Global Learning London

In this video the students of Hangö gymnasium explains why they participate in Heart of Communities and what they want to achieve.

The projects in Hanko Town, Finland explained.

Our direct goals were to give the Finnish-speaking and Swedish speaking preschool children opportunities to play and learn together in a fun and relaxed environment and to make this a permanent fixture in the local preschools. Long term we are hoping that this would carry on and make it natural for the two language groups to get together also later on in life and do things together, so that when you are in upper secondary school you know each other and it feels natural to cooperate.

The WWF had once previously offered our schools a course in how to clean beaches from oil. This was already many years ago, so we decided it was time for a new round. The WWF was happy to offer a course. Both schools were able to attend, so a mixed group of students met on the beach early one morning to get down to business. The whole day was spent in protective suits, learning how to clean the beaches from oil.

Exploring our territory and identifying problems and needs of our community.
Interviewing young people

Q. What can you say about relationships among people in your town?

A. Our community is like a big family, there are 21 thousand inhabitants in Acquaviva, so everyone socializes very easily.

Q. Is there competition among young people in particular?

A. Yes, there is and sometimes this is a positive thing; Having different points of view, comparing and contrasting ideas is important to grow up.

Exploring our territory and identifying problems and needs of our community.
Interviewing young people

Q. Does the community respect environment?

A. Not all people show respect for the environment and ignorance appears to be the main problem

Exploring our territory and identifying problems and needs of our community.
Interviewing young people

Q. Are there any prejudices connected with gender among people in your town?

A. Old people, generally speaking, keep their ideas but there's hope that this situation will change in the future.

Three interviews with elderly members of the community

In our town and in general, in the South of Italy, connections and relationships are important. We all know each other, we tend to help each other, we take care not only of our relatives but also of our neighbours. Our families host grandparents and most of them look after their grandchildren. Old people are considered wise and they represent young people’s sources of life.

Download the video transcript (English translation)

Orientation day at Don Milani; stands organized to show the project to students coming from middle schools to visit our school.

We started this project with the main goal to reduce the use of plastic at least in our town. We wanted to give our contribution to protect the environment, to make people aware of the problem of pollution and to show them more ecological solutions, for example by spreading water bottles or handmade shop bags.

We started this project with the main goal to reduce the use of plastic at least in our town. We wanted to give our contribution to protect the environment, to make people aware of the problem of pollution and to show them more ecological solutions, for example by spreading water bottles or handmade shop bags.

We involved elderly people and our grandparents to sew shopping bags with recycled materials and to help us prepare prototypes to be distributed.

A community circle in October 2019 in one of the labs at Don Milan, with some members from the community of Acquaviva delle Fonti; discussing problems concerning environment and trying to look for solutions. Educating children seems to be the best way. So, let's start from primary schools!

Introducing the community project from students at the Don Milani school

With students at the airport in Valencia about to fly to London for the first Transnational meeting.

Graffiti we came across in Tower Hamlets on our way to the Library where the students and the teachers had their first training week.

It was our goal to promote inclusion among younger students by using an innovative and
creative methodology based on “inclusive playgrounds”. It was our intention to share our
experience with other schools in Valencia.

The lead students, with the help of their teachers, planned a set of activities and games for young girls and boys. between 12 and 13 years old. The idea was to go every Friday to the neighbouring High School and spend the break with them.

We strongly believe that the playground plays a vital role in the life of these teenagers and we wanted the playground to become a safe space, free from prejudices, bullying,  intolerance and disrepectful attitudes.

We started cleaning sea sides which is only a few metres away from our school.
We categorized the rubbish collected, and put label on them as plastics, paper, metal, glass, etc. And underneath wrote what we get out of them once they are recycled. This way, they wanted to change communities mind about rubbish is not just rubbish, it can be useful if you throw it in bin rather than throw it in the sea.

We invited “Clean Seas Association” and “Istanbul Water Services” to our school and learnt from them to do the right things for our community.

We’ve learnt about;

• Sea life and ecology
• Seperating different kind of wastes and recycling
• Info about Istanbul’s water situation.

Then we cleaned sea side to help sea life. We’ve collected and separated 28kg waste in one lesson time!

We first worked on UN Global goals by using art as a tool. After a while the children wanted to concentrate on 2 goals. “Water Sanitation” and “Sea Life”. Their reason was clear “There is no life if there is no water”.

Key words associated with the @ The Heart of Communities project, translated into the languages of the participants.

A short video slideshow of the project.