Using personal stories as a path to active citizenship Erasmus Project

Project Title

Using personal stories as a path to active citizenship

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 youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Romas and/or other minorities

Project Summary

The Project “Anne Frank Theme. Using personal stories as a path to active citizenship ” coordinated by Terezín Initiative institute was realised by organizations from three countries – the Terezín Initiative Institute from the Czech Republic, the Milan Šimečka Foundation from Slovakia and the Anne Frank House from the Netherlands.

The aim was to create a platform of cooperating organizations and educators who apply the principles of democratic coexistence in their lives and work, help pupils develop their ability to think critically, engage civically and seek ways to face prejudice and discrimination.

There were five trainings for the peer-guides od the traveling exhibition “Let me be myself. Anne Frank’s Life Story “ in the Czech Republic and the opening ceremony of the Slovak version of the exhibition in Bratislava in the school year 2018/19. Vernisages and dernisage of exhibitions was attended by Ambassadors (Prague, Bratislava), majors of the cities, witneses, parents, teachers and students. The advantage of working with Anne Frank’s story is that Anne, despite having lived 70 years ago, is writing a language that today’s young people can understand, identify with what Anne thinks and experiences. Her story still inspires them. The story of Anne helps them to understand today, the stories of today’s young people who face and have to deal with prejudice because of nationality, religion, skin color, gender, sexuality or group membership. Thanks to the training, students can explain historical events in a way that their peers understand and even moderate the discussion on prejudice and discrimination, thus exceeding our expectations.

104 students took part in peer-guide trainings, who then carried out more than 1800 pupils. Six students – three from the Czech Republic and three from Slovakia participated in a student exchange to a neighboring country, where they not only participated in activities, but also shared their experiences with future guides.

They also shared their experience with 40 participants of at the Summer School “Education for Respect and Tolerance. The role of the story in teaching ”, mostly teacher and trainers. Here, together with teachers, they also learned about other stories, this time from the Czech and Slovak environment, and also with the possibility to continue in the project in the coming years or participate in international Anne Frank Yout Network.

The summer school was preceded by a seminar in Amsterdam, attended by 19 trainers, historians and educators, and a seminar for teachers in Prague “Education for Respect and Tolerance. Let me be myself. ”

More information about the project and photo gallery can be found at
http://www.terezinstudies.cz/events/seminare-konference/tema_anne_frankova_akce.html a
http://www.terezinstudies.cz/projects/tema_anne_frankova.html

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 59561 Eur

Project Coordinator

INSTITUT TEREZINSKE INICIATIVY OPS & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• NADACIA MILANA SIMECKU
• ANNE FRANK STICHTING