Strong Women - Strong Future

We applied for this project as, despite efforts at the European level, gender inequality still remained a big problem in the European Union. Although the situation seemed to have improved in recent years, at least on a surface level, we still witnessed a wide variety of forms of discrimination and abuse against women. The number of acts of domestic violence may have decreased, but emotional abuse was still at its peak. We intended to cast light on these realities and make students more aware of them. Having known that knowledge and awareness beat stupidity, we wanted to promote the image of women as powerful, independent and reliable human beings. We believed that the variety of cultures in this partnership would provide an immense added value to the project, as we would not be looking into the mentalities of three nationalities, but into all the nationalities and mindsets that were available in the partner schools. Throughout the project activities, we addressed the following needs: we tried to foster the civic engagement of students, making them aware of their power to voice their concerns and to initiate awareness-raising campaigns.

The expected results of the activity that we aimed were as follows: - to foster the mentality of gender equality at the level of both male and female students by at least 70%, - to foster civic engagement of students and have at least 40% of participants actively involved in social campaigns, - to encourage intercultural learning and awareness, - to increase social inclusion and equal opportunities in education, - to increase awareness and openness to social diversity, - to increase inclusiveness and accessibility of education systems and possibilities, - to give priority to the social and educational value of European cultural heritage, which was mirrored in the fact that our partnership involved the dialogue between different cultures whose contribution to the project gave us a better insight into the shared European heritage.

We planned three transnational meetings with a tight schedule, so we divided our activities into three parts and each was focused on different activities heading to the total outcome of the project. The meetings took place once in every participating country. During the meetings the students were showing their presentations and teaching others about the most important women in their history, they were working together, displaying their posters, they were teaching others. In Poland, students also took part in a self-defence lesson and all the topics were concentrated on powerful women figures, as this was the topic of the meeting. In Turkey we discussed fighting for women's rights, so this was the main issue students were oriented on. They also prepared posters that we presented all around the school premises and in the area around the school, just opposite a big local open-air market. In Lithuania apart from the other activities we also had a meeting with the people from the organisation helping the abused women. Students discussed the possible ways of tracking the abuse. Apart from that, students were meeting with the other students online before the activities and also after, as a lot of them are still in touch with each other.

First of all, the participants developed on a personal and a professional level. The activities raised their awareness about how social services and schools could help in situations of violence and abuse. They became more knowledgeable about how a social campaign could be organized and applied the knowledge to their own campaign plans. Girls became more self-aware and empowered to stand up for themselves in the context of these issues. Boys became more respectful and tolerant towards women. They put themselves in the position of the opposite gender, which was meant to improve their empathy. In terms of skills, students were expected to develop communication skills, presentation along with data manipulation skills, critical and analytical thinking, teamwork, creativity, social skills, motivation, self-confidence, and time management. They developed their personal relationships with foreigners, which had a great impact on them as teenagers. They also exchanged views and opinions, both formally and informally, which improved their intercultural awareness and sense of identity.