"AMV" - Andreaa Dinu and Oana Radu Impressions

When we first thought of this project we wanted to reach a common point of cultural background thru getting to know better the other people that call their-selves European and citizens of the European Union. Second, we wanted to reach the traditions and cultural heritage of peoples at a level far more deeper than the superficial image that is presented to tourists, to better understand what lies at the base of the traditions we respect and continue. Therefore, we tried to discover along with our beneficiaries the bases of our cultural grounds thru crafts like painting on wood and glass, making ornaments and decorations, sewing linen, and others used in traditional living.             
                Considering what we wanted to do and what we achieved in the end, we can say that in general we met our goals. The young beneficiaries (teenagers and children from the Social Center “St. Nicolae” in Bucharest) were happy to participate in interactive activities and be part of thematic workshops, as well as going to folklore museums and fairs. Also, attracting them towards culture and traditions had a great impact at another level: their involvement increased and their participation was higher as soon as they could visualize their results and see what a bit of patience and careful work can do. For us, that was a sign of self confidence that increased among them. As well as all activities were fulfilled, there still were some points when we felt that we could have done better with a more active implication from the local authorities.
                About our beneficiaries, we can mention that their implication was also motivated by the visits of the partners in their centre and by the hope of returning the visit in the next meetings. Some of them visited Barcelona and Castelldefels, and returned with great impressions about the places they seen and people they met, but mostly they returned happy with the appreciation they received for their work and results.
                In parallel with local activities, we tried to involve people from everywhere in the country, and we done that by organizing a photo reportage contest that had the theme of traditions, named ”Our traditions are travelling in Europe”. The result was that we received a lot of replies with images of traditions representative for regions of the country, which made it difficult to choose a winner.
In the final year of the project new local partners got involved in project activities. It is about “Viilor” Economical College, an institution that acts as a keeper and agent of cultures and traditions, both Romanian and of minorities. Thus, the cultural background was enriched with new experiences and we achieved a fruitful collaboration between different ethnics.
                Speaking about the partnership, we can say that we had fructuous relationships with all the partners, that concretized in many interesting activities done at local levels, a good collaboration and initiatives like the national contests (painting, music, photo, poetry and literary) and future projects. We used the occasions of meetings also to disseminate and promote each partner’s culture and traditions, which led to a better acquaintance of our customs.
                From the beginning, the atmosphere was open and friendly, and that helped a lot especially during the work sessions, when new ideas appeared and improved the future activities. Communication was a strength that defined this partnership, all ideas and thoughts, as well as suggestions and critics circulated free among partners. Information was shared openly thru all communication channels available. Even though we lost a partner after the first year (because of objective reasons), the collaboration continued as good as before with the others, and the ex-partner was always informed about the project’s progress.
As all things, this project was not perfect on the whole and there were moments when a partner was in difficulty of completing its tasks – those were the moments when the power of the partnership was revealed, moments when the other partners got involved and took care of the matter.

All the meetings constituted a good opportunity to get acquainted with the urban and activity context and resources of each partner and getting to know better the local traditions and culture. From all these exchanges, all participants got marked by and will carry with them a part of everything.
The final meeting in Bucharest was a special occasion to share great moments with the others: the lessons we learned, experience we gained and good time spent together in the three years of activity.
During this final meeting we organized an exhibit that was a good opportunity to illustrate the whole activity of partners in the project – a special occasion to draw the line and sum up the good and the bad.
As a gain, the meeting ended with an excursion to the monasteries in Dobrogea and the Danube Delta, during which nature and culture blended to create a frame of creativity of which a new project will arise.
In the end, we would like to say Thank you! to our partners: Rosa, Simone, Carmen, Magda,  our collaborators: Iulia, Sile, Vlad, Mihaela, Viorica, Steluta, our beneficiaries: Vali, Ioana, Mugurel, Otilia, Andreea, Maria, Rita, Marimar, Robert, Cristina, Georgiana and everyone who participated even just for a bit in our project.

From Romania, with friendship...

by Andreaa & Oana Radu – Project coordinator and president of AMV

Visit our website: http://www.aspiratii.bravehost.com

Oana, Vlad & Andreaa with partners and beneficiaries	Oana presenting the final results of the project: exhibition, bruchures and DVD	Oana, in the middle, project's coordinator

"The Word of Gorj" - Carmen Cocan Impressions

"Discover your tradition, your culture and you will own a unique treasure, a great value that makes you powerful and you will succeed!
This project LLP Grundtvig”cultural heritage from people to a United Europe” has passed the stage of speech, direct in our soul. It proved that, by simplicity, by normal people we can find Truth, Beauty, Love without which we can not enjoy our freedom to discover and preserve our identity, strong and secure link for spiritual unity, the only way towards a good communication of the communities.
Tradition is the answer and solve the challenges of present-hatred, violence, impotence, spiritual crisis that had been leading to financial crisis,to tragedies. Beneficiaries, through their works, they have discovered Truth, Holy Traditions,the support of the completion of human being which is One in cultural diversity.
I can say strongly that all those involved both in this project and in the knowledge, preservation, promotion of traditional spiritual culture,  perfect the history for keeping essential national identity in the face of roller globalization. In front of many open gates we must know not only what we are but who we are ... just to find immense love we have for our work, for our fellow, to feel the joy of life. We discover the spiritual unity that already exists, the essentially of the beginning, the one human being in distinct people.Different cultures just shows us the path to this unit by the message of Truth in life through music, dance, color, folk costumes, pottery,hand-made crafts , creations  that have been accumulating always love that draws us, amaze us, enjoy us together no matter the color face or social status.
Culture shows us the path to beauty but tradition reveals and keeps its strength and holiness ,the beauty of the beginning or the beginning of the beauty of everything that surrounds us regardless of time, space, of the behavior of our love and devotion for others regardless of religion, complexion, age, sex, social condition . We are, all inside us, a unique spiritual human being, with the same feelings round.
That's why the tradition should be preserved by any price, by involving young people to be aware of it and promote them as they feel better,by color(Different colors,same picture), music and dance(Flamenco,Hora,Tarantella-distinct dances,same message for love,unity) in close touch with the family tradition, that represent both the holy roots and the spiritual continuity of the human being.The beneficiaries participated in traditional activities and workshops for creating art objects, in mixed teams (natives-Romanians,Italian, Spanish, immigrants, gipsies) in order to better understanding their own culture and other peoples cultures who live near .
Cultural dimension of the space exceeds National Committee since becoming European because the spirituality is universal.
This Long Life Learning Program (LLP) Grundtvig is very important because it is not dealing formally but informally just that any level of school may not include but it is so necessary in the communication. . Spiritual heritage of traditional culture regardless of ethnicity, leads us to the essence, to the Truth of ‚To Be’when we're right, good and loving…"   

by Carmen Cocan - person in charge of the project and president of 'Word of Gorj' Foundation

Visit our website: http://www.cuvantuldegorj.ro

Eurogems - Simone Caramel Impressions

"The first highlight was when something inspired me the logo of the project: the first visit in Targu Jiu, the mystic and genius of Brancusi,  the idea of people from different cultures moving together around the table of silence hand in hand. I liked very much the highlight underlined from Angela: the movement became dance, and the magic of the music materialized the idea of the logo: all together around the table, hand in the hand, taking by hand by the music, one universal tool, language and expression of creativity and creation, which links and connects everybody breaking any differences, any distances and any borders.
Bianca is great remembering us that cultural heritage is not just monuments and old crafts: culture means social behavior expressed through freedom, creativity and beauty. What are the connections and similarities between Brancusi, Gaudì, Canova, Florin Vacaru, Bianca Istratescu, Alessia Barbaro, Lucìa di Salvo Leòn, Rap Laurentin, Vali Chis, Lucia De Filippo and Amelia Circiu? These are nature and forms, beauty and creativity. They “sing” the beauty, the beauty of creation that involves everybody, creation  manifested through a variety of forms, One manifested itself through multiplicity.
“From peoples to a United Europe”: now we are trying to come back, our return trip to the origin, to the creation, to the unity of creation taking the opposite way of the beginning. But, is there a way? Which is the way? There is not a signed way, since we can draw it with our steps, step by step, with creativity through beauty and nature. Doing that, we are always new, creative, original, in harmony with life, nature and its rhythms.  If we imitate models, we would repeat something old, mechanical, so that the creativity ceases, there is no freedom, and we would slowly die. Who does not love dies slowly.
It is very important our background, our heritage, but we need to go beyond, we need to act just being ourselves, without any contamination and without too much weights: so we are light, so there is freedom, so we are.
We have within us all, all the answers:  let our creativity flourish!!
As diversity born from unity through creativity, so we can find unity in diversity through nature, the beauty and ispiration.
What could we do to cross and to go beyond barriers, borders and discriminations? Arts and culture are tools to wake up our creativity, to see that   limits, walls and borders are only impediments built from the bad side of human being, nothing to do with the nature, the laws of the universe and  the beauty, harmony, and unity of creation which unites all, without distinction. There is not a way to reach the unity: unity just appears when all divisions, fragmentations and classifications cease. We can facilitate this unity through intercultural dialogue, intercultural learning and intercultural exchanges stimulating the creativity of each one. This is what we tried to do through this project.
In the highlight of Targu Jiu, all together dancing around the table hand in hand there is all this project: we don’t care of our different backgrounds, beliefs, religions, heritages, nationalities, identities, borders, idioms,   knowledge; we are all together, all at once, free from everything, spontaneous, original, creative, flowing one with the music creating this magic atmosphere, and in this freedom the unity appears, we live the unity.
As several people, each one dressing different colors, are dancing in circle around the table of silence,  the rhythm of the music is going up, so that the dance becomes faster, till when we cannot distinguish the people and its different colors:  the colorful dancing circle becomes just white, one with the light."

by Simone Caramel - person in charge of the project and project's manager of Eurogems

Eurogems Association for Civil Society Empowerment - http://www.eurogems.eu

The approval of the project Cultural Heritage, was a challenge that we assumed in our organization with great enthusiasm and affection. We had very little experience in projects that were not training, and we started to work in creating the questionnaire for the study about the immigrant population living in Castelldefels. The information obtained was of great assistance to the project approach, taking into account people arriving in our city, and from other countries who came to live with us, and show us their history and culture to better understanding each other.

The first partnership meeting was in Tirgu Jiu, Romania, where we met people with who we were going to work together, during the first year of the project in complete harmony and we continued  working for more than two years after we passed.

Constant communication via email and then the creation of our web www.culturalheritage.tk,  was the link with which we worked together, discovering the differences that we had as a countries, but they approached us as individuals, and we were taking a better knowledge of ourselves in order to prevent xenophobia and racism that prevails in Europe with the entry of new countries from the East, that was a great diversity of cultures living together.

The meetings between beneficiaries in different countries, was an opening to worlds unknown to some and exciting for others. Exhibitions of work by students had a great impact  discovering that the roots on which we express ourselves  are the same in every culture, that we are not so different and so we must live with the conviction of being best ever.

Personally I must say that I was always welcome and loved, both by the Italian and for the Romanian partners. We traveled together, ate together, laughed together, collaborating when someone needed or had more work to do, or not be clarified with new technologies, we have always been willing to help each other. We discovered the vast number of things that bring us closer and we have the opportunity to transmit to our beneficiaries and people who have participated with us and who have made this project been a reality, so they do their best in their relations, both personal and professional, so that this knowledge network that began three years ago,was spreading through all of us and to as many people and organizations as possible.

by Rosa Garde Nicolas - person in charge of the project and president of Garnikalia

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For informations please mail to: Garnikalia