Usually, when you open something, the ribbon is cut. But we came up with the idea that there would be no cutting, only tying. Two groups of children with two ribbons in the colors of both countries left the stage, and the two prime ministers came together and tied them with a knot. I believe it was a very significant moment: we start - we tie. Dr. Ewa Unger on the official opening of the Krzyżowa Foundation Center in 1998.
This year we had to say goodbye to Dr. Ewa Unger - co-founder of the Krzyżowa Foundation. Let her words be a message to us. When there's so much discouragement, anxiety, conflict around - let's tie! Let us take care of our relations, let us support each other, let us create a space of respect and understanding.
This is what we wish You - Our Friends and Partners - on the occasion of Christmas and the upcoming New Year.
The Management Board and Employees of the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe
Read more: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2021
"We believe that facts, courage and goodness are stronger than rumours, fear and hatred. Every voice in the discussion improves its atmosphere. Not to mention the many positive voices!". With this statement by Ichbinhier e. V., we certainly agree!
Last week, on 10 December 2020, a German-Polish multiplier seminar on civic courage on the Internet was held online.
Read more: Polish-German seminar on civic courage on the Internet - 10.12.2020
The year 2020, in addition to the many challenges we faced, also brought the Krzyżowa Foundation a lot of good. The small number of guests allowed us to focus on improving the operation of our center in terms of its impact on the environment. The project "Towards sustainable development in education and practice", which we implement thanks to funding from the Heinrich Böll Foundation from Warsaw allowed us to implement many pro-ecological projects and develop this part of our activity, both in terms of education and practice (in line with the name of the project).
As we assumed it a year ago, while working on the ecoconcept, we introduce ecological solutions with the participation of members of various departments of the foundation - substantive employees cooperate with technical employees. Thanks to this, many educational materials were created, including those for use in the space of our center. Some of them are:
Read more: PROJECT || "Towards sustainable development in education and practice"
Today at the Foundation, not only online work prevails over working in lively contact with people participating in educational projects, but also our publications appear more and more often in digital form, not in the form of a book that smells of print. The currently presented publication is the result of a two-day online BarCamp organized in June 2020 together with the Kreisau Initiative e.V. and Freya von Moltke Stiftung, to participate in which we invited youth work specialists from Germany, Poland and Ukraine.
The subject of BarCamp was reflection on the current situation of historical and civic education in our three countries. Innovative methods, which we are currently developing in order to maintain the existence of non-formal education, especially historical and civic education, played an important role here. The publication summarizes our experiences related to the implementation of BarCamp online. The entire chapter is devoted to ideas on how to transfer popular integration games and energizers to virtual meeting spaces. The publication is now available in English on our website and can be downloaded for free.
Read more: PUBLICATION || #(Hi)storytelling. My History, Your History, Our History
