JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2015
New year, New projects THIS MONTH:
PALERMO CITTA EDUCATIVA
HOLOCAUST REMEMBERANCE
A new year has arrived and here at CEIPES it means lots of new projects and activities. The year began with good news of projects that were approved by the European Commission and that will be taking place in the upcoming months. The beginning of 2015 also brought new volunteers of the European Voluntary Service, who will stay with us for the next six months, helping to make our new projects a success. In January we hosted our first trainings of 2015 and we sent participants for the first of several European exchanges that will happen until the end of the year. Keep following us and stay tuned for more information about all these!
EVS TESTIMONIALS
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I- LAB3 PROJECT ON THE WAY By Musa Kirkar The triennial project I LAB3 – Innovation Laboratories in the Development of Competences of Special Pedagogy Teachers and People With Special Educational Needs has been approved and financed by the European Commission under the Erasmus Plus program Key Action 2 – Cooperation for Innovation and the exchange of good practices, Strategic partnership. The project foresees the realization in the city of Palermo of an I LAB (innovation laboratory), an idea laboratory aimed at encouraging and boosting the thoughts and cognitive possibilities of the users. In this particular case, the users are teachers, support teachers and school principals. The main objective of the project, which is a novelty in the national context, is to boost the pedagogical capacities of the users through the combined use of IT tools and maieutic earning methodologies, with the help of experienced facilitators trained in the framework of this project. The project is focused essentially on the improvement of the teaching techniques to deal with disabled (cont. pg. 3)
Human Library returns to Palermo on Human Rights Day by Ana Silva On the occasion of Human Rights Day, December 10th, CEIPES promoted a new edition of the Human Library (Biblioteca Vivente), which took place at Moltivolti and gathered an interesting group of people to fight stereotypes and discrimination by sharing some time and sharing life experiences. Similarly to what has been done in previous years, the Human Library included the testimonials of people who have faced discrimination in different contexts and for several reasons, including their sexual orientation, their religion, race or disability, among other aspects.
By promoting the contact between the public and the people who have suffered discrimination, the activity of the Human Library intends to open people’s minds and contribute to combat prejudices and discrimination, promoting a society that is more inclusive and that values the respect for human rights and cultural diversity as a positive aspect rather than something negative. The main added value of an activity such as the human library is to allow the encounter and sharing between people who do not usually have the opportunity to interact with each other, and who can therefore be more prone to have prejudices regarding the other people. In this activity, the “reader” has the chance to discover the personal story of the “human book”, and to learn the motto of the “don’t judge a book by its cover”. On this occasion, the readers had the chance to meet seven “books” who willingly shared their time and their life stories to help CEIPES in the promotion of a more tolerant society. Find more info about the Human Library activities around the world on: www.humanlibrary.org.
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CEIPES Participates in the "Festival della CittA’ Educativa" by Patricia Rivera Prieto
Last month, the city of Palermo has formally signed the "Patto Educativo per la Città" (which so far has involved more than 90 institutional and social organisations) leading to an event called "Festival della Città Educativa", which is taking place from October 2014 to March 2015 and where meetings and public events are being carried out to develop an integrated educational project. CESVOP is one of the promoters of the initiative and it is also responsible of the Festival's organization. All voluntary organizations and citizens were invited to participate. Indeed, the participation of volunteers is significantly important to strengthen collaboration with institutions and local administration in order to build, through education and new forms of sociability, a better city. The events can be followed on Facebook through the group palermoeducativa and on twitter through #palermoeducativa. The first stage of the Festival includes a series of seminars which began on 12th January 2015 under the theme "Ensuring Health". It intends to be a moment of encounter, knowledge, discussion and reflection that wants to raise awareness on how necessary it is to devote thoughts and resources to education to make sure that every citizen can contribute to the construction
of a new educational frame, knowing that education is a common good. In the first edition of the Festival, in addition to the contributions of national and international experts, there are comparisons between local and national experiences. The Festival is divided into three phases. The first is called "Fase Del Saper", during which there were reports of national and international experts on various topics of childhood and adolescence. The second stage will be "Del Saper fare", where different realities of the city are collaborating through workshops, meetings, and citizens’ debates. The third and final stage will be "Del Saper essere", and we will see how the Sicilian capital can turn into an educational workshop. In order to collect the valuable contributions that can be given by citizens and associations, CEIPES and several non profit organisations have been invite to participate. CEIPES gladly accepted the invitation, and was present at the meeting on the subject “Intercultural Education” (19th January) and in the meeting on “Education for Human Rights, legality and diversity” (9th February). From the 2nd until the 7th March the final event of the Festival will take place at Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa. See you there!
(cont.) deal with disabled students needs, but can nonetheless be developed for students in general, with positive effects on the entire education system in urban territory. In fact, the I LAB will be open to the metropolitan schools, and at the end of the three years it will be a sustainable reality, thanks to the activities carried out within it. From 27 to 29 November 2014 the first meeting of the project took place in Warsaw, Poland. In this meeting, the partners of the project have discussed the aims of the project, as well as the next steps to take. Taking into account the scope of the project and the expected results, CEIPES has requested the sponsorship of Palermo Town Council and of the Assessorato Comunale alla Scuola. In a meeting at the Palazzo delle Aquile, were present the Mayor Leoluca Orlando Cascio and also Doctor Barbara Evola (Assessore Comunale alla Scuola), Musa KIRKAR (CEIPES President), Alessandro Imborgia (CEIPES Vice-President) as well as CEIPES honorary member Filippo Tornambè. The progresses of the project will be periodically published in our channels.
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Latest Activities PROJECT: Social Work all Inclusive (SWAI)
3 Days remembering The Holocaust with our children by Patricia Rivera Prieto
WHERE: Rotterdam, Netherlands WHEN: 19 to 23 January 2015
PROJECT: Bridging the gap – Antidiscrimination work in the formal and non -formal sector WHERE: Aghveran, Armenia WHEN: 20 to 28 February 2015
PROJECT: 3E: new training tools on inclusion and active citizenship for youth workers’ empowerment WHERE: Lisbon, Portugal WHEN: 9 to 16 March 2015
PROJECT: Facilitation Skills for youth workers and NGO Leaders
WHERE: Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal from
WHEN: 9 to 18 March 2015
During the month of January we carried out important lessons with our children from Cuore Immacolato di Maria primary school. We tried to explain them the Holocaust, the foremost episode of our recent history. No one said that it was going to be easy! The toughest part for us, as human rights trainers, was to try to figure out how we could address the issue without forgetting all kids have impressionable minds (at least, that's what people say). Our fears were gone after the first lesson when we planned to introduce the Second World War. First, we started explaining them the concepts: racism, xenophobia, discrimination, Nazism, genocide and so on; then we realized not only that they have learnt so much during these months with us but also they were mature enough to understand this tragic event.
had either fought in the war or who died in battle. They shared with us the stories that they have been told by their parents and that have shaken us up. The kids wrote a letter to an imaginary fellow who could have been deported, they even draw on a suitcase-shaped piece of paper the three things that they would bring to a concentration camp if they were in his shoes. I believe that the things they choose weren’t so different from the belongings that Anne Frank took when she was arrested on 4th August 1944. The respect and seriousness that they showed us were outstanding. Thanks to them we have learnt that kids can be more tolerant and respectful than some adults; and it can be easier to explain them certain topics than we would initially imagine.
They already knew about the subject more than we expected and they also showed us a different approach. As a Spanish girl, I come from a different reality, since I do not have the same historic past that they have, and neither does my Portuguese colleague who is also working with the kids. Our countries did not take part in the war, so listening to some of their testimonies was an amazing and enriching experience that we will hardly be able to forget. Everyone wanted to tell something, all of them had a relative who
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Celebrating 7 0 years of freedom and peace in Europe by Ana Catarina Silva
Meditate that this came about: I commend these words to you. Carve them in your hearts At home, in the street, Going to bed, rising; Repeat them to your children. Primo Levi, If this is a man 70 years ago, on January 27th 1945, Auschwitz concentration camp ─ probably the most iconic among all of the Holocaust’s well known areas ─ was liberated by the Russian soldiers of the Allied forces. In Auschwitz, these soldiers found a daunting scenario: thousands of malnourished people, We must also remember those who, during the darkest times, were brave enough to save thousands of human lives, often at the expense of their own safety. These are some of the greatest human rights defenders in history, and should be celebrated as such. People like Oskar Schindler (Germany), Irena Sendler (Poland), Raoul Wallenberg (Sweden), Giorgio Perlasca (Italy), Aristides de Sousa Mendes (Portugal) and many others, helped thousands of Jews escape the Nazi persecution, either by shielding them as workers, granting them visas that allowed them to flee Europe, or finding adoptive families for their children. Their stories are an integral part of the history of the Holocaust, together with the touching stories of those who
were prisoners in concentration camps in several European countries. The Holocaust was the most blatant human rights violation of the 20th century, and it must not be forgotten. While the survivors of Auschwitz and the other camps are disappearing as times goes by, it is now up to all of us, people who have been lucky enough to be born in a peaceful Europe, to remember them, to teach their tragedy to younger generations, in order to ensure that “never again” will something similar to the Holocaust take place in our world. It is a civic responsibility and a human duty to remember the Holocaust, and organizations dealing with the subject of human rights, intercultural tolerance and peacebuilding are in a privileged position to exercise this responsibility, as they have a direct contact with children and youngsters and they deal with these topics on a regular basis. This was an extreme example of the denial of all the rights and values that we take for granted today, and we must continue to remember its existence and to celebrate its end.
Ceipes welcomes two Turkish groups for Grundtvig trainings Over the past weeks CEIPES has received two groups of experts from Turkey, who came to Palermo to receive training in the framework of the Grundtvig Programme. The Grundtvig programme supported individuals and organisations involved in non -vocational adult education to participate in European training activities and projects. It has now been included in the larger framework of Erasmus +. The first group, which was with us between 25th and 31st January, was a group of experts in adult education who took part in a “Training on the principles of Andragogy for the Adult Educators who works in Lifelong Learning”. The second group arrived on the 1st of February and stayed until the 7th, for a week of activities on the subject “Examining European Quality Assurance Framework Of Disabled At Vocational Education”. Besides the training activities, the participants were able to visit Palermo and some other places in Sicily.
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WHAT OUR trainees SAY. . . Between October and December 2014 I did a traineeship in CEIPES. This was my first international experience and my first big trip abroad, since I had never been away from home for two months, so these were two months of adventure. The first weeks in Palermo were complicated, since I had to adapt to a new universe. At the beginning I was a bit nervous about my traineeship, but as I started to learn about the activities that were being held I began to adapt more to this type of environment, to the kind of work of the organization. Some of the activities were very interesting, like the street action we did on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women or the Human Library on Human Rights’ Day. These activities were very interesting to me, since they touch on sensitive and important topics to address. Besides these activities we have carried out meetings and led a thorough preparation in order to reach our goals.
TIME TO SAY GOODBYE. . . by Ana Silva & Patricia Rivera Prieto
I arrived in Palermo almost six months ago. Back then, I was excited about this opportunity to live in Italy, improve my Italian, work in an NGO environment and make the most of my EVS period, but I could hardly have imagined everything that I was about to experience. During this time I have had the chance to learn how to deal with kids while trying to send them meaningful messages, something that I had never done before. I have developed my teamworking skills and I met interesting people, I had the chance to travel around Sicily and Italy, and I made friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime. Having been an Erasmus student and a Leonardo da Vinci trainee before doing EVS, I can easily say that being a European volunteer is probably the most complete and most enriching of all three experiences. I would definitely do it again if I had the chance, and I will recommend it to my European friends who are willing to move and to discover more about this Europe that we can call our home.
From the beginning, relations with the team have been excellent. The staff has welcomed me with open arms and made me be part of all the activities that were taking place. I've noticed a great willingness to help at all times and a great concern to know my expectations about the performance of my internship, trying to meet them. This has served to accelerate my integration into the workplace and during my first week was already making significant tasks related to my qualifications. I consider those very important for my professional growth, which is just at the end of the day, the ultimate objective of the Leonardo da Vinci Programme.
Ana Catarina Silva But the best of this experience were, EVS Volunteer, Portugal undoubtedly, the friends I made. I can say that I found truly "soul mates" who have not only taught me so many things in the professional field, but also in the personal one. They gave me confidence and peace and they are the precious treasures that I will always try to keep. Patricia Rivera Prieto Leonardo da Vinci Intern, Spain
(cont. pg.7)
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EXPECTATIONS OF AN EVS VOLUNTEER by Özkan Baytak Ciao everyone. My name is Özkan. I come from Turkey and I am here doing this project since 2 weeks. The very first day I came here was a little difficult because of the tiredness and maybe a cultural shock. However, a good sleep was enough to make things perfect like it always does. Furthermore the people that I met here were very friendly and helpful for me to get used to this place as soon as possible. What do I expect from this project? Well it is a very general question but I will talk about my expectations in brief. In CEIPES organisation my first job was translating a document which was totally fine because I am a translation student. After this, some other translation jobs came and I find it really helpful for my future career. Here, I am not only becoming more experienced in translation but I also have a really good chance to develop my foreign language skills. I generally use English to communicate both with my colleagues and friends and of course learning new words through them. Another big chance for me is to learn Italian. I am taking lessons at Palermo University which I find very helpful
and currently trying to use the language in conversations. Even though I am not capable enough to use it yet, I already started to understand the basic concepts of Italian conversations in just 2 weeks. Considering that I will stay here 6 months, I am hopeful and decided to learn Italian. And with further education I believe that Italian will be my third language. CEIPES is an organisation which generally works on the human rights concept. In the last weeks we hosted 2 Turkish groups and gave them education about adult training and special needs education. I have to say that I am very glad to have attended those training sessions. I had the opportunity to learn a lot about non-formal education and I believe those information will be also useful in my career. I look forward to attend this kind of training sessions to learn more and to be more competent. My other expectation here other than work is to travel around Sicily and Italy. I have already had the chance to see Catania, Taormina and Corleone and hope to see many more places. I am also interested in tasting new and interesting foods and hope to try new tastes.
Our daily work routine was usually fulfilled with meetings to prepare our activities, those were busy days, but always filled with good mood. I also had the chance to take part in the activities of the sustainable consumption fair “Fà la Cosa Giusta Sicilia”, which took place in December. In this event I did footage and photography, I had the chance to work once again in a Multilingual team, since there were CEIPES volunteers, from different countries, and also Italian volunteers. This traineeship was a good opportunity for the development of my professional skills, it was intensive, but very enriching. I am proud to have concluded these two months of work successfully, and it was amazing to deal with a team of nice and welcoming people, and to share my days with a group of people who have helped me achieve my objectives and who have believed in my capacities. Carla Santos, Portugal Leonardo da Vinci Intern November-December 2014
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EDITORIAL TEAM ALESSANDRO IMBORGIA ANA CATARINA SILVA IRENE CAPOzZI PATRICIA RIVERA PRIETO
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