Schools are key agents in nurturing sentiments like respect, tolerance and understanding in the students. The key concept of th project is social empathy as it is a fundamental aspect of being a responsible and helpful member of a community. Human beings have the tendency to underestimate the power of empathy, of a smile, a compliment, a listening to ear and of a kind word. So many times people tend to listen to reply and not to understand the other's opinion. Therefore, the sooner we start working on this issue, the better. Building empathy and teaching students to see the world's through a peer's eyes is a trait that will help them all their life. The common needs illustrated by the SWOT analysis of the project partners from Slovakia, Macedonia, Turkey, Poland and Spain, are: students’ tendency to work alone, not in teams; students’ reduced tendency of being tolerant; the number of students’ that are bullied; teachers’ need to be updated by other EU educational systems; schools’ need to internationalise their curricula. According to the feedback reports, it was noticed that at the level of each school there is a tendency among students to disparity by creating gaps among them. The project aims to foster excellence in education by equipping participants with knowledge and competencies to ensure a socially empathic school setting. The main focus is to use social empathy to bridge diverse people and communities. The general project aim is to increase participants’ awareness about the importance of social empathy in schools and in a multicultural world. The project objectives are: -to encourage social and cultural dialogue between 250 students from 5 European schools during 24 months project -to develop participants’ interpersonal empathy, contextual understanding and social responsibility -to increase understanding of social and cultural differences -to reduce aggressive behaviors and emotional disorders of students from 5 EU schools -to strengthen cooperation between schools and local communities The project is designed for students aged 12-15 , a total number of 100 participants will directly attend the international reunions (80 students and 40 teachers). Through this project we hope to make students aware of the power of empathy, the need of being empathic in the daily life and to help them become better people both at a personal and professional level. The activities are designed to make them see the school as a positive and productive place where they have friends who share same fears, needs and similar aspirations. Participants will notice the diversity of the European cultures and be encouraged to reject stereotypes. The activities will show that in order to accept something different is important to undestand it, respect and appreciate differences, actively listening to the others, widen the circle of concern, increase the management of personal emotions, and explore social situations in a fair way. The concrete results we want to achieve are project logo, questionnaires, presentations of schools, promotional materials (roll-ups, flyers, etc.), InterNational Heritage 3D cards exhibition, videos "A world without empathy", bookmarks , 1 script play (Theatre of the Oppressed), 5 travel guides, Feelings Collages, Anti-bullying Workshop, Wall of friendship, a common celebration Festival Tolerance Day, one summer school programme (celebrating International Friendship Day) and two project newsletters. As a result of our project the institutions and participants involved will strengthen their social, digital and communication competences and by means of this, the quality of the educational process will increase. The experience will increase the competences and abilities to work in multicultural working teams and contexts. On a broader and EU level, the project will impact cultural and general knowledge of participants. The international face to face meetings will create the space to exchange examples of good practice and broaden knowledge of different approaches of the educational process. The concrete results produced during the project will stand as learning tools that can be used for teaching offering an international dimension to the school curricula. Project products will remain available on the project webpage and will be free of download. The project website will remain active minimum 5 years after ending the project. The project ensures in the long-term run the personal and professional development of the indirect participants to the project and direct participants to the mobilities. Participants' social empathy, cultural understanding and tolerance will increase and they will approach more positively other life situations. By interacting with people from other EU states, participants will increase motivation in promoting and preserving the EU cultural heritage.
Through the implementation of the project, we monitored the development of tolerance, respect, and understanding among people. The key goal of the project was the development of social empathy. We wanted students to realize the power of empathy, compliment, smile, or kind words. During the implementation, they tried to develop students' sense of empathy, they learned to listen to their partners but also to accept their opinion, which is an essential feature of empathy. Building empathy and teaching students to see the world through peers is a quality that will help them throughout their lives. During the implementation of the project, they learned to work in teams, learned how to accept the views of partners, we led them to wider tolerance, we tried to explain to students what negative impact bullying has on the human psyche and we removed people-to-people barriers. The aim of the project was to support excellence in education by equipping participants with the knowledge and competencies to ensure a social and empathic school environment. The main focus was to use social empathy to bridge diverse cultures and communities. The general aim of the project was to raise participants' awareness of the importance of social empathy in schools and in a multicultural world. COVID 19 entered into the plan of the project and it affected the planned implementation, so we had to adjust the activities to the online version. We think that despite the initial difficulties, we managed to meet all the plans and evaluate the project positively. During the final evaluation of the project, we found that despite the fact that we could not visit our partner schools, we also learned in the online environment what empathy and human good are. Pupils aged 12-15 were involved in the project, with more than 280 participants directly attending international online meetings. We hope that through this project, students will realize the power of empathy, and the need to be empathetic in everyday life, and we will help them become better people on a personal and professional level. Online activities aimed at understanding the diversity of European cultures and rejecting stereotypes. Activities have shown that if we want to accept partners, it is important to understand, respect, and appreciate differences, actively listen to others, broaden the range of interests, better manage personal emotions and fairly examine social situations. The specific results we have achieved are: the creation of the project logo, creation of questionnaires, school presentations, promotional materials (roll-ups, leaflets, etc.), creation of ppt International Heritage, videos "The World without empathy", bookmarks, creation of theatrical plays with a script (The Theatre of the Oppressed), travel guides, emotional collages, anti-bullying workshop, The wall of friendship, The Tolerance Day. The result of our project is that the participating institutions and participants have strengthened their social, digital and communication competencies and thus increased the quality of the educational process. The experience gained in the implementation of the project leads to the development of competencies and skills to work in multicultural work teams and contexts. At a wider and EU level, the project will have an impact on the cultural and general knowledge of the participants. International online meetings have created a space for exchanging examples of good practice and broadening knowledge of different approaches to the educational process. The concrete results achieved during the project serve as teaching tools that can be used in teaching that offers an international dimension to the school curriculum. The project products will remain available on the project website and can be downloaded free of charge. The project website will remain active for at least 5 years after the end of the project. https://twinspace.etwinning.net/97329/home . In the long run, the project ensures the personal and professional development of indirect project participants and direct mobility participants. Participants will increase their social empathy, cultural understanding, and tolerance and will be more positive about other life situations. Through interaction with people from other EU countries, participants will increase motivation to promote and preserve the EU's cultural heritage.