WE ARE WORLD | Global Junior Challenge

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Our project has brought children in Egypt and Germany into contact with life and culture in an Islamic respectively a Christian country, using means of ITC to gain lasting friendships.

1. Sommario progetto

Sommario:

(How the idea was born: see Background information 13) The project taking place as well in Egypt as in Germany is meant to be a long duration project leading to independently prolonged contacts of the partners. Its aim is to get children and young people into contact with life and culture in an Islamic resp. Christian country. Fear of contact and prejudice shall be minimized. Persistent understanding and the sense of responsibility for the global future shall be grown. The project consists of home country and of foreign country phases. During the home phases the children and young people contact the partners via media regularly (E-Mail, Chat, Internet phone). During the outbound phases German and Egyptian children and young people spend their time together in the families and in joint activities, e.g. visits to museums and other places of interest, sportive, cultural and learning activities with focus on global topics of the presence and the future. (See http://www.exchange2008.kulturserver.de and http://www.caimei.kulturserver.de)

2. Paese (Città / Regione)

Stato:

Germany

Città:

MEINERZHAGEN/NRW and CAIRO/EGYPT

3. Nome dell'organizzazione che presenta il progetto

Organizzazione:

SRM MEINERZHAGEN AND PDSK CAIRO

4. Tipo di organizzazione

Scegli tipo:

Scuola

5. Coordinatore del progetto

Nome e Cognome:

HELGA BOTHE

E-Mail:

hcbothe@aol.com

6. Website

Il sito web del progetto:

http://www.caimei.kulturserver.de/

7. Selezionate la categoria di appartenenza del vostro progetto

Youth Education Project. Select Project Users by age:

Fino a 15 anni

Inserimento dei giovani nel mondo del lavoro:

NOT Helping youth step in the job market

Creatività e Innovazione sociale:

NOT in Creativity and Social Innovation

8. Da quando è funzionante il vostro progetto?

Da:

13/10/2007

9. Obiettivi ed elementi di innovazione

Please explain the targets and the background of your project:

The idea of using the world wide web to learn about the exchange partners and their countries is visible in the acrinom “wwww” on one of our websites and in our project videoclip. But the acrinom also refers to the topics in our “project curriculum”: Wald (woods), Wasser (water), Wüste (desert), Weltkulturerbe (world cultural heritage). The children share their living space, their living conditions and their places of interest with their guest brothers or sisters. As the return visit takes place immediately the contrastive learning impact is very lasting and effective.

Come, e con quali mezzi cerca di raggiungere gli obiettivi prefissati:

The project wants to achieve understanding and friendship between the different cultures by bringing the individuals together at a very young age in order to grow a sense of individual and global responsibility

Quali opportunità/problemi affronta:

The project addresses to various global problems, but most of all to discrimination, indifference, intolerance and xenophobia.

Please explain what is unique or special in your project:

There are two special aspects in the project: 1. The age distribution with the idea of older youth (~15 years old) being “patrons” for the younger children (between 8 and 11 years old). 2. The migration background of the participants who are representing the worldwide origin: Egypt, Germany, Italy, Turkey, China, Russia, Switzerland, Hungary, Columbia.

10. Risultati

Describe the results of your project as per today:

We established two project websites (see 6. ) and personal websites for the exchange partners (see links on the caimei-page.) We successfully carried out the exchange visits from September 29th to October 13th 2008. We made a project videoclip which won the first prize in a competition by the German Foreign Office. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBKTp7CKC1c Along with a camcorder for each school all participants received a webcam to encourage their communication efforts.

In che misura risponde ai bisogni degli utenti:

The research products, project photos and videos can be published on our websites. All partners can update the website directly; they only need an internet access and the keyword. The project participants share a personal website with their exchange partner.

Quanti utenti interagiscono con il progetto mensilmente e in quale modo:

We have 18 children and their families in the first turn of the project. The preferred forms of interaction are e-mail, skype and icq.

Descrivete in quale modo il progetto contribuisce a migliorare l'educazione e la formazione dei giovani:

Social behaviour has been trained especially in the joint activities during the exchange visits and by integrating in a host family and having a guest brother or sister at such a young age. The “patrons” have matured by being guards for the younger students. Designing a website and giving a lecture on a special topic in front of the whole group adds to the self assurance and pride of the children and will help them to perform likewise in their daily school activities.

Descrivete in quale modo il progetto ha ottimizzato la partecipazione di professionisti, ragazzi, giovani o altri soggetti:

The language performance (English for German participants, German and English for Egyptian participants) has improved. Online research and presentation within the project curriculum, video- and photoshooting have given even the youngest children the chance of contributing their share of knowledge successfully.

Descrivete in quale modo il progetto favorisce l'uso delle nuove tecnologie da parte di professionisti, ragazzi e giovani per lo sviluppo culturale e didattico:

Computer work has been the main means of gaining and transporting information and visual material among the project group before and after the exchange. Without the communication tools keeping in contact with the partners would have been much more difficult. In the beginning we also sent letters, but only very few of them arrived. The use of ITC is the ideal way of preparing an exchange, especially if you need to get visa or to transfer important documents and official information. On the German side the skills of using the homepage tools have improved, because the SRM school equipment offers all necessary possibilities while the Egyptian participants have no internet access at school. When the Egyptian partners will be able to work with these tools at school the quantity and qualitiy of their homepage work will improve likewise.

Descrivete i criteri che usate per misurate i risultati raggiunti dal vostro progetto:

There has been no written evaluation as the students didn’t get any marks or certificates. But 5 teachers are involved in the project and have been working and for two exchange weeks living with the children; we have been watching them and talking with them and about their personal improvement and had feedback from the parents as well. The websites give evidence of the project’s results and success.

11. Sostenibilità

Indicate la durata complessiva del progetto:

Più di 6 anni

Indicate il costo di massima del vostro progetto (in Euro):

Meno di 10.000

Come è finanziato il vostro progetto:

Onorari

Is your project economically self sufficient now:

Insert date:

10/17/2007

12. Trasferibilità

Il progetto è stato replicato/adattato altrove:

Che cosa possono imparare altri soggetti dal vostro progetto:

How to turn interest and enthusiam for history, geography, people and culture into learning activities; how to use modern ICT to establish global relationship; how to live in a group of diversity in age, culture, social background and religion; how to overcome the clash of cultures by associating with foreign cultures; how to travel with heart and brain and respect to achieve intercultural understanding.

Siamo disponibili ad aiutare altri soggetti a sviluppare progetti o a migliorare progetti esistenti:

Siamo disponibili ad aiutare altri soggetti a sviluppare progetti o a migliorare progetti esistenti.

13. Informazioni aggiuntive

Background:

The project develloped quite naturally from a school history project at the SRM in 2006, initiated by Marc Thele, supported by Helga Bothe, assisted by Ute Schäfer, funded by the parent association. Together with 36 children they simulated life in ancient Egypt. http://www.deinereisenachaegypten.kulturserver.de/ The enthusiasm for ancient Egypt caused the yearning to visit the original places and to experience modern Egyptian life. Thus a group of 13 made a holiday expedition to Luxor in 2007 http://www.expedition2007.kulturserver.de . This excursion inspired the participants to establish intercultural contacts with young people in Egypt. As teacher Mark Thele changed to a private school in Cairo that year, he and his German colleague Helga Bothe started organizing an exchange programme at once. And during his first “home visit” the first project meeting was held on October 13th.

Ostacoli:

1. Some colleagues and parents in Germany thought the exchange project was kind of “elitist”, too expensive and would interfere with “normal” exchange projects to France and England. 2. One problem with the accomodation in families was that there were only three boys in the German group but eight boys in the Egyptian group whereas we had seven girls in the German group and only four girls in the Egyptian group. 3. Parents were concerned (especially in the weeks before travelling and especially those of the younger children) about security in Egypt. 4. Getting cheap flights and visa for the Egyptian group took a lot of time and energy.

Soluzioni:

1. We chose the autumn holidays for the exchange; so the visits were entirely in the German holidays; but we could meet in the school building and use the computers nevertheless. We had 15 compulsory meetings for the participants between October 2007 and September 2008 in the afternoons; and there were 7 compulsory meetings with the parents as well; thus everybody knew this was not an “elitistic touristic event”. 2. Marc Thele and Helga Bothe talked a lot (via Skype) about how the children would match the families and both were in close contact with the parents about this as well. 3. There was a special meeting for parents without the children about security questions. We had no insecure places on our programme but we knew there was no guarantee for security. 4. Both problems were solved via internet and by mobile phone. Without these modern means of communication we are sure the project would have failed in many respects but most likely in these two aspects.

Future plans and wish list:

The exchange will be continued in April 2010 (Easter holidays) or October 2010 (autumn holidays). The “patrons” of the first turn will leave the programme, as they leave school this summer. Thus the “youngsters” of the first turn will become patrons for the new kids. The contact between the exchange partners will hopefully remain firm; the “oldies” will be invited to the project meetings, because they will still be able to share their experience with the “youngsters” and help them with the ICT work and the homepage building.

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