Young neighbours protagonists of Interreg Cooperation Day

What is the best way to explain cross-border cooperation to youth and children? By making them see and use the results of cooperation project! This year young people and children from the cross-border areas of both Member States and Partner Countries have become the protagonists of Interreg Cooperation Day (ICD) celebrations, organised by Interreg NEXT programmes. Where does the celebration start?

It starts at Ion Creangă’s Bojdeuca in Iasi (Romania), the house where a Romanian children’s writer Ion Creangă lived between 1872 and 1889. The choice of the place to celebrate the Interreg Cooperation Day was not random. Bojdeuca, turned into a memorial museum, benefited from the restoration works carried out by the project Traveler on Cultural Meridian, funded by the Romania-Republic of Moldova ENI CBC Programme. Inspired by the stories of Ion Creangă and supported by the Luceafărul Iași Theatre, on 21 September the memorial became the focal point for a captivating theatre show. The educational games and artistic activities in the creative workshops encouraged the children to collaborate and to express their creativity. The interactive exhibition of successful projects implemented by the Romania-Republic of Moldova ENI CBC Programme closed the event. And the young participants had a chance to play a puzzle game to put together the images of several cooperation projects.

The ICD celebration continues with the Clean-up Contest, organised by the Interreg NEXT Hungary–Slovakia–Romania–Ukraine Programme. The Contest, held from 20 to 23 September, invited project partners to contribute to a greener future by collecting waste in public spaces. The winners were 50 students from the Uzhhorod National University in Ukraine. They  cleaned up the University’s Botanical Garden collecting and sorting the waste, and they also promoted environmental responsibility among the visitors.

School students were the protagonists of the Youth Education Campaign “Let’s follow the common trail!”, organised on the occasion of the ICD by the  Interreg NEXT Poland-Ukraine Programme.16 Polish and Ukrainian schools, qualified for the finals, met in Solina (Bieszczady Mountains, Poland) on 2-5 October. During the 4-day event the young people took part in dance, ecology, cartography and rescue workshops, working together in mixed teams and learning the language of cooperation with neighbours. These activities resulted in the joint final presentations and awards by the Programme. A field game and an excursion to the tourist sites – developed in the frame of the ENI CBC project in the Bieszczady Mountains – completed the final event of the campaign.

Let’s look at Romania and Ukraine, where the ICD activities involved children with special educational needs (SEN). Two events – in Chernivtsi (Ukraine) and in Dorohoi (Romania) – were organised by the Interreg NEXT Romania – Ukraine Programme under the motto “Social Inclusion through Art and Sport”. The activities included painting workshops, dance and sport games, physiotherapy sessions and artistic performances. The first event took place at the Regional Training and Rehabilitation Center “Familia” in Chernivtsi on 15 October. The Centre was one of the beneficiaries of the SpeEd-2-Labour Market project, which modernized school infrastructure and improved educational services for students with SEN, to facilitate their socio-professional adaptation. Thanks to the EU funding, the Center “Familia” acquired technological equipment for multisensory stimulation rooms and various school workshops (wood processing, textile art, gastronomy and photography). On 17 October, the ICD activities moved to the “Ion  Pillat” Special Vocational School in Dorohoi. The BEDUN project improved services and infrastructure of several educational institutions in Romania and Ukraine, including the rehabilitation of the sport field at the “Ion Pilat” Special Vocational School. During the event, the young participants had a chance to take part in sports activities on the new field. Both events provided a creative and inclusive setting for students, teachers and community members to raise awareness of the importance of social and educational inclusion.

And which celebration comes without music?  Thanks to the Interreg NEXT MED and the Interact programmes, the citizens and guests of Valencia (Spain) were able to enjoy the concert “Music of the Mediterranean: A Sea of Cultures” performed by the women’s chamber choir “Incantus”.

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Interreg Cooperation Day is celebrated every year all over Europe and beyond to commemorate the achievements of European Cooperation. Hundreds of initiatives take place on 21 September and surrounding days.