May-Dec21
With a view to expand and implement all the tools and skills acquired during the Training of Trainers in Nicosia in 2019, Anna Lindh Foundation encouraged the forming of a consortium of certified educators, in order to exchange knowhow and organize pilot intercultural educational programs and workshops in the EuroMed region. The Consortium which was formed included educators from 7 different countries: Monica Salas Corrigan (Portugal), Nadia Moussed (Ireland), Aspasia Protogerou (Greece), Lahcen Tighoula (Morocco), Rolanda Sliaziene (Lithuania), Nageh Hosni Ali (Egypt) and Fatima Zohra Malki- Bensoltane (Tunisia).
The Consortium’s project
The Consortium undertook the project “Pilot training on intercultural citizenship education in the EuroMed region”, which was funded by ALF and implemented between May and December 2021.
The challenges for the trainers were to create and implement workshops and trainings in different countries, communities and contexts, adjusted to a range of different groups of participants, and, at the same time, to establish a smooth communication and constant collaboration within the consortium, solving intercultural challenges by nature. Trainers created groups to work with in their communities and implemented intercultural activities based on the Anna Lindh Foundation’s ICE handbook. The project’s participants covered a really wide range, involving practitioners, youth workers, teachers, students, volunteers, community members and private company employees.
The trainers’ common goals were to raise awareness and build intercultural capacity, so as to support the participants to become multipliers. Through all workshops and training programs, the consortium shared and implemented common intercultural values, such as inclusion, dialogue, freedom of expression, self awareness, empathy and equity, though training courses were very different and diverse which made this project much more enriching.
Because of the Covid restrictions, the Consortium had several meetings online, created digital platforms and used different digital tools in order to collaborate on organizing and implementing the trainings. Fellow- trainer, Nadia Moussed from Ireland, stated: “We tried to help each other to create the best outcomes from these workshops. And that was of course very fruitful, because there was a fabulous solidarity within the group itself. I can say that I feel honored that I was able to work with those fabulous and highly capable people.”
The final Virtual Exchange
In September 2021, after the completion of all the trainings, the Consortium organized a final transnational virtual exchange, in order to assess the project and share experiences. Participants from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece, Ireland and Lithuania came together with their trainers and all had a fruitful and heartwarming exchange. “We exchanged what had happened in our countries, how the training course they attended was, and one of the most important things was that they were all able to share what changes these training had brought into their lives.”
Final Virtual exchange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLXLxw60_mA
The Project Video
Monica Salas Corrigan, the head of the project, and her NGO, AEQUALITAS, produced a final video including interviews where the Consortium members shared their experience. As a Consortium member stated: “The journey has always, let’s say, an end but in this case, because we collaborated in such a way, I think this is a birth of new projects to come. Because we learned to work together; we learned to understand each other better. So not only we brought an understanding of the importance of dialogue within the communities we are working with, but we also brought it to ourselves as facilitators among each other.”
Video of the project in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFs7Q37PX2Q
Video of the project with French subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1nAkUeS_gA
The Consortium platform
The results of the implemented trainings and workshops leaded to the creation of a common digital platform where the consortium presented their good practices. This platform will remain a point of reference for every intercultural educator and provide useful tools tested in practice.
Digital platform: Exchange of good practices: https://iceducation.wixsite.com/iced
The positive outcome of the “Pilot training on intercultural citizenship education in the EuroMed region” was underlined by all Consortium members: “It was absolutely amazing, and it is a fulfillment to do the thing we believe in. It’s really important for the Anna Lindh Foundation to get people like this, to design training programs and to work on problem solving.”