Jesteśmy sousedé
Start date: May 1, 2015,
End date: Jun 30, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
Our project “Jesteśmy sousedé“ was focused on forging contacts between young people of two neighboring countries – the Czech Republic and Poland. The goal was to discover what we have in common, confront stereotypes regarding our nations, find new friends from another country and learn something about our neighbor’s culture and language.
The project was initiated by the students of Mnichovo Hradiště high school (Gymnázium Mnichovo Hradiště), who – aided by their teacher, who later became project’s coordinator – found a suitable partner organization in Poland.
15 students from Mnichovo Hradiště high school participated in the project – some of them had the advantage of having a previous experience with exchange stays in Germany, on the other hand there were 2 students with problems with social links within the group (Lenka with latent mutism – the inability to speak in front of larger number people, and Lukáš with Asperger syndrome).
From the Stefan Banach Lyceum in Zagan, the Polish participant in the project, 15 students took part as well; these were mostly students active in the UNESCO club of their school, therefore the UNESCO Initiative Center became the official partner in the project.
The students from both countries have made contacts with each other using social networks well before the project application was submitted; they then participated with their inputs on drafting of the application.
The first personal meeting was in Görlitz in June 2015 – the meeting was mostly motivational, it was spent mainly by getting to know each other, as the main planned activities had to be for organizational reasons postponed to later date. A preparatory visit for the first exchange stay was then realized in Mnichovo Hradiště at the end of June.
The first actual stay took place in Skokovy near Mnichovo Hradiště between 27 September and 4 October. The first part of the program was aimed at getting to know each other and breaking stereotypes; in the following days the students divided themselves along their interests into thematically oriented workshops – the international teams with the assistance of expert lectors were then taking photographs, writing newspaper articles, shooting a movie and creating pieces of visual art. The results of these efforts were then presented to the rest of the group, teachers as well as the headmaster of the school. A mandala created by the students has been installed as a decoration in a public library; photographs were exhibited in the town square; articles written by the students were published in a local newspaper. The group also met the town administration – the students held a discussion with the mayor and council members about their views of Mnichovo Hradiště (they introduced their opinions in group presentations).
After the end of the first exchange stay the students remained in contact – the communication continued on Facebook and focused on topics related to the youth such as sports, hobbies, movies, school. Members of both groups also addressed voluntary activities – they mapped the opportunities for voluntary work in their towns.
A preparatory visit for the second exchange stay in Zagan took place in May 2016, followed by a one-week stay between 18 June and 25 June.
The first two days were spent on renewing the personal relationships between the participants as well as discussing the topic of voluntary activities. The core of the program was again working in international teams, essentially continuation of the activities from the fall. However this time students spent more time “outside”, meeting experts in their respective specializations – participants of the film workshop visited a film school in Wroclaw, students-journalists were invited to a local newspaper and radio, photographers cooperated with local professional photographer on making photographic documentation, and finally the participant of the visual arts workshop took part (as volunteers) of decoration of rooms belonging to the local school broadcast. The program also included an intercultural evening with participation of parents of the Polish students, teachers and school administration. At the end the students publically presented the results of their work – journalists published their project newspaper, the artists had their work exhibited in the Zagan castle, photographers prepared a photobook for publishing and filmmakers prepared a witty short movie for a projection open to public.
Outcomes of the projects include not only the results of team workshops (2 short movies, 2 newspaper issues, pieces of visual art, photographs) but also a flyer mapping voluntary activity opportunities in both towns, materials promoting the project cooperation of both subjects (information panels in hallways of both schools, articles in local newspapers). However the principal outcome of the project are the changes of views and opinions of participating students – higher tolerance to differences, respect to the others.