Kowledge is Chance of Acceptance Erasmus Project

Project Title

Kowledge is Chance of Acceptance

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Integration of refugees; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The goals of the “Knowledge is a Chance of Acceptance” (KCA) project were the needs of the historic period in which Europe found itself, caused by the migration crisis and society’s resistance to accepting refugees. Knowledge about the history of refugee countries and understanding the reasons behind the wave of refugees to Europe gave the project participants, especially Polish, a chance to accept this phenomenon and get rid of the fear of “strangers”.
One of the main goals of the project is to create a strategic partnership supporting the international exchange of good practices regarding solutions and educational methods for overcoming the fear of accepting large groups of refugees by local societies and peaceful coexistence with them, including their integration. The project applied the principle of direct contacts with refugees, according to Confucius; “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will remember, let me participate and I will understand.” Therefore, for integration with refugees, the knowledge and presentation of the cultural heritage of the nations participating in the project, as well as the countries of modern refugees, was used as a tool, through joint artistic performances, thus perfecting the idea of multiculturalism in Europe and various types of meetings with refugees and many activities with their children. In this project, cooperation with refugees was reversed, because we, the society that received them, obtained some of the knowledge about refugees from them.
The second group of goals of this project was to reduce the functional illiteracy and social exclusion of learners by teaching them the ability to use ICT, Internet information resources and to think critically when using this information. We have also increased their English proficiency, enabling them to benefit from cultural resources, knowledge and the development of science, enabling them to be more open to other communities and European values, including refugees
Project participants – educators gained theoretical and practical knowledge on the subject of the project and created educational materials based on the information and experiences gathered during this project, as well as a course program that can be addressed to educators of other societies and be implemented within Erasmus +. Information about these materials and the course program were made available via 2 project websites. Educators enriched their competences with empathy, tolerance, communication and knowledge about the importance of multiculturalism in integration with refugees.
In addition to the direct educational effects obtained by the participants of our project, this project is an example of a method of teaching and sensitizing the society to various aspects and problems of people fleeing their own country and home in terms of approaches, tools, competences and methodologies, developed jointly and independently by a group of educators participating in this project.
In order to meet the needs of education and integration of refugees, on the one hand, and the needs of a different view of local societies on their integration processes with refugees, the project focused on designing informal learning and behavioral orientation on the two sides of this process, i.e. newcomers and hosts (local society). In this way, the training program for educators developed by us was practiced at the same time on the project participants, i.e. ordinary participants of local society and refugee groups in various partner countries, obtaining staff sensitized to the human approach to the situation of refugees in their communities in accordance with their own rules and organizational possibilities and different needs of the choices of their environment. The measurable effect of this project is also the development of educational materials in the form of a statistical bulletin, 2 books, bulletin, folders, 49 pictures about refugees, an exhibition of these pictures, but also drawings of refugee children, etc.
As the project results reach the general public, we will also achieve a social action effect. Through their perception of the cultural propositions of many nations we present, citizens will understand the benefits of a culturally diverse society. The results and impacts of the project surprised us. They are both material and immaterial.
We have prepared a lot of educational materials, but its greatest impact is the change in the perception of contemporary problems with refugees by the project participants. Project participants got rid of their fear of refugees.
The project was attended by 30 people – direct participants of the Polish partner, 10 people of the Turkish partner and 9 people of the Italian partner, and a lot of people (impossible to convert but about 500 people) cooperating or participating in the activities of this project.

Project Website

http://kcaproject.wordpress.com/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 67905,95 Eur

Project Coordinator

Uniwersytet Trzeciego Wieku w Bialymstoku & Country: PL

Project Partners

• MOCA FUTURE DESIGNERS Società Cooperativa
• Global Gelisim Dernegi