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Once upon a time: fairy tales and myths across Europe

2019-3-LV02-KA105-0028442019Youth mobilityfinalizedGood practice
Countries: LV|RO|HU|IT|SK|ES|PT|FI · Grant: €14,467.32
Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural HeritageCreativity and cultureIntercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Objectives

In this era, where there is enough maturity and a sense of values of others, we still observe a lack of tolerance regarding culture. We have noticed that in our society there is a constant increase in a misunderstanding of what are the differences of cultures, the concept of diversity, and other relevant bases that should be common if we think about Europe who has diversity as one of its core values. This lack of common concept about the diversity that is seen as a value and asset is fruitful soil for the spread of a lot of negative values such as xenophobia and Euro-scepticism. It’s no doubt that as the world rapidly globalizes, diversity is becoming increasingly present across all aspects of life. The interconnectedness of the modern world is broadening our ability to communicate and integrate with people from different cultures. "Among the EU citizens of working age (20-64), 3.9 % resided in an EU Member State other than that of their citizenship in 2018. This share has slightly increased over time, as in 2008 it stood at 2.7 %. " (EUROSTAT). As mentioned by some of the MEPs of the European Commission, it is normal nowadays to live in a multicultural environment and due to the migration, the level of diversity is going to increase in EU states. Starting from this topic, we decided to develop this exchange, since as young people we are fascinated from traditional fairytales and we have surveyed the youth around us and discovered that many of interviewed youngsters find this a very interesting topic. Exploring the diversity of cultures in Europe through stories, myths, and fairy tales was assessed as a very appealing approach to the topic of understanding the diversity of cultures and promoting intercultural dialogue. During the participation to many youth exchanges which have involved different organizations, and during the informal time, we came up with the idea of using storytelling, puppet theatre, and traditional fairytales and stories since it’s a very effective way to raise awareness among young people about the topic of diversity and intercultural sensitivity. Thus, the main aim of our project was to transfer to young people European values of diversity, intercultural understanding and sensitivity through the use of puppet theatre and traditional fairy tales. Our specific objectives were: - To raise awareness on intercultural learning and sensitivity through the use of puppet theatre and storytelling by sharing traditional fairy tales and stories and by discovering concepts of identity and diversity; - To enhance European values such as mutual understanding, tolerance, active citizenship and fight negative behaviors as xenophobia, racism, homophobia and Euro-scepticism; - To discover and exploit the potential of storytelling by presenting traditional fairy tales and using puppet theatre with the feedback of external experts as a valuable learning procedure to develop intercultural competence for young people; - To create and perform a common intercultural fairytale on the topic of intercultural learning and present it in public as a puppet theatre for other young people at the international and local level. Our project is directly linked to the general objectives of the Erasmus plus program, especially the following EU Youth Strategy areas: creativity and culture, education and training, social inclusion, participation, and youth & the world. Education and training: peer to peer education were used to enable us, youngsters, to learn. Social inclusion: we involved young people with fewer opportunities providing them an opportunity to grow and have more space for inclusion. Another general objective which we touched is going to be the promotion of European values in accordance with Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union. In fact, during this project us as youngsters we developed, promoted, and discovered values such as diversity, tolerance and mutual understanding which are values of the European Union. Regarding this project, we ensured an International Dimension, Multilingualism and Equity, and Inclusion since we involved different countries and cultures by involving all young people, including disadvantaged youngsters. Talking about the single objectives of Erasmus plus related to the mobility of young people we matched the objectives of: -enhanced intercultural awareness; -more active participation in society; -better awareness of European projects and the EU values; -increased motivation for taking part in the future (formal/non-formal) education or training after the mobility period abroad. According to the 2018 objectives related to the action KA1 in the youth field we addressed the following objective: -reaching out to marginalized young people, promoting diversity, intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, common values of freedom, tolerance and respect of human rights.

Project partners (8)