War & Trees
Start date: Sep 1, 2016,
End date: Apr 30, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
This project falls within the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme as well as within the 100th anniversary of WWI itself. We would also like to work on an current theme that is the preservation of the environment. We would like to bring together young Europeans during these events to highlight the European values. With this project, we want to study the consequences of the wars on the envirnment but further more we want to bring together people from different countries. Our project will take place in the Somme county, a region which has suffered a lot during the two WW.Goals :- to promote peace and intercultural meetings- to promote european citizenship and to empower european History- to raise awarness about the different kinds of migration and to understand the impact of the refugees issue- to lead the project through an ecological way and to sensitize about dammages due to warsDuring this project, we would like to offer a reflexion on ecological impacts of the wars, especially WWI and WWII. These themes seem relevant because it links past and present together, inside a shared territory. To debate on the long term consequences of wars, allows us to put into perspective the wars we are currently fighting and to wonder what their consequences will be to our landscapes and ecosystems.We would like to welcome 26 participants:- 5 countries- 4 participants per country + 1 group leader (2 for France for practical reasons)- A 17 - 30 years old age bracket- A condition of parity- We welcome participants with less social and/or economical opportunitiesOrganisation of an APV with the group leaders to better prepare the exchange. This APV will allow us to visit the accomodation, to discuss the planned activities and visits and to meet with partners if possible. It will also allow us to define more clearly the role of the group leaders during the exchange.During the exchange, we will insist upon interculturality and the discovery of the other, which means sharing our knowledges, our opinions and our culture, especially during intercultural evenings. These evenings will be devoted to the discovery of the different countries, with food cooked by the participants as well as games and music. This project will also enable the participants to improve their english, but they will also be able to share their native languages with the others.We planned different types of activities, so that the participants will have a very diverse and enriching experience. Our topics being wars and environment, with an accent on the two world wars, we will take advantage of our geographical situation to visit the Armistice museum in Compiègne, a major visit considered the exchange themes. We will also visit several cities and villages hit by the wars, following the Red Line circuit put in place by the region. We also want to invite Collecte de la Somme pour les migrants de Calais, a group of volunteers which is helping people from the Calais Jungle. We think this intervention can make the participants think about the reasons why people run away from the war in their country, and we hope we could create a reflexion on why the European Union refuses to open its doors to refugees.Reflexion time are also planned, allowing the participants to share their knowledges and allowing exterior speakers, such as ICAN Youth or Robin des Bois, to bring new information to them. As well as these visits and speakers, participants will have workshops to accomplish goals such as: writing a support letter to the UNESCO application of the association Paysages et Sites de Mémoire, planting trees on a site impacted by war and an exhibition with the participants' photographs of visits and activities. All this will serve to take part in the reappraisal of spaces destroyed by the two world wars. Concordia uses popular education tools, especially learning through your peers. We would like the participants to share their knowledges, to share their mutual cultures, their differences and similarities so this exchange can have an intercultural dimension.We would like the participants as well as the people we can reach during the project to be aware of the consequences of wars.