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Traditions 4-Europe
Start date: Aug 1, 2014, End date: Dec 31, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The Traditions 4-Europe project followed the seven-year round of the European youth exchange programme which had started as a result of partnership between Lohfelden and Berg im Drautal, while Trutnov and Alcalá la Real, the partner towns of Lohfelden, had joined the project one year later. That is why the participants of the project were young people from Germany, Austria, Spain and the Czech Republic. Each participating country sent up to 10 young people at the age of 13 - 30 and two group leaders. They represented both informal groups of young people under the patronage of towns or schools and professional leisure time youth organizations. The previous rounds of 4-Europe proved that young people from abroad did not have a clear idea about how and where we lived. In 2009, when we organized the meeting of 4-Europe youngsters for the first time, we tried to make the participants acquainted with the preservation of historic monuments in our region. This time we showed them what had always been typical of the region of the Krkonose mountains as for its traditions. Our project put the theoretical knowledge of the traditions in the region of the Krkonose mountains into practice. In various workshops the participants had a chance to learn how our ancestors used to make their living by doing traditional handicraft work, such as weaving, making wicker baskets, tinkering or felt wool processing. The excursion to the Krkonose mountains allowed them to see and visit typical Krkonose buildings and to realize how difficult living in the mountains used to be. The participants also got acquainted with beekeeping, glassblowing and mining activities, which have had a long tradition all over the Czech Republic. We expected that presenting our traditions and comparing them with the traditions of our partners´ countries would lead to deeper understanding mutual differences or, vice versa, to finding common national features. The project also brought the comparison of the view of one nation with the view of other nations. The task of each country was to present another country, its history, traditions, typical features or its position within Europe (e.g. Czechs in the eyes of Germans, Spaniards in the eyes of Austrians etc.). Their view was then compared with the view of the participating country. The aim of our project was to get rid of some of the clichés and prejudices against individual nations and to strengthen international dialogue. The partners of the project did not only work in the roles of participants, but also as organizers, interpreters into English, moderators, administrators of discussion evenings, or evaluators. In various activities we wanted to utilize a large scale of methods, such as practical workshops, motivational, evaluative and relaxation games, various forms of presentations of national traditions (playing musical instruments, dancing, singing, theatre performing etc.), excursions and open discussions. We expected that the participant would make friends with the young people from other countries and would keep in touch. We believed they would create an active system of contacts which would let them go on with other activities in their personal or public lives. As our project was focused on the traditions of our region, our friends from abroad got to know what had been typical of the place where we live, and got more comprehensive knowledge of this country. They could find similarities between their own culture and the culture of other nations. They had a chance to understand possible differences to get rid of prejudices. Team cooperation, which was an essential part of the project, could lead them in their lives to looking for compromises, tolerance and solving problems by making an agreement. The participants considerably improved their knowledge of English, which can help them find a job in transnational companies or in other international projects. They could learn to organize large projects, to be responsible for performing the role they had chosen. Their awareness of being able to create a meaningful and enriching programme on their own, which could benefit not only them but also a lot of people behind the borders of this country, was a big contribution to achieving the aim of the project.
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