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The association AFS, which has been organizing student exchange programs for over 70 years, cannot find enough host families for the first time. Because the students are expected in Vienna in September, they are now urgently looking for host families.
Since 1947, AFS has organized stays abroad for over half a million young people in 80 countries worldwide. Now, for the first time, one is faced with the problem of not having enough host families for incoming students, says Vice Chairman Gernot Winter. “If we can’t find any, then they can’t come either. And of course these are personal dreams that burst.”
Host families wanted
The AFS association, which has organized stays abroad for over half a million young people in 80 countries since 1947, is now urgently looking for host families. Because for the first time there are not enough host families in Vienna to take in exchange students.
Different reason
The reasons are varied, says Winter. The Ukraine war is one of them: “Among the families who have already agreed to us and then turned them down again, there are those who have taken in a family from the Ukraine and now have no opportunity to take in any of us.” Current price increases are playing a role, says Winter, and the pandemic is still a possible reason.
That’s why people are now desperately looking for host families. 22 young people still have to be accommodated. The prerequisites at AFS are not great. “The most important thing is that you have the desire to take someone in, to welcome a foreign culture into your home. And the possibilities have to be there, i.e. the spatial possibilities, certainly also the financial possibilities and also the time resources.”
Broad definition of family
The definition of a family is not strict either, says Winter. This could be a family with or without children, but single people can also take exchange students. The host families can find the school for the newcomers themselves if their own children already go there, but otherwise AFS would also support them. Winter doesn’t think it’s too close to the start of school. “These problems are all solvable.”