Me(il)leur(h)ope: from me to us better together

Together with our partners, we aimed to create intercultural learning, solidarity, heterogeneity, empathy and ultimately a sense of “us” in an increasingly individualized society. The ties/bridges...

Together with our partners, we aimed to create intercultural learning, solidarity, heterogeneity, empathy and ultimately a sense of “us” in an increasingly individualized society. The ties/bridges established throughout the project would enable us to spend time with disadvantaged groups such as people with disabilities or special needs, to think with them, to produce solutions for their needs or to make efforts for it. As a result, the sense of “us” would come to the fore among our students at the local scale and internationally, by providing integration. Our main goal was to raise generations both that were able to keep up with the times they were in and who were happy and caring for human emotions, satisfied with the inner peace of sharing, helping and understanding. It was of great importance that we could teach our students tolerance, equality, justice, respect for the marginalized (not marginalizing), feeling the uniqueness of each individual and also all individuals could live in prosperity with the value they deserved in society.

We implemented three main activity titles in our project: Project Management, Volunteering Activities and Local Cooperation and Transnational Mobilities. Project Management included the general management of our project. The studies handled in this context were internal partnership agreement, follow-up and evaluation and dissemination activities within the project lifetime. Our second activity was the local cooperation and volunteering activities. Each school carried out visits to local stakeholder schools/associations and after these visits, they created observation reports and identified needs analysis. The observation reports were created with the joint contributions of the students and teachers participating in the visits. Our third work package covered transnational mobilities. This stage included official procedures including passports (visa procedures if necessary), parental consent documents, logistical preparations such as travel, accommodation planning and meeting preparations, preparation of the "infopack" arranged by the host.

* A work package on volunteering emerged to be used in formal education. * Participants’ language, organization, communication skills and competencies such as time and budget management were developed. * Institutions gained experience in project management; their prestige and awareness increased. * Transfer of knowledge and experience was ensured through institutional cooperation at the European level. * The groundwork was laid for new projects and inter-sectoral collaborations.