During our field trip in Pretoria I learned about the RAG week: RAG meaning Reach Out and Give. Students of the University of Pretoria told enthusiastic stories about this annual event during which they collect money for all kind of projects. Today the RAG week starts in my own home town the university city of Nijmegen. For the third time on a row the students of Radboud University organise a RAG week. In our regional newspaper RAG is explained at being a small piece of used paper that is re-used to write little poems on. Students in the Uk in the early 1900sold these poems to collect money for charity.The UK initiative is already more than 100 years old. In the Netherlands the University of Maastricht introduced the RAG week in the year 2000. In 2005 Utrecht was the second city and Nijmegen joined in 2008. This year the Nijmegen students raise money for the Mundico Foundation and the Bart Foundation. The latter is named after the Bart de Graaff, one of Holland's most inspiring young TV personalities who passed away in 2003. The Nijmegen 2010 RAG program contains 8 days with 53 active groups organising 64 events. The total program can be viewed at www.ru.nl/ragweek. Maybe this sustainable initiative is also an option the explore, exploit and export by an active X team from NHTV in Breda. Imagine RAG week Breda 2011 ... that would be a HIEC (High Involvement Experience Concept): go for it. Wilma Lankhorst
