Projects

As many people as possible from all Danube countries were invited to crochet a woolen carpet that symbolizes the river Danube. The challenge: To make the so called “river carpet” as long as possible and to integrate people regardless of their age, social background, education and language skills. The aim was to demonstrate the solidarity amongst the Danube countries. The big finale was a cultural performance in which all the small parts of the big carpet were exhibited on the Cathedral square in front of the Ulm Cathedral during the international Danube Festival in 2014. Once the project was finished, the so called “Danube-Rivercarpet” was divided into small pieces. These pieces were given away for donation.

The Danube Bridge Breakfast was a public two-hour event on a bridge crossing the Danube in Ulm/Neu-Ulm. The educational network “The Danube-Networks” hosted this event with the intention to create the opportunity for the Danube neighbors to get to know each other while tasting bread and small regional delights from the Danube countries. In a relaxed environment, the participants were given the possibility to get to know people from different cultures and backgrounds, to see the diversity within unity in Europe, and to get the feeling of what a peaceful European unity means in real life. The event was open to everyone, free of charge and was part of the International Danube Festival in Ulm.a

Getting to know each other in a creative way and thereby discovering similarities and differences is the aim of the project. The target group are people from all Danube countries, who do not know each other and who do not share a common language. The project consists of three steps: 1. Create a personal Danube Box 2. Present the box to the other participants and get conversation started in a creative way 3. Organize an event/exhibition at which the boxes can be presented

People from all generations, different ethnic groups, and from different social and educational backgrounds took part in this Danube project. 101 partner organizations took part in the activities of the project. The focus was not only on enhancing mutual knowledge and finding out more about traditions and values common to all countries, but also to exchange experience and to be able to meet. The participants got the chance to become acquainted to each other within a country or across the borders. Additionally, they got the possibility to create something as a team – an experience that filled the idea of an European identity with life.

The members of the participating groups in the partners` locations, seniors as well as younger adults, prepared 3-5 personalized Town Tours on subjects of their choice and present them to members of partner groups from other countries as well as to other local older and young people and give them an understanding of their town. Cross-national exchanges enabled the projects` learners to gain know-how in the linguistic, cultural and historical backgrounds of other project members` living environments.

The ODDA Project took place from February 2017 until February 2018 and it was coordinated by the Institute for Virtual and Face-to-face Learning in Adult Education at Ulm University (ILEU e.V.), President Carmen Stadelhofer. Five regional teams of the international educational network Danube-Networkers worked together in the project and contributed to fostering the intercultural communication in Europe and in the Danube area in particular. The regional teams were from Bulgaria-University of Ruse ”Angel Kanchev”, Center for Life Long Learning, Croatia -The Public Open University Zagreb (POUZ) University of the Third Age, Germany- DANET e.V. c/o ILEU e.V., Romania -The Association “The Writers League” Timisoara Banat Branch and Serbia- Youth Club of Backa Palanka.

CINAGE – a Grundtvig multilateral project, supported by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme – was composed of interlinked activities resulting in the production of a learning package, for use by adult educators and aimed at empowering older people towards achieving a more active ageing.

DALEC was a “Media Project Old and Young” with the thematic focus on “Values and Paths along the Danube” across five countries. Five scientific lectures were prepared by scientists for lay people, held live to an audience in the respective locations and transmitted over the internet in an online-lecture series. The lectures were discussed face to face and via internet forums nationally and transnationally. The accompanying discussions, therefore, also contributed to a better understanding between old and young. In mini-projects some of the young and old participants worked with different methods based on the topics of the lectures. In the end, more than five mini projects were accomplished and complemented the online-lectures.