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Between 8 and 15 July 2013, in partnership with the Ro-manian Association PRO-HISTORIA XXI, Promo-LEX organized a summer school as part of the project: “Steps through History”. Fifteen young people from the Transnistrian region of Moldova and 15 youngsters from Focsani, Romania, ac-companied by their group leaders, participated in activities to promote active citizenship in general and European citizenship in particular, which were aimed at promoting tol-erance among the youth, cultivate mutual understanding and advancing Eu-ropean cooperation in the field of youth.

The main theme of the school was raising the awareness of Moldova’s fu-ture in a European Union tending to expand to the East. This is a topic of interest for young people living in difficult economic, social, and cultural environments; for them, this project was an extraordinary opportunity for non-formal education and cultural development.

The activities used both formal (debates, surveys, roundtables, etc.) and in-formal methods of work and education (knowledge games, the Living Li-brary, Photovoice, Transcend, etc.)

The young participants were informed in advance about the theme of the school, and were given the opportunity to actively intervene at every stage of the project. “The debates about tolerance and diversity, the “Origins and Mentalities” roundtable, and the workshops on “Democracy and the EU” and “Conflict and Violence” all have contributed to gaining knowledge and skills which fostered the kids’ creativity, active participation, initiative and ability to formulate an argument and express an opinion, brevity and clarity of expression, tolerance towards adverse opinions, persuasion, active listen-ing, presentation style for public appearances, and the ability to work in a team,” said Victoria Capatici, the group leader of the students from the Transnistrian region.

The summer school also had a cultural itinerary, which included visits to museums, libraries, places of worship of different religions, theaters, memorial houses in Vrancea county, as well as businesses fi-nanced and developed with the support of European funds, etc.

“A summer school is an amazing way to spend your time. I spent time with young people my age, I im-proved my teamwork abilities, I met new people, and, more importantly – I made friends. At the same time, I realized the importance of informal education and of volunteering. Thanks to this project, I want to get more involved in as many projects as I can. After meeting my new friends from the Transnistrian region, I learned about a new reality, and I changed my concept of liberty,” said Catalin Aurica, a student of the Unirea National College in Focsani.

“These were unforgettable days, in which I grew spiritually a great deal, I gained an enormous experience, I met new people, new ideas, new types of thinking; I felt what European values and a European lifestyle means. The skills I obtained will surely help me to establish connec-tions with different people and in different ways in the future. I would gladly participate in more such projects, because I was impressed with what I learned and was thrilled with the mo-ments spent with some great people,” Daniel Turcan, a student from the “Alexandru cel Bun” Lyceum in Bender, said.

Andrei Seitan, an expert and trainer in the pro-ject, noted: “We were privileged to offer great opportunities for personal development to youth from the Transnistrian region and from Focsani. We must continue to collaborate in order to strengthen the knowledge gained by these stu-dents and turn them into multipliers. The week spent with them was full of lessons, experiences and feelings. I challenged participants to partici-pate in various discussions aimed at making them realize how important they were and what valuable resource they represent. I put together their individual knowledge and experiences together to help them grow and rediscover them-selves.”

This project is funded by the program: “Youth in Action – Action 3.1 A: Cooperation with EU neighboring countries.”

For details, please contact:
Victoria Capatici,
Civil Society Program Coordinator,
Tel: 022-31-09-45