The DIGITAL INCLUSION partners met during the 3rd transnational project meeting which was hosted by Caritas in Rovigo, Italy from the 7th until the 9th of November 2017. Representatives from Caritas introduced interesting information about the current immigration situation in Europe and especially in Italy, and a fruitful discussion was conducted on the integration process of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers.
Also, the key project staff analyzed the implementation details of all project phases and all partners discussed about the project progress and the development of its outputs. Partners also programmed the implementation of the forthcoming activities.
Schooling and support of educational achievement are one of the best, most effective migrant integration strategies. For this purpose the E-COURSE (Enhancing the Participation and Learning Performance Of Migrant and Refugee Children in Primary School Education) project partnership will collaborate in order to develop tools that will promote the inclusion of newly arrived migrant and refugee children and to combat Early School Leaving. Specifically, the E-COURSE project, funded by the Erasmus+, aims at enhancing the participation and learning performance of newly arrived migrant and refugee children in primary education, thus addressing the priority of social inclusion, fostering the development of social, intercultural competences, combating discrimination, segregation, racism, bullying and violence, and enhancing the access, participation and learning performance of disadvantaged learners, reducing disparities in learning outcomes.
The partnership consists of 8 partners (IMA-Germany (coordinator), KMOP-Greece, 4-elements-Greece, Canary Wharf–UK, CESIE-Italy, CARDET-Cyprus, ESHA-Netherlands & Pistes-Solidaires, France) that met at Oerlinghausen, Germany in November 2017 during the kick-off meeting. Partners discussed about the project management and further planning of the project’s activities. A special focus was placed to the learning modules for strengthening the capacities of Primary School teachers working with migrant students and also to the development of the School Support Platform.
On the 13th and 14th of December, CARDET presented the Youth Empowerment and Innovation project (YEIP) as part of the Conference “Youth Cooperation for Peace: Building bridges to counter radicalization and extremism” organized by the Youth Board of Cyprus, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Key topics included:
Drivers to extremism and radicalization
Increase concept of world citizenship
Establish that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance away from forms of violence and extremism
Necessity for EU to have open discussion on islamophobia
The Conference brought together young people from Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates to exchange views on ways to promote tolerance, mutual understanding and to dispel misconceptions and false stereotypes. During the Conference, the young people brought forward their practical ideas about how best to build resilient communities and tackle youth radicalization and violent extremism. Some of these included:
Empower young people through education on empathy, confidence-building
Boosting employment opportunities targeted specifically for young people in marginalized areas
Develop an agricultural project (i.e. “Planting for Peace”) that encourages young people’s involvement in a cause for peace between countries
Create a digital innovation platform that will open the communication channel between state and young people.
The Conference ended with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Kasoulides, accepting the proposition to make Cyprus a central key player in the re-organisation of similar events and to push the initiative for a united youth front towards youth radicalization.
