Journeys for peace Erasmus Project

Project Title

Journeys for peace

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The project “Journeys for peace” was addressed to students aged 12 to 17 in 5 different countries. Recent events, like terrorism, mass migrations, refugees, have brought about a great sense of insecurity, which in turn increased feelings of fear, selfishness, racism and intolerance towards what is perceived as different. Integration is losing status as a value among our student population, and it is in fact considered a threat to our own ‘roots’ and ‘traditional values’. It’s a matter of ‘us’ against ‘them’, without even knowing who are ‘we’ and who are ‘they’ exactly. Interestingly enough, most young people have heard of and admire great figures of mankind, but wouldn’t be able to say where their greatness lies and why they are important to us.

Our students find it very difficult to set both short- and long-term objectives and are not always willing to engage to pursue them. Therefore this project wanted to address these major needs:
– bring back integration as a fundamental value for a peaceful society
– be aware of the examples found in world AND local peace heroes
– recognize the necessity to set clear objectives and be ready to take action to pursue them.

To do so our students worked with the following objectives and activities:
– studied migration routes and analysed the reasons behind. Collected information about the number of refugees in each of the countries and the attitudes towards immigrats and compared the situation in the five countries taking part in the project. Get awareness of the situation refugees are undergoing. Through this activity their minds were brodened and they reflected on a global situation taking place all over the world, empowered them to make a diffrence.
– Carried out a scientific experiment meant to undermine the concept of race and to demonstrate that even great figures of mankind have a lot in common with us all. One of the main tools to reconstruct the evolutionary history of mankind were the study of mitochondrial DNA sequence variation, since it provides information about genetic relationships among different human populations. Being aware that we bear the same genes denies concepts such as human races and racism. Science then will gain a new role as a modern tool in disseminating ideas such as integration, inclusion, globalization, and respect for cultural diversities.That is why we felt it was necessary to address those who will be the future European citizens, the same ones who have already experienced the benefits of living in a free world, and who are old enough to consider what it could be like if the principles on which the Union is based should fail.
– explored and investigated both global and local peace heroes, what they did and wich role they played in the society. What made them heroes? We visited the Nobel peace prize center and honoured the winner 2019. This demonstrated that we don’t need to be special to be a hero, as even heroes share our same genes. Each one of us can then be responsible to make the world a more peaceful place and contribute to social inclusion.
– engaged our students to act as local heroes in their society, inspired by the local and global peace heroes. Offered them opportunities to challenge themselves and learn that everybody can do great little things to make the world a better place.
– investigated the tragic terrorist events, like the attack in Norway the 22nd of July, and learned more about what the extreme consequenses of intolerance can be and how we can meet intolerance and radicalism in our local communities.

We have understood that if we know history, we can be more objective and make the right decisions, but we have also realized that so “…many roads must we walk down…” before this sort of things “are forever banned” and never happen again. We each are called to do our share for a better world where, instead of fear of diversity, there are empathy and respect. Here we are at the end of this journey. 28 months devoted to understand the different meanings the word Journey has: hope, fear, discovery, wait, development, effort, joy, wonder. All these words always include a meeting: it is our duty to turn into something special and unique. It is time to say goodbye and take with us everything we have learned, that has changed us and made us richer. This end is not really an end, but a new beginning, the beginning of our journey as new and better people. We should never be tired of believing in a world where respect, empathy, and tolerance are what we choose in our life. Finally we would like to sum up with the poem written by Frode Grytten to the boys and girls of Utøya: “hey, hey, time to get up and change the world!”

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 150902,5 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ingieråsen skole & Country: NO

Project Partners

• SU Ekzarh Antim I
• Heinrich- Heine- Gymnasium Bitterfeld- Wolfen
• IES Clara Campoamor Rodríguez
• Istituto Superiore “Alessandro Volta”
• Istituto Comprensivo ‘Cardinale Agostino Casaroli’