The fundamental purpose of our proposal is the development and cultivation of intercultural skills and competencies of all the members of the educational community (students and teachers), as the cultivation of positive attitudes towards cultural diversity and especially towards refugee children. We intend to promote tolerance and cultivate antiracist climate at schools. In modern society, with the great inflow of refugees in Europe and the phenomena of violence that have been observed, there is a great necessity of information and awareness of their members in order to create the proper conditions for coexistence of all. Through the several project activities we aim, among other, to: - Help students and teachers develop knowledge, competencies, skills and behaviors for regular coexistence and inclusion of all people in community regardless of origin, language, religion. -Cultivate critical thinking and ethical values such as justice, equality, tolerance. -Cultivate and sustain friendly relations between European countries through the exchange of experience and the creation of a cooperation climate for the confrontation of common issues. In the direction of this cooperation we unite students and teachers of 3 levels of education which will cooperate and interact to the achievement of common objectives. There will be implemented local activities at all the partner schools and common activities during the international meetings. Students and teachers will participate in the intercultural workshops that will be organized. They will create stories, songs, poems, they will write their own books. They will issue a newspaper and magazine. They will create videos and a short film. They will visit refugees’ reception centers and will organize voluntary actions. All the activities will be planned with participation of all the partners, after discussion and exchange of aspects. During and after their implementation there will be held continuous evaluation and redefinition where necessary, in order to achieve the best results for everyone. The impact is expected to be positive for all the participants. They will obtain knowledge for the cultural diversity that there is in Europe and will develop possible attitudes towards it. They will develop cooperative, social, linguistic, and technological skills. They will get to know and exchange teaching and learning methods and techniques. The project’s results will be disseminated and sustained even if after the end using means of dissemination such as the blog, the websites of the partners’ schools, eTwinning platform, social networks and will be an incentive for other schools to cooperate in transnational level and implement similar projects.
Final summary The project titled «Lifeboats full of hopes» was proposed and actualized having as a main purpose to develop and cultivate intercultural skills and competencies of students and teachers, to cultivate positive attitudes towards cultural diversity and especially towards refugees. To meet these needs, it was deemed necessary and useful to focus and work on an issue that exists nowadays in Europe, the refugee issue. The main objectives to be achieved were: - To help students and teachers to the creation of their critical thinking and motivate them to tell their opinion and act in social challenges. - To cultivate ethical values such as justice, equality, tolerance. -To understand the meaning of dissimilarity and exclusion in combination with the basic and catholic children’s needs. - To obtain empathy for the situation in which are people that are forced to leave their country, so as to respect them and prevent xenophobic tendencies - To get to know basic human rights and defend them - To get to know more information about the forms of support of the organized citizens’ action in local, national and international level in the framework of cooperation with organizations like UNICEF, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, International Amnesty and the worldwide organization about children’s rights - To develop skills of effective search on internet and choice of proper information - To practice on material production with the means that technology offers - To strengthen relationships of friendship and peace among European countries, through the exchange of experience and the formation of a cooperation climate for the confrontation of common issues. The coordinator was the 5th Nipiagogio of Farsala, Greece. Partner schools were: 2nd Gymnasio Farsalon, Farsala, Greece, Tallinna Mustamae Humanitaargumnaasium, Tallinn, Estonia, Stavros Gymnasium, Nicosia -Strovolos, Cyprus, Agrupamento de Escolas de Maximinos, Braga, Portugal, Charles de Foucauld Mavo, Spijkenisse, Netherlands and Publiczna Szkola Podstawowa imienia Kardynala Stefana Wysznskiego Prymasa Tysiaclecia w Muchowce, Muchowka,Poland. All the institutions are state, providing general education for students 5-17 years old. Three education levels (pre-primary, primary and high) were united, cooperated and interacted to the achievement of the project’s common goals. According to the approved application, local activities were carried out at all the partner schools and common activities during the Transnational Meeting and the LTTAS. -The project was firstly created in etwinning by the coordinating school -The project poster and logo were created by each school and chosen by voting during the 1st meeting (Transnational). The project blog was also discussed there and decided to be created by the 2nd Gymnasium of Farsala. -Erasmus+ corners were organized and worked at each school during the implementation of the project + -Leaflets after each meeting were made concerning each school’s preparation activities before the meeting and common ones during it -All students and teachers searched and studied information about human rights, refugees and generally about the refugee issue and created material referred to these topics, as following: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in a short video, The Refugee Primer (electronic), refugees’ stories in comics form, creative writing refugees’ stories gathered all together in an e-book, e-fairytales based on real stories of unaccompanied refugee children, e-magazine, a short film about refugees around the world, essays in Google Drive dedicated to the refugee stream in Europe after the 2nd World War. -Charity bazaars were organized by the Greek, the Polish and the Cypriot schools The project had a positive impact on all the participants. Students learned about cultural diversity and were sensitized on human rights’ issues. They raised their awareness, tolerance and respect of cultural and social differences between nations. They developed their critical thinking and creativity and built skills such as problem solving and decision making. They cultivated a spirit of teamwork and cooperation between them. Teachers cooperated with their colleagues from the partner countries. They improved their pedagogical skills by exchanging and sharing teaching methods, good practices and new approaches. Their communication, language and ICT skills were cultivated and improved too. The participating schools had the experience of developing links with other European schools, cooperating and learning about different educational systems and approaches. Parents were offered the opportunity to learn more about European Union and European projects. They gained new experience by hosting international students and found out more about various cultures in Europe.