Projects

In the European Danube project "Danube Women City Guide", the aim was to raise awareness of the importance of women and their life achievements along the Danube, to network women along the Danube and to strengthen new city tours for women. The project was funded by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation.

@Learn was a multilateral Grundtvig project which united partner organizations from five European countries with the aim of fostering the idea of active ageing and lifelong learning. The project’s goal was to promote an understanding of ageing as an enriching part of the life course and to establish an active aging learning community which raises awareness about and educates on topics like health care, social inclusion, new media and intergenerational solidarity. To reach this, we brought together older adults aged 60+ and younger people aged 16-35 in all partner countries to create a vibrant and rewarding cross-generational learning community.

The Council of Europe in 2005 promoted the Year of European Citizenship with the slogan "Learning to Live Democracy". The fight against discrimination and racism were the concept of democracy and legality, active participation emphasized. The Federuni has developed these themes and carried out a sociological research in 2010 in collaboration with the Rezzara Chair. In the present multicultural society the concept of citizenship has become tendentially contradictory and conflicting. The research has proposed to survey the territory of Bari and Vicenza (South and North) in order to assess the population (young and old) taken into consideration think about citizenship.

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.

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.