Campus France stands up for the Festival of Francophonie

Francophonie and student mobility: key figures

• 208,000 international students from a country that is a member of the IOF were registered in the French higher education system in 2023-2024.
• 50% of international students in France are from a country belonging to the French-speaking world
• +23%: the growth rate of the number of students from member countries over 5 years

The growth of the number of students from member countries has been faster than average growth (+17%). Francophonie has thus been a vector for student mobility.

Source: Ministry of Higher Education and Research and SIES office of statistics.

Festival of Francophonie: mobility, volunteer work and commitment

As early as 2 pm, a discussion session called “My experience in 180 seconds” will invite on the stage twelve young individuals (volunteers, students, entrepreneurs, language assistants and more) to talk about their experience in the French-speaking world in three minutes, with a focus on four topics: 

- Francophonie, an asset for professional insertion: with Mahamadou Sanogo, creator of the Jobtech start-up, from Mali, Kodjo Kokou, former volunteer and jurist at CNRS, from Togo and Ariadna Lozano-Fernandez, Mexican language assistant.

- Working in the French-speaking world and contributing to solidarity development: with Natalia Vessova, volunteer as part of the “Volontaires unis pour la francophonie” programme, of Argentinian Slovaquian origin, Liv Grannemann, German volunteer from the French-German Office for Youth (OFAJ) and Fatma Jebali, Tunisian volunteer in the European Solidarity Group (ESG).

- Entrepreneurship in the French-speaking world: with Jade Trepanier, French-Canadian cofounder of Emballage Pick Pack Entreprise, Orlando Chuiquimia, Bolivian student in industrial computer science and Christopher Djonouma, a Chadian volunteer seeking to open a solidarity shop of sport equipment.

- Studying and training in the French-speaking world: with Helin Çiçek, German volunteer at the French-German Office for Youth (OFAJ), Maurice Koutchika, Beninese student in work-study programme at Campus France and Alajor Fatawu, a language assistant of Ghanaian origin. 

From 4 pm to 5:30 pm, the Forum section will take the stage to raise awareness and provide information on Francophonie issues. A “human library” including about 15 young persons who will present a symbolic object of their experience will allow to concretely talk about the stakes of mobility in the French-speaking world. Games (a quiz about commitment, a workshop about interculturality, a game called Exploratio, about the French language) will be organised in the afternoon.

Organisation entities of the Festival are:

• France Volontaires
• Office franco-québécois pour la jeunesse (OFQJ)
• Office franco-allemand pour la Jeunesse (OFAJ)
• Campus France
• Agence du Service civique – SALTO EuroMed
• France Éducation international (FEI)
• Agence pour l’enseignement français à l’étranger (AEFE)
• Agence universitaire de la francophonie (AUF)
• Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie (APF)
   

Alumni share their experience

Maurice Koutchika and Orlando Chuiquimia, two members of the France Alumni network, will be present at the Festival of Francophonie to share their experience in commitment in the French-speaking world.

Maurice Godwin Koutchika

A student from Benin, Maurice is studying in a Masters in Digital Communication and Project Management course at the University of Paris 8. He also has a scholarship from the French government, and in 2022 was awarded an Eiffel Excellence Scholarship for his Masters in Modern Literature at the University of Tours.

He is very involved in the French-speaking student community, and alongside his studies he has created a YouTube channel called “LeBoursier”, where he explains about excellence scholarships for students from Africa and around the world.

He also did a work placement at Campus France in the Excellence Programmes department and helped to run the Eiffel Scholarship alumni network.

Orlando Chuquimia

Orlando Chuquimia graduated in Electronic Engineering from the UMSA engineering school in Bolivia in 2014. He then continued with a Master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Bretagne-Sud in France, where he graduated in 2016. He obtained his PhD in Electronics, Computer Science and Telecom at Sorbonne University in 2019 and completed an MBA at INSEAD business school in France in 2021.

Orlando has also been a professor at several prestigious institutions, including Sorbonne University, Polytech Sorbonne Engineering School and EISEA Engineering School in France, as well as UMSA University in Bolivia. Since 2022, he has headed the R&D department at echOpen factory.

Festival of Francophonie: discovering cultures and French-speaking societies

From 2 to 6 October 2024, the Festival de la francophonie will be held at the Gaîté lyrique (Paris 3). The festival is called Refaire le monde, and the event is an invitation to discover French-speaking cultures and societies and to meet leading figures, well-known or otherwise, who are inventing and building the French-speaking world of today and tomorrow. Initiated and supported by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Festival of Francphonie is being launched to coincide with the 19th Francophonie Summit, which will be hosted by France on 4 and 5 October for the first time in 33 years. 

For more information: https://festivalfrancophonie2024.org/

This festival is open to all, with a special focus on the younger generation. The programme of these vibrant days includes exhibitions, concerts, debates, performances, live shows, literary encounters, comedy, conversations, film screenings, gastronomy, workshops on cultural practices and meetings with a host of Francophone personalities from all over the world.
 Families, students, schoolchildren and professionals will be invited to appreciate the dynamism, vitality and artistic and cultural diversity of the French-speaking world, to grasp the challenges facing society and to take an interest in the opportunities it can offer, on a personal or professional level, to every citizen of the world, whatever their age or activity.