Belgium (French)

From AFSWiki

Contents 1 Country Information 2 Placement 3 Travel Information 4 Host Family 5 Academics 6 Support Information 7 Scholarships & Sponsored Programs 8 General Country Information

Country Information

• AFS Country Code: BFR
• See http://www.usa.afs.org/usa_en/view/7962 for more information on Belgium, France.

Placement

• Age requirement: 16.0-18.6 years.
• Language requirement: Knowledge of French highly recommended.
• Health restrictions: Students with allergies to pets become very difficult to place - very low quota.
• Graduates: BFR accepts graduated students but NOT if they already start the university in their own country.
• Smoking: Difficult to place smokers. The law has become very strict (no smoking in public areas, schools and restaurants.
• Dietary Restrictions: Difficult to place vegetarians/vegetalians. The student must be ready to help or to cook on his own.
• Dress:
• Location: 10% urban, 30% suburban, 60% rural. There are one or two host families live in the German speaking region (east side of Belgium) and speak both French and German.

Travel Information

• Visa:
• Arrival & Orientation: Belgian Identity card is +/- 10 Euros (reimbursed by the office). Ask students to bring +/- 6 ID pictures (format approximately 3.5cm/5cm), a medical certificate including TB-test, a birth certificate (and a police clearance certificate for those who are more than 18 on arrival).
• Departure:

Host Family

• Transportation:
• Extracurricular: There are various activities organized by each chapter (museum, theatre, trip, lunch...). All these activities are not compulsory and the students are responsible for paying the cost.

Academics

• Transcript/Diploma: It is the responsibility of the student to follow-up on transcripts from schools.
• School: School starts on 1st September and ends on 30th June. Holidays: two weeks for Christmas, one week for carnival, two weeks for Easter. The participant will have a mandatory 'social week', i.e. working during one week (or the equivalent of 6 days or 40 hours) in a social oriented organization. This is a kind of one-week Community Service to show them another reality in our country. The participants are free to choose the type of organization they will join (homeless, elderly people, disabled people, social restaurant and many other possibilities). This is done in agreement with schools and is at the local level.
  • Lunch: In general the student can prepare sandwiches at home but if he wants to buy them at school or in a shop he/she will have to pay it him/herself
• Language: Each student can benefit from a budget of 150 euros to attend individual French lessons at the local level. The student and the host family are free to choose which kind of classes the student will attend (day or evening classes; private or public...). Host family/AFS/school can help the student find the appropriate course in his/her region.
• Transportation: The school chosen by the host family will be as near as possible from home. Sometimes, host family drives the AFS student to school but if he/she has to go to school by public transportation, the cost is reimbursed by the national office.

Support Information

Information needed.

Scholarships & Sponsored Programs

See Scholarships or Sponsored Programs for Sending for more information.

General Country Information

• Religion: Families are rather open to any religion but Jehovah's witnesses are difficult to place because it's often been associated with sects.
• Population
• Language:
• Government:

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For information, questions or concerns, contact the Program Information Specialist or countryinfo@afs.org.