Like many European countries we face new problems connected with extreme political views. We observe too many examples of people closing their minds to diversity in religion, lifestyles and social roles. The new corona virus has made the situation even worse. We want to work together to assure that the future generations would not go down the dangerous path that our ancestors did. Therefore, we want to examine the origins of hatred. We can do it by looking at the various examples of intolerance and xenophobia which we can find in our past and develop ideas that could prevent similar things happening in the future. The project is strongly related to historic events and remembering and preserving the past while also acknowledging their importance in the present and how it affects the current state of the whole continent. The project aims in creating and improving society from a perspective of tolerance, which is something we and our students hold dear regarding the future. We have five schools from four different countries from different parts of Europe. We have chosen these countries because of their historic significance such as the atrocities of the Second World War involving the Holocaust. In France immigration has grown for the last two centuries due to the demand for labour in e.g. mines and factories. In today's Europe immigration is a growing issue in the Mediterranean countries which brings us to Italy. Our project will end in Finland which is an example of gender equality and an equal society as a whole. Each school will send two teachers and five students to each LTT. However, several other individuals will be included in the project and they will help during the local LTT and also participate e.g. on eTwinning. We will organise five LTTs and five eTwinning sessions before and after every LTT. We will get to know each other and our different backgrounds and deepen our understanding of today's multicultural Europe. In Pantin, France we will dig into what immigration means today and what are the historical roots of it. We will also create a logo for our project. We will visit the local school and get to know their school system and the everyday life of the locals. A long-term objective is to create long-lasting international friendships in the spirit of multiculturalism and tolerance. This is something we are hoping for all the five LTTs. In Sicily, Italy we will gain more understanding from the Mediterranean perspective: why people have left Italy and why so many people are immigrating to Italy and Europe. In Lievin, France we will e.g. visit mines where immigrants from Poland and Italy have worked because they emigrated to France in the hope of a better future. Here we will also create an anthem of tolerance that will be sung together later during the project. In Tychy, Poland we will learn more about what intolerance and racism at its worst can lead to when we visit Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. In Poland we will also plan a Flash Mob of tolerance that will be done between the last two LTTs. Before the last LTT we will organise a flash mob of tolerance simultaneously in all of the participating countries. In Espoo, Finland we will look at the project and see what we have accomplished and learned throughout our journey. We will also organise a friendly football match in mixed teams with Peace United as one means of celebrating multicultural Europe. We will have printed jerseys for the match with our project logo on them. The anthem of tolerance will be sung again with the help of our whole school and we will turn it into a video which will be distributed widely. Media will also be included in these events. The final event is the football game with Peace United where tolerance is a central theme. The participants are from four different countries symbolising a unified, tolerant Europe. As a result we will dig deeper into the phenomena of multiculturalism and tolerance. All the activities are so strongly related to our themes that they will deepen the understanding of what it really means to live in a multicultural, tolerant society. It also increases the level of knowledge about historic and recent events related to these important issues. The participants will have valuable experience and knowledge about different cultures, working together and tackling prejudices and racism.
Like many European countries we face new problems connected with extreme political views. We observe too many examples of people closing their minds to diversity in religion, lifestyles and social roles. We wanted to work together to assure that the future generations would not go down the dangerous path that our ancestors did. Therefore, we wanted to examine the origins of hatred. We did it by looking at the various examples of intolerance and xenophobia which we can find in our past and developed ideas that could prevent similar things happening in the future. The project was strongly related to historic events and remembering and preserving the past while also acknowledging their importance in the present and how it affects the current state of the whole continent. The project aimed in creating and improving society from a perspective of tolerance, which is something we and our students hold dear regarding the future. At the beginning we were five schools from four different countries from different parts of Europe. We had chosen these countries because of their historic significance such as the atrocities of the Second World War involving the Holocaust. In France immigration has grown for the last two centuries due to the demand for labour in e.g. mines and factories. In today's Europe immigration is a growing issue in the Mediterranean countries which brings us to Italy. Finally, we were only left with Finland and two schools from France. That's why we were twice in Finland and twice in France during the project. We organized five LTTs (one with only the teachers) and online meetings sessions before and after every LTT. The first LTT was with teachers only. A meeting was organized in Lievin to re-plan everything. We basically had to rethink everything. The remaining schools were Espoonlahti Upper Secondary School from Finland and Lycée Henri Darras from Lievin, France and LGT Marcelin Berthelot from Pantin, France. We were able to come up with new timetables etc. The next LTT was in Espoo, Finland. We created the logo of the project and we organized a friendly football match in mixed teams with Peace United as one means of celebrating multicultural Europe. We printed jerseys for the match with our project logo on them. We talked about the current situation in Europe, the war and the immigration and we compared the situations in our countries. Then we went to Pantin, France and we understood better what immigration means today and what are the historical roots of it. We went to the Shoah museum in Paris and studied the life of some important women during the Holocaust. We went also to the Musée de l'Homme. In the school we did podcasts about multiculturalism and thought about the subject deeper. We also got to know the Museum of Immigration. It was very interesting to see a different part of Paris than the normal touristic Paris. The fourth LTT was again in Finland with new students from France. It was so interesting to get to know more French young people and their teachers. The fifth LTT was in Lievin, France where we e.g. visited mines where immigrants from Poland and Italy have worked because they emigrated to France in the hope of a better future. As a result we dug deeper into the phenomena of multiculturalism and tolerance. All the activities were so strongly related to our themes that they deepened the understanding of what it really means to live in a multicultural, tolerant society. It also increased the level of knowledge about historic and recent events related to these important issues. The participants gained valuable experience and knowledge about different cultures, working together and tackling prejudices and racism.