After long time of uncertainty in the world, with the Covid-19 cases falling and travel restrictions beginning to ease, FRIENDS project partners have finally been able to organize the 4th FRIENDS Project meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The fourth project partner meeting, combined with the so called Home Away From Home Retreat, took place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from April 19th until April 22nd, 2022, and was hosted by Payap University. During the four-days hybrid meeting, leadership and workshop facilitating roles were allocated to all partner HEIs, regardless of how the HEIs participated – online or face-to-face.

The Home Away From Home Retreat was originally planned to take place at the 5th partner meeting scheduled for October 2020 that was postponed due to COVID-19. During the four-day meeting partners worked on the Home Away from Home Programme, joined team building sessions, parallel workshops and simulation exercises, and worked on various project aspects of the FRIENDS Teahouses operation linked to the development of local and international students’ global skills. During the partner meeting in Thailand, project quality, dissemination and exploitation of results were discussed.