitted that a student volunteer’s work was difficult.

“It’s difficult to try to make a change in the system. Our efforts are directed at making places in my project country more liberal places to live in,” said Thomas. Apart from the cultural differences, negativity, suspicion and often hostile behaviour — student members find it the hardest to acquire funding for the projects.

“While we do get a few sponsors, rest of the projects are funded by us,” said Jeremy Higgs, facilitator from Australia also working in Pakistan. Jeremy is currently engaged in working on environment sustainability.

In Pakistan, Aiesec is working through internship programmes to bridge the gap between the host country and the rest of the world.

Today’s events were broadly divided into setting the goal for the entire conference, looking back at the long history of the group — beginning from the first days of foundation — to exchanging notes on the ongoing projects taken up by students in their respective countries.

“The underlying idea is to take in more youngsters into our fold and engage them in making a positive change. We also wish to make them understand the impact of participation,” Jeremy added.