Mathilde Bocéno
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”I arrived in Maribor at the beginning of July and I stayed there for 3 months. I didn’t choose to do my internship in Slovenia but this experience allowed me to discover a country I never thought I would visit. At first, I was afraid about the language barrier because it is not an English speaking country but finally everything was ok. I learned basic words in Slovenian and most of the people speak English so we could understand each other. Regarding the job part, I had the chance to do my internship at ZNI. I had the opportunity to better understand how mobility paperwork is handled and how to manage the groups coming to do Erasmus in Slovenia. The team and the work atmosphere were very nice so even if the job didn’t exactly match with my expectation, I enjoyed my work placement.
Regarding the personal experience, I had the chance to do preparation courses with ZNI at the beginning of my mobility. I was alone in my group so I did it with two other groups doing Erasmus too. It allowed me to meet new people directly so I never felt lost or alone here. Slovenia is a small country and it is a good thing because I had the chance to visit most of the »things to see« in Slovenia: Bled, Triglav park, Portorož, Piran, Ljubljana, Ptuj, Postojna cave and castle… But also visit cities in border countries: Zagreb, Budapest, Graz and Venice. I will remember all the wonderful people I met from this experience, the beautiful places I saw and the internship which will be valuable on my CV.” |
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Diogo Abreu
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"Marbor, the city that was for five months my second home. Here, I had a lot of good moments. Outside of work, I learned to ride a bike, I learned to cook better, I got to know people in the other countries with other ideas and cultures, I enjoyed the parties organized by the Erasmus group at the weekends and I had good moments with my friends and my girlfriend (we played football, play station, poker, chess, we went to the gym and cafe very regularly, ...). Furthermore, the location of this city is good for visiting other neighboring cities. Therefore, I went to Ljubljana, Piran, Koper, Portorož, Lakes Bled and Bohinj in Slovenia. I went to Graz and Vienna in Austria. I also visited Prague, Budapest and Venezia.
Regarding the work, I had good and bad moments like everything in life. In the first weeks I was very nervous because I arrived to Maribor alone and I always had difficulties in English and I didn’t know what to expect at work. However, I think that I adapted well and I did all tasks successfully. In the middle of the internship, I made a lot of mistakes mainly due to lack of communication and for distraction. In ZNI I had a bigger notion what is the labor market and I learned that a lot of discipline is necessary to wake up in the morning and come to work and it is important to communicate with the company's people to listen to each one's ideas to avoid making too many mistakes and lastly, it takes love for the work we do. I feel that I leave Maribor more capable for the job market and I want to thank you for the opportunity you have given me to internship here. Lastly, the idea of the company is more interesting and I don't know of any other company that does this. In addition it is conjugated with a fantastic group, always happy and willing to help. For this all I can say that I take with me good memories from this experience and I hope to come back here one day." |
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Vasile Parfenie
Vasile comes from Italy through Uniser. He is doing his work practice at Verus which is a successful marketing agency in Maribor. In his work practice, he does market research and he tries to improve our tourist products. Also, he translates some documents from Italian to English, and sometimes from Slovenian too. Verus does many events so there is always a lot of preparation to do and invitations to send. He even went to three of them and one was in Ljubljana. He really enjoys working at Verus, and he says that his coworkers are really friendly towards him and he feels like he is doing it great. He wish he could work for a company like this when he finishes school.
Aniol Vilaregut Argerich
Aniol comes from Spain through the TLN project of Asociación Mundus. According to his studies of mechanical engineering, his internship is in the international company Palfinger, where he draws and designs new structures, and also helps to grow up the company. He is so excited to see his own designs built. He is hooked on skiing and bikes, also he enjoys going to Pohorje, where you could come across with him someday.
Martí Cera Rull
Martí comes from Granollers (Barcelona) and his work practice is in Mladinski dom Maribor. He is working in the unit of Slivnica where they perform projects of education based on Social and Therapeutic Horticulture. His tasks are based on teaching how important is the nature, how to take care of it and how to take profit from it in a good way. He is so excited with one of his workshops called “Get to know vegetables and their seeds” which youths perform in the Center.
Carlos Enrique García Lerma
When I arrived in Maribor, I was so confused. I liked the city and also, I wanted to live this incredible experience, even though the organisation told me the place of my internship was so far away from where my apartment was. The first days of our mobility, we did so many cultural activities around Maribor and some preparations with our group. However, I was so nervous when we had the interview with our companies due to, I felt that I wasn’t prepared for that. I didn’t know what to expect.
Finally, the interview was amazing, they were so kind and nice to me. They said I could decide what kind of experience I would want, I mean, in which field I would like to improve or develop. I’m so glad that Association Mundus and ZNI have given to me this opportunity, although I have to spend 3 hours of bus every day between go and back from Maribor to my job, it’s worth because I really enjoy going to my internship.
Finally, the interview was amazing, they were so kind and nice to me. They said I could decide what kind of experience I would want, I mean, in which field I would like to improve or develop. I’m so glad that Association Mundus and ZNI have given to me this opportunity, although I have to spend 3 hours of bus every day between go and back from Maribor to my job, it’s worth because I really enjoy going to my internship.
Hugo Nunes da Cruz
Hugo have a nice week in his company Kreativni Institut. He was setted up with some tasks and most of them he completed and he is currently working in other ones. He wants to improve his abilities for being a nice DJ.
Leando Serra
Leandro have a nice week, and now is more confident in his skills than last week. He believe that his abilities will improve even more. He went with his mentor to had lunch, he visited the castle of Ptuj, and saw some paintings from the past century in the castle museum. He went to Pohorje, and it was so nice to meet people of other countries that are doing an Erasmus project.
Bogdan Argat
Bogdan has a complicated start, he found very difficult to stay in front of the computer for 8 hours without being able to go somewhere, his work practice are in Rdeca oranza d.o.o. He is doing something that he never learned, but he is curious and he knows how doing it. He really liked that all the people of Slovenia are nice and almost all know how to speak English, which is impressive.
Nuno Dias
Nuno comes from Portugal and his work practice are in Sola Prihodnosti Maribor. He is working at Web Development. He has to installed Laravel, read its documentation, practiced using the development environment and am feeling more comfortable using it. He began his Slovenian course on Tuesday.
On Saturday, he went to a trip to Pohorje and he met a couple of people that we got along.
On Saturday, he went to a trip to Pohorje and he met a couple of people that we got along.
Lucie Chalupova
Lucie comes from Czech and her work practice takes time from 27.9. 2018 to 27.4.2019. She is working at elderly home Dom Danice Vogrinec - or as she would say it, this is not really working as she loves her job it as much as it was her free time. She is helping elderly with breakfast and lunch and also carries out social activities. This week was special because of St. Martin day, as there were even music bands visiting the Elderly home and performing in the afternoon. Lucie says she really enjoyed it. Her biggest challenge is understanding Slovenian as she would like to communicate more with users of the Home. She is attending a Slovenian language course and therefore we all believe that by the end of the mobility Lucie's Slovenian knowledge will improve significantly.
Michele ZiliottoMichelle is our participant from Italy who came to Slovenia together with Carlo and Giulia with the same aim to improve his English skills, discover new places, meet new people from different countries and get valuable working experiences for the future. Michelle worked in logistics company in Maribor. From the beginning he was helping with a paper work but step by step when some time has passed he starting doing things by himself. He became a selfconfident worker who didn't have a problem to solve any task given to him. He really enjoyed working in Global Express. Other than that in his free time he tried to travel around Slovenia as much as he could. Usually he went to see new places with Carlo and Giulia. He visited Ljubljana, Ptuj, Bled, Postojna Caves and etc. Michelle hopes that staying/working in Slovenia will help him to start his carrer in the international trade field. We have our fingers crossed for him and we wish him good luck.
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Carlo Johanni Capuzzo
Carlo is a rugby player from Italy who came to Slovenia to start his journey to fulfill his dream. He sees his future in the international trade field. That's a reason why he's decided to spend some time abroad, to get valuable experiences. Carlo during his stay in Slovenia used every possible oportunity to travel and discover new things. He visited Bled, Ljubljana, he hiked local mountain Pohorje. He discovered Maribor and found himself a favorite spot. Even though Carlo is a rugby player/lover he went to check one soccer match. Game was in Maribor and match was between home team Maribor and team from Glasgow, Rangers. He really enjoyed the atmosphere. He left Slovenia with a full bag of memories, new friendships and experiences which we hope will help him in the future.
Giulia TizianiGiulia is our participant from Italy who came to Slovenia to improve her English and learn more office tasks. She worked as administrative employee for two years and then she attended a course about import-export which gave her the opportunity to apply for the internship in Maribor. After one week in a company she was moved to MIKRO + POLO where she finished her work practice until September. Her mentor and colleagues were very friendly with her, Giulia was really satisfied with the job because they explained her everything and made things interesting so that she could work with passion. She was very sad to leave her company because it felt like family for her and she wanted to stay in Maribor to keep working with them. At the end of the working experience, her mentor wrote her a beautiful and touching recommendation letter that will be really precious for her future.
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Daniel Valenzuela Machado
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Daniel is a Colombian boy living in Spain and studying to become a nursing assistant. The love for his job was already very visible at the beginning of the experience, but once integrated in his work placement Dom Danice Vogrinec, an elderly house, he lived some priceless moments, such as walking around the garden with a lady whose smile reminded him why he chose this profession. This job made him feel grateful and blessed for how people enjoy simple things in life, like when his co-worker brought a guitar and they all sang together with the patients. Thanks to his positive attitude, kindness and sense of responsibility, both residents and the employees responded very well to Daniel, who brought really positive energy to the environment.
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Nicoleta RogozaNicoleta is a girl from Romania who lives in Spain studying administration. She came to Maribor with the desire to mature and improve as a person, discovering what she really wants. She did her work practice in our office together with other two guys from the Mundus group, Paula and Dario. She improved a lot and became more confident in her abilities and she was very valuable in our team. Nicoleta did a lot of desk work and was very helpful. She enjoyed a lot her time in Slovenia and we miss her and her colleagues as part of our team.
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Dario Puig Loras & Paula Benedicho LlenaDario and Paula are administration students from Spain who decided to come to another country with the project Mundus to learn how to speak English more fluently while doing their dream job. They wanted to go out of their comfort zone to see and learn other cultures, languages, people and see things from other points of view. Thanks to their positive attitude and willingness to deal with challenges, we found their help in our office very valuable. During the work practice, together with Nicoleta from the Madrid group, they prepared all the needed documents for our other groups and the three guys integrated very well with people of different cultures. They took many trips to Croatia, Bled, Ptuj, Celje and Budapest. Dario enjoyed so much that he said he would like to find job in Slovenia or Croatia.
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Ana MuncescuAna studies tourism at the Technical Commerce School in Bologna and she came to Maribor with other participants from the Italian UNISER group, within their project MG2020. Our ZNI team found her a working position at Rajzefiber biro, which is located in the city centre and provides and produces performative, educational, all-sensual local experience of Maribor. Ana would like to work in tourism, so this job was perfect for her. She helped them in their office and she also went to explore Maribor with her colleagues, to learn something new about our city. During their time together, they went to the outskirts of the city and to the tower of St. John the Baptist Cathedral, where she had to get over her fear of heights to enjoy the beautiful view of the city. Ana had a great experience in Maribor and in Rajzefiber biro, where she enjoyed working and learning new things. The company said that they will miss her and that they are glad to have met her and we are sure that the feeling is mutual. You can read all about her experience on her blog: erasmusana.wordpress.com
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Alessandro Meazzini
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Alessandro is an Italian student of International Relations, whose love of travelling brought him to Maribor. He did his work practice at ZNI, where he helped our team with many different things in and also outside of our office. During his time in Maribor, he spent a lot of time in the city center and he was surprised by the liveliness of the city and by the Slovenian coffee culture. During his mobility, he attended the International Dinner, organised by ESN Maribor, which was held at Štuk, to represent Italian dishes and to socialise with others from Spain, Portugal, France etc. He admitted that he loves Slovenian sweets and that his favourite sweet is our national dish, Prekmurska gibanica.
After three weeks, Alessandro went home and we were sad to say goodbye to him. It was a great experience and we are very happy that we got to meet him. Alessandro enjoyed his time in Maribor and he said that he learned a great deal about Slovenia and our culture, made new friends, developed new skills and that he does not regret his decision to come here even one bit. Alessandro also kept a blog about his experiences in our city, which you can check out at this link: leapsnbound.weebly.com |
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Anna - Charlotte Karlsso
This beautiful Golden Fox on the right photo looks like it has been drawn by a professional painter! The author of it, however, is one of our Swedish mobility participants, who prefers to be called Lotta. By cooperation with her group Activa+ and MKC Youth Centre from Maribor, ZNI managed to get her an internship in the Gallery Media Nox, which is located in the premises of the former Synagogue at the Jewish square in the old part of the town.
Her mentor Aleksandra was really impressed with all of the paintings she had done before and during her stay in Slovenia. As a sort of thanking her for all the help from her side, she also invited Lotta to her exhibition, which was opened on 21st April 2017 under the title "The Sky is the Limit". Lotta felt there very proud of herself, but also a bit shy in front of the big audience. Together with other friends and participants from her group, she also paid a visit to some tourist attractions of Slovenia and nearby countries during her internship, which lasted for almost two full months. During their first week in Maribor, they explored the town by playing an instructive game under the instructions of our English teacher Luka. Just after the exhibition, the whole group visited our capital city Ljubljana, and during their final weeks, some of them, including her managed to travel to Venice in Italy plus to Croatian capital city of Zagreb. Afterall, who knows when they will get another chance like this to spend some time in the very heart of Europe, where different regions, landscapes and nations lie so close to each other. Before going back to Sweden, she also expressed the wish to be able to stay there even longer. The same thing goes for most of the other Activa's participants. |
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Mattia Natali
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Mattia studies in Bologna to become higher Technician for automation and mechatronics systems. As a member of the UNISER group he came to Slovenia within their TechNet 2020 project for a six-week-internship. Our ZNI institute found him a working position in the company Goldpack, located in the town Hoče near Maribor. He was given the work in the assembly department, where he firstly began assembling components on his own and then learned a lot about mechanical tools, soon becoming able to do some projects on his own, together with his co-workers. They already miss him, since his internship was finished in the middle of May and he went back to his home land Italy.
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Maura FortesMaura also comes from Portugal and from the group Euroyouth. With the help from our institute ZNI she got an internship in Hotel Betnava. As a receptionist she made sure that the rooms were tidy for the guests and helped the hotel employees by decorating the hotel. She was happy with her duties and co-workers, only for the first days after arrival she felt a bit cold, since she was not used to cold winter temperatures in Slovenia. Since many guests used to arrive into hotel for their check-ins on weekends, Maura often spent those days at work. One of her most memorable events during the internship was the one with the football players of NK Maribor, who spent some days there. Maura had a chance to talk with the captain of the team, Marcos Tavares. Since he comes from Brazil, they both were able to speak their native language to communicate.
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Diogo Ferreira
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Diogo is our participant from Portugal, who came to Slovenia within the group Euroyouth. Our institute ZNI provided him an internship in the MKC Hostel, where he spent his weekdays working in the reception. His tasks included all kinds of work like cleaning the kitchen and tables, welcoming the guests who come mostly from abroad, serving them breakfast and finding new ways to keep them entertained. His main project was the creation of the game called treasure hunting, under the supervision of his mentor, miss Zdenka. He got along with her and the other staff of employees very well.
As a big football fan, he also discovered the club that the people of Maribor are very proud of - the football club NK Maribor, and paid a visit to its stadium, Ljudski vrt to see a couple of football matches with with other fans of this club. |
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Marco GhiniOur participant Marco from Italy, which came to Slovenia thanks to our cooperation with our partner Uniser has started his working experience last week in company Peloz d.o.o. based in Nova Gorica. The main business of the company is meat production. The meat products of the company are winning ever-increasing recognition across Slovenia. Marco worked in the production department and helped to produce salami, ham, sausages all well known around Slovenia.
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Fabio PrandiniFabio is our participant from Italy who came to Slovenia thanks to cooperation with our partner Uniser. In these days he is starting his second month of internship in Slovenia. ZNI provides him a work placement in the Product Marketing area in company Zlati grič d.o.o that focuses on wine producing and also serves as resort for vacations. Fabios duties in the company are working in all production sites of the company, helping with marketing issues of the company, web site translation into Italian/English or selling the products in a company shop, etc. Besides the experience in his major he is also gaining the experience in the wine business – he is learning about wine processing methods and he had also opportunity to speak with visitors from Italy. He showed them the surroundings of the company, presented them the company products and also sold some of them. Fabio is glad to work in a friendly atmosphere where his co-workers and also his tutor are kind and from the first day are trying to help him to feel comfortable in the new environment of the company. During his free time his friend and parents from Italy came to visit Fabio and he was discovering also other places in Slovenia like Celjle, Ptuj or Maribor with them.
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Elisabetta RinaldiElisabetta, from Italy, has chosen Maribor to earn new experiences in coordination with ZNI, in a retirement home called Dom Danice Vogrinec. Her duties during the week include work with elderly people, helping them with everything they need.
She also follows the rehabilitation therapy of one of the residents. Sometimes she attends the classes in Day Care, where she helps the patients with some memory exercises. Her presence in Dom Danice Vogrinec is really appreciated by the residents, as they like having a new person there and especially because they have opportunity to learn some basics in Italian language. Elisabetta really likes working there, for she has the possibility to see how this type of work is done and to learn new things to improve her capabilities. In her free time, she likes to discover the city of Maribor and other places in Slovenia. She already visited Ptuj, Koper, Bled, Bohinj and Ljubljana, enjoying so her hobby of photography. She loved staying in Maribor, making new friends, learning Slovene language and developing new skills in her field of work. |
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Pietro DusiPietro is an Italian participant from Uniser Projekt ITS+, that in coordination with ZNI spent his summer in Maribor, working in a production area of the company Zlatorog Oprema. His duties include manual work like assembling mechanical components, as well as administrative work, such as preparing files for the clients. He finds his work very interesting and keeps asking his mentor and co-workers for more and more duties. He has also enough time to work on his personal project, where he can use his theoretical skills gained during his studies and turn them to the reality. During last month he also joined other foreign participants in discovering different parts of Slovenia like its capital city Ljubljana, Koper and Velika planina and he also made a trip for a weekend to Vienna. According to his reports, he has already gained lots of confidence by working in a foreign environment and socialising with new, mostly foreign people and also these activities have turned him from a shy to more confident and open minded person. These types of experiences can sometimes be even more valuable and important than the practical ones.
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Giacomo TropeaGiacomo is another participant from Italy working as a mechanic in Avto Koletnik company in Maribor. This working position was provided to him by ZNI. In Koletnik, Giacomo is doing various types of work within a friendly atmosphere and under the supervision of a friendly mentor. His duties include preparing working area, changing car tires and checking cars before having them serviced. During the end of his practice, his co-workers also invited him to go for a go-kart together, where he had a great time. He also enjoyed exploring other parts of Slovenia in a sunny and warm summer weather. Among other trips, he visited the capital city Ljubljana and the mountain Velika Planina with other Italian participants. They even made it to the Slovene coast and over to Trieste, maybe to reduce their homesickness a bit.
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Michele Caldarini
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Michele is our participant from Italy to whom ZNI provided work placement in one of the leading European and global corporations in the field of Automotive technologies and Industrial technologies, HIDRIA in coastal city Koper. Michele says that he really likes his job because it fully reflect his student profile and he also speaks very positively about his tutor in the company, which makes his working tasks very various, so Michele can get to know as much as possible from the whole company.
In his free time Michele explored his neighbourhood in Koper, but he also visited the nearby cities of Piran and Portorož. On the weekend he also organised trip to Ljubljana where he participated in colour run! |
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Virginie ChanutVirginie came to Maribor within Erasmus+ programme through ZNI, to work in Urbani Spa as a masseuse. She spent her first preparation week on language courses, learning English and Slovene, and also getting to know the city by visiting its various museums and restaurants.
Work came next: under the supervision of her mentor Lea during the next few weeks, she did the massages to her clients in Urbani Spa. She also participated in making different kinds of hair-styling, cosmetics and body care. In her free time she visited other parts of Slovenia, plus Vienna, the capital city of Austria, one of its neighbour countries, having a really wonderful time. |
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Justine GuilletMeet Justine, our participant from France.
Justine came in Slovenia by ZNI program and she is working and gaining experience in the field of hotel tourism in Maribor. She is surprised that the receptionist's work is so diverse and interesting. Colleges at work are very nice to her and she learnt at lot from them. In the free time Justine likes to hang out with new friends and she is very active. She likes to discover Slovenia and near countries with other participants. She already visited Ljubljana, Bled, Vienna (Austria) and Venice (Italy). "There was very interesting cultural exchange. We also laughed and joked a lot about our cultural differences and about ourselves as well", said Justine. |
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Baptiste SaulnierBaptiste is from France and he works in IT Center in Maribor. Enjoying his working environment and getting to know the collective, he is also having fun with his co-participants from France, going out in the evenings and also visiting other Slovenian cities and touristic resorts. One of them was Bled, which amazed Baptiste and his fellow friends with the beautiful environment, enabling them to enjoy the surrounding nature and have a truly relaxing time off from the city rush.
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Luca FabbriLuca is an Italian student who graduated in Marketing and Communication and with the Erasmus+ project choose to do his internship experience here in Maribor. ZNI found for him one of the youngest and most dynamic marketing agencies of Maribor.
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Niko Mathlin & Rasmus KorkiakangasNiko and Rasmus are students of Raahe Vocational Institute from Finland and they have chosen Maribor, Slovenia for their destination for placement within Erasmus+ program. They are Mechanical fitters and have been involved in Maribor's best metal work companies. Placements and hosting program have been organised bye ZNI Institute.
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Meeri StarastWe would like to present you our participant Meeri, a student of Hyria Education (Security Officer). She comes from nearby Helsinki, Finland and she is having her Erasmus+ internship in Maribor, Slovenia - she is involved in Maribor Airport's Security Team.
Placement and hosting program have been organised by ZNI Institute. |
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