| P U B |
P U B |
(français) Article from "le Figaro Etudiant", by Céline Le Coq 
How does one tie the international bonds of friendship in the heart of Paris? In 2002, Alaa Homsi founded the ‘ Club International des Jeunes à Paris (CIJP)”, in order to promote cultural exchanges and the integration of foreigners within the capital. When he was still a student, in 1996, he organized meetings between French and foreigners, not finding any equilavent associations. "With a small group of friends, we gathered ourselves every fifteen days to discuss, drink tea, and decide what we were going to do during the weekend ", explains the president of the club.
The motto of the association "leave your shell" is not innocent. Every month, a program with a variety of activities is proposed: visits to museums, exhibitions, shows, discoveries of cuisine of the world , excursions, parties... All of the members participate in discovering their culture. Students in tourism animate the visits of Paris, while others take part in the communication of the association and the creation of the website, on which members can find useful information.
"Until now, the essence of the activities is turned towards linguistic, intercultural and friendly exchanges”. In effect, the members of the club can find themselves every fifteen days at the Mosque of Paris in order to discuss anything while drinking tea or to just visit, each Thursday, an outing to a district of Paris or a visit to a province is proposed every weekend. Workshops of conversation are also organized every Tuesday in English and the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month in Spanish
Alaa Homsi wishes to go further: "since the beginning of the year, we are trying, more and more, to integrate the welcoming aspect, by organizing welcome evenings, orientation visits in Paris to allow the foreigners to know the important places for student life. For example, university cafeterias, libraries, welcome parties... This year, we also launched an initiative with Parisian families, directed at the same time towards the intercultural relations, but also to solve the problems of housing."
The club consists today of approximately 1400 members from 80 different countries. The students can discover other associations thanks to partnerships with the international services of universities and schools, as well as with language schools, and thanks to the internet.