This project is a research into the past of each of the participant countries, through their history, culture, language and traditions. The main objective is to find out the links between the different cultures that make up the European Union, compare them and draw conclusions about the differences and similarities that enrich and unite us. The basic purpose of the project is to train individuals, integrated to the cultural identity of our age at all, approaching with respect and understanding to different cultures, owing and recognizing cultural richness and diversity, seeing culture as area for creating not demanding resources, and believing in the necessity of creating economic and social sustainability. The project's other aims are; -to establish a intercultural dialogue and promote openness, mutual respect and understanding, combat ignorance, prejudice, racism and xenophobia in order to soothe and/or avoid conflicts in and outside our homeregions. -to train individuals, integrated to the cultural identity of our age at all, approaching with respect and understanding to different cultures, owing and recognizing cultural richness and diversity, seeing culture as a area for creating not demanding resources, and believing in the necessity of creating economic and social sustainability. -to arise awareness for the Safeguarding of common Cultural Heritage in EU countries and to strengthen their institutional capacities so that they can develop activities to safeguard their heritage with the participation of the communities and groups concerned.(UNESCO Convention) -to preparing a pedagogical base including reflections and proposals of active methods invaluable to improve the Lisbon Key Competences such as: learning to learn, interpersonal, intercultural and social competences, civic competence, cultural expression and communication in the mother tongue. These goals will be achieved by addressing the following topics: 1-Multicultural understanding 2-Cultural traditions (Intangible Cultural Heritage) 3-Common Cultural heritage (tangible Cultural Heritage) 4-Active European citizenship 5-Cultural discrimination and racism The project's specific objectives : 1. Encouraging the establishment of the roots of common EU culture based on inter-cultural tolerance, maturity and free thought 2. Implementing the project as a global and complementary tool to develop the multinational cultural cooperation between the member states of the project; create “support areas” to meet the need for this purpose at every level 3. Raise awareness of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 4. To promote social justice, acceptance of differences, and peace 5. Raising pupils’ awareness with regard to social exclusion as violation of human rights. 6. To promote students' personal and professional development in order to become active among European citizens 7. To encourage foreign language learning and sharing through the use of new technologies. The main target group of this project is students that are the owners of future. That is why all our activities are students oriented and can be only accomplished with their participation. The aim of the these activities is to enable the students gain knowledge and abilities that they can use in future. So with 7 partner schools taking part in the project and spreading the knowledge gained and involving people activty with the measures on integration put into practice, an estimated number of 100 people benefiting directly from the activities.We hope there will be many more involved. Our partners represent contrasting social and economic backgrounds, and a diverse collection of communities from across Europe. By working together to deliver our aims about human rights we will be successful in showing our students, parents, staff and others, how people from different parts of Europe can work together in order to improve relations and create a more cohesive European citizenship. The project methodolgy is based on the concept of interdisciplinary teaching as a means to enhance the quality of education. We aim at approaching key issues from the perspective of different subjects, cultures and languages, thus providing a more comprehensive understanding of civic issues in a European context. To assess the impact and to ensure the proper development of the project, both formative types of evaluation as well as summative ones (eg statistical analysis) are used. It is expected to be a strong cooperation among institutions, municipalities, district governorships, district national education directorates, NGOs during the preparation, implementation and sustainability of our project. Local authorities, organisations and institutions (NGOs, church communities) in all participating countries will be invited to learn about the project and its results.
Our project was based on the belief that a common challenge for the European countries is striving for a Europe where the diversity of cultures and cultural heritage are essential to the development of a genuine openness of mind and basic rights, where open and interactive processes and practices of culture combine to help us deal with the complexities of living with ourselves and one another. At the core of the project we put cultural heritage, multicultural understanding and cultural traditions as resources for the future to promote diversity and dialogue and foster a sense of identity, collective memory and mutual respect within and between communities. Our project developed as a journey through partner countries’ cultures to raise awareness of our own traditions and identify the common values which unite us. In this context, intercultural dialogue was essential to exchange views and opinions and establish linkages between different cultures, communities, and people, promoting understanding and interaction for avoiding bias, racism, conflict and marginalisation of people on the basis of their cultural identity, Therefore, through intercultural dialogue pupils were trained to democratic and civic participation. To develop this attitude and key life-competence we used methodologies that involved learners actively in their own learning. With our project we wanted to get support to develop conducive and supportive learning environments focusing on the needs of individual pupils, especially the disadvantaged and migrant ones. The extra-curricular activities could not only help students to catch up their interest in learning, but also help them to build a positive relationship with the school and its staff, as well as providing fulfilling activities which could boost self-esteem and reduce frustration. Mobilities of both students and teachers across Europe constituted an integral part of our approach, along with the use of information and communication technologies. Our students participated in activities in multinational teams and acquire active, hands-on experiences by engaging with exploring, evaluating, mapping, meeting volunteer teams, music, dance and art. In a united Europe students and teachers greatly benefited from working together with partners from other European countries, thus they could learn to understand and accept other cultures and their traditions. Furthermore, they raised their cultural awareness, broadened their horizon and learnt a lot about working on projects in teams. With this project we mainly addressed to 100 pupils in the age of 14-18 who benefited directly from the mobilities. At every participating school there was a group of pupils who worked on the topics with various subject teachers. Through the activities the joy about learning was supported in a long-term way. The students involved in the project could use languages, ICT, theatre, music, photo, arts, culture, local dances, traditions and local customs, as vehicles for research and to communicate the results of their work.